Head of Estimating

Annual salary: up to £(phone number removed)

Head of Estimating

Location:

Homebased - Remote, with UK travel

Contract:

Full-time, Permanent

Hours:

40 per week, Monday to Friday

Salary: £106,000 per annum, plus £6,900 car allowance

Mears Group is seeking an exceptional Head of Estimating to lead our commercial estimating and tendering function at a strategic level. This is a pivotal senior leadership role, shaping how we price, win and mobilise major contracts across the organisation. If you are commercially astute, influential at senior levels, and passionate about driving excellence in tendering, this is an opportunity to make a significant impact on the future growth of our business.

About the Role

As Head of Estimating, you will take ownership of developing robust, compliant and commercially competitive bids across a wide range of work streams, including Repairs & Maintenance (such as M&E and Planned Works), Central Government housing and support services, Decarbonisation and Net Zero programmes, and DLO support. You will shape the commercial strategy behind each opportunity, building cost models from first principles, driving value engineering, and ensuring risks and assumptions are clearly understood.

Working closely with Business Development, Operations and Legal teams, you will influence strategic bid decisions and ensure our proposals support sustainable growth and margin protection. Your leadership will set the standard for commercial governance, pricing excellence and the continuous improvement of our estimating function.

Key Responsibilities

Commercial Leadership
Lead the creation of high-quality commercial proposals tailored to individual opportunities
Develop cost models from first principles and drive pricing strategy and value engineering
Provide senior leadership with clear commercial analysis, risk positions and recommendations
Partner with internal teams to shape strategic bid decisions and contract risk assessments

Tender Governance & Risk Management
Ensure all submissions are compliant, well-documented and commercially sound
Lead competitive dialogue, clarifications, RFIs and post-tender negotiations
Oversee commercial review of contracts and legal documentation
Enhance estimating methodologies, tools, templates and documentation standards

Stakeholder Engagement
Present commercial proposals to Directors and the Senior Management Team
Embed tender assumptions and methodologies into mobilisation and operational teams
Engage with supply chain partners to secure competitive and deliverable pricing

Mobilisation & Continuous Improvement
Play a key role in mobilisation of successful tenders, challenging assumptions to drive profitability
Translate estimating assumptions into operational cost monitoring
Analyse outturn performance to inform future bids and build a commercial knowledge base People Leadership
Lead, mentor and develop the Estimating Team, fostering technical excellence and collaboration.
Identify capability gaps and champion learning, systems improvement and performance management

Essential Experience
Extensive experience in social housing estimating, including expert knowledge of NHF Schedule of Rates.
Proven ability to develop pricing strategies and deliver value engineering solutions.
Strong track record in post-tender negotiations and contract award processes.
End-to-end tender lifecycle experience, from pricing to mobilisation.
Strong working knowledge of standard forms of contract
Experience presenting commercial proposals at senior leadership level.
Ability to manage multiple bids under demanding deadlines.
Demonstrable leadership experience in building high-performing teams.

Desirable
Experience at Head of / Senior Manager level within a large contracting or housing services organisation
Familiarity with sector-standard estimating systems and analytical tools
Professional qualification in Quantity Surveying or Construction Management Key Skills & Attributes
Strategic commercial thinker with strong influencing capability
Excellent communicator, able to simplify complex commercial reasoning
High numerical accuracy and attention to detail
Proactive problem solver committed to continuous improvement
Collabora…