Director, Value Engineering and Product Management

Job Description

The Director, Value Engineering and Product Management at X-energy will work cross functionally across Project Controls, Engineering, Procurement / Supply Chain, Construction, Operations and Project Finance/Commercial Development. This role will help to inform engineering design and technical decision‑making in real time by providing relevant cost and value data and implications, enabling the organization to make smart design choices based on trade‑offs between cost and value/efficiency and between CAPEX and OPEX to optimize the whole‑life value of X-energy products and projects.

• Identify and constructively challenge over‑engineering
• Identify and constructively challenge excessive conservatism
• Identify and constructively challenge redundant scope
• Identify and constructively challenge complex interfaces
• Identify and constructively challenge low‑value requirements

This role will be the voice of the customer within our projects—in enabling engineering teams to make design decisions with short‑ and long‑term cost and schedule implications fully in mind. The Director will build connective tissue between disparate parts of the organization, sit alongside engineers, understand design challenges, and deliver fast, usable cost estimates that help them make trade‑off decisions. The Director will build both the framework and the habit: tools that make rapid cost/value estimates possible and a culture that incentivizes engineering teams to use them.

• Connect finance, commercial development, and engineering organizations around a shared understanding of project costs, value drivers, and trade‑off implications.
• Lead the development and implementation of cost control systems, plans, and procedures across project portfolios; build and lead a rapid cost estimating framework that enables engineering to evaluate design trade‑offs in real time.
• Monitor budgets, expenditures, and forecasts to ensure compliance with all project and corporate financial objectives; identify cost variances, potential risks, and savings opportunities, propose corrective actions, and prepare detailed cost reports, dashboards, and forecasts for leadership and stakeholders; conduct variance analysis, cash‑flow tracking, and earned value performance reporting.
• Serve as the voice of the customer within project teams, translating technical decisions into cost and schedule impacts, CAPEX vs OPEX considerations, and construction and maintenance impacts, ensuring that cost/value implications are visible and understood at the point of decision.
• Embed within the engineering organization—work across project management, engineering, procurement, and finance teams to build relationships, understand design challenges, and create trust so that teams reach for cost/value estimating as a tool rather than a burden.
• Champion a culture of cost‑conscious engineering—build the muscle within Project Controls to produce fast, usable estimates and help teams understand that cost estimating is not a constraint but an enabler of smart, faster decision‑making.

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, business, finance, or related field. Candidates may come from diverse educational backgrounds; the focus is on a combination of experience that enables quantitative and financial fluency, technical comfort, and the confidence to stand their ground before engineers.
• 10–15+ years of experience in cost estimating, project controls, or value engineering, with deep experience in mega projects (ideally $500M+ capital projects in energy, infrastructure, construction, or industrial sectors).
• Strong knowledge of budgeting, forecasting, earned value management, and financial reporting; proficiency in SAP, Oracle, or equivalent ERP systems and expert use of Microsoft Excel; proven ability to interpret complex data, identify trends, and communicate financial implications; strategic thinker with excellent leadership, collaboration, and communication capabilities.
• The successful candidate will be an entrepreneurial self‑starter, able to think about the next horizon of what is possible and eager to drive an organization to make it…