About the role
Cambridgeshire County Council is offering an exciting opportunity, for a project cost review manager that sits within the Education Capital and Place Planning Team. This is a newly formed Team following the end of the shared service arrangement with Peterborough City Council. The newly merged Team was created following a full review and consultation on the proposed new structure for Cambridgeshire’s Children, Education and Families directorate.
The primary role of the Team is to plan the provision of school places and to then deliver the capital projects/infrastructure through a 5-year rolling programme to meet the Council’s statutory duty to provide school places. In a growing area such as Cambridgeshire these are demanding roles and a large capital programme of high value projects to both plan and deliver accounting for over £400 million over a rolling 5-year period. The Team also manages the existing school estate to ensure there is no disruption to education, all statutory compliance work is undertaken and more recently increased focus in decarbonisation of the school’s estate to meet the Council’s highest priority; the climate emergency.
The Project Cost Review Manager will review and provide due diligence for the cost and design of construction projects being delivered by consultants and contractors primarily through Cambridgeshire County Council’s Education Capital Programme and, on a more infrequent basis, the property projects of other Council Directorates to ensure quality assurance and value for money is secured.
What will you be doing?
This role will sit within the Business Planning programme area within the newly merged Team. An essential part of this role will be delivering the requirements of the Capital Strategy approved by the Authority in January 2023. The Strategy requires the creation of more in-house capacity and professional expertise in the scrutiny of capital project costs, design and construction market intelligence. The service has previously been heavily reliant on external consultants and frameworks for the provision of this advice.
The post holder will ensure the Council’s and education service objectives are delivered and contractor and consultant performance are maintained throughout all stages of the delivery whichever procurement routes are used. It will also deliver these objectives for other projects delivered for the Council using the Education Design and Build consultant and contractor frameworks. Also, national consultant and contractor frameworks.
The skills required to deliver such a programme of construction projects are considerable and require current knowledge and understanding of build costs, factors affecting those costs in the marketplace and industry, initial project cost planning, benchmarking, procurement, commissioning and management of performance. In addition, the role requires a consistent approach to contractual performance management, innovating, maximising contract savings and ultimately ensuring value for money has been achieved.
Ensure contract compliance and that the contracts are delivering a service that meets the objects set by the Council.
The role supports the Programme Manager Business Planning, other managers, and officers within the Team in delivering the Councils objectives, through service business planning. The programme Manager Business Planning will provide direction and support to the post holder.
About you
You will be educated to degree level or above with considerable experience in the review, interrogation, and cost management of construction projects at all stages of design to ensure that projects are delivered to budget and are value for money. Your ability to influence our strategic direction and communicate with a range of stakeholders and teams will be essential in this role.
You will need to work closely with our in-house team, external teams of consultants and contractors to design and deliver the programme of works. Collaboration, enthusiasm, determination, and an attention to detail are necessary, as well as a focus on delivering value for money.
This role will be key to managing our contracts to ensure we achieve the best outcomes for our communities. This will include working with our supply chain, building positive relationships and achieving best value in terms of value for money, quality product and contributing to our net zero target.
Please complete an online application form, outlining how you meet the attached person specification.
For an informal conversation please contact Andrew Bennett – Programme Manager Business Planning, Andrew.Bennett@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:
- Flexible working
- Flexible Bank Holidays
- A comprehensive wellbeing package
- Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
- A comprehensive pension scheme
- IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
- Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
- An employee recognition scheme
About us
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we believe benefits our employees, the organisation and our communities.
Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.
Attached documents
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