Cost Estimator

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When you join RTD, you will be among dedicated employees exhibiting RTD's values of passion, respect, diversity, trustworthiness, collaboration, and ownership. RTD is committed to an inclusive and diverse workplace. As part of our diversity value statement, we encourage our employees to honor diversity in thought, people, and experience. Come join RTD on this great journey to be the trusted leader in mobility, delivering excellence and value to our customers and community.

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The Cost Estimator provides technical leadership, oversight, and quality assurance for capital cost estimating activities supporting multidisciplinary infrastructure investments within RTD’s Infrastructure and Planning Services (IPS). This position supports project managers, engineering staff, planners, and technical stakeholders in developing, reviewing, and validating conceptual, preliminary, and detailed cost estimates throughout project development and delivery.

The role promotes consistent estimating practices, validates estimate assumptions, identifies scope gaps and project risks, supports budget development and reconciliation, and drives continuous improvement in estimating methodologies and cost analysis practices across infrastructure and planning projects.

• Serves as technical subject matter expert for cost estimating, providing guidance and mentorship to IPS staff during project scoping, development, and budgeting activities; leads the development and continuous improvement of IPS cost estimating practices.
• Develops and maintains standardized cost estimating methodologies and templates for RTD infrastructure and planning projects.
• Develops conceptual, preliminary, and detailed cost estimates for infrastructure and planning projects of varying sizes and complexities, including rail infrastructure, stations, operating facilities, parking structures and lots, roadway and sidewalk improvements, bridges, and wall projects.
• Supports conceptual estimating for planning-level and early-stage development projects with evolving or incomplete scope definition.
• Reviews and validates cost estimates prepared by consultants, contractors, and internal staff to ensure consistency with RTD standards, project objectives, and industry best practices.
• Analyzes scopes of work, drawings, specifications, manufacturer information, site conditions, access, schedules, and related project documentation to identify inconsistencies, constructability concerns, and potential cost impacts.
• Conducts estimate reviews and cost analyses during procurement activities, design progression, project changes, and budget reconciliations.
• Prepares cost “check” estimates for change orders and contract amendment negotiations.
• Identifies scope gaps, constructability concerns, escalation considerations, contingency requirements, and estimate risks impacting project budgets and delivery assumptions.
• Collaborates with Program Management, Asset Management, project delivery teams, and other stakeholders to improve estimate quality and budget alignment.
• Participates in contractor negotiations related to project scope, pricing, and change orders.

• Gathers publicly available data to validate proposed budgets, bid trends, including vendor pricing, construction costs, market trends, and price fluctuations.
• Monitors and analyzes regional construction market trends, labor availability, commodity escalation, and procurement conditions affecting infrastructure and planning projects.
• Develops and maintains relationships with manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors to obtain pricing, product, and market information supporting cost estimating and budgets.
• Supports development of long-range planning assumptions and estimate-to-complete forecasting for infrastructure and planning projects.
• Supports project cost risk assessments and development of risk-informed estimating methodologies for infrastructure and planning projects.
• Evaluates cost data and market conditions to provide recommendations regarding contingency levels, escalation assumptions, and budget risk mitigation strategies impacting project budgets and delivery assumptions.

• Reviews and evaluates cost estimates for accuracy and…