Senior Cost Manager​/Quantity Surveyor

Leland Saylor Associates is seeking an experienced Senior Cost Manager / Quantity Surveyor to deliver cost management, cost control, and estimating services on our clients’ projects, working in collaboration with our San Francisco Bay Area–based team. Our work supports primarily U.S.

-based clients, and this role applies established U.S. estimating and cost-management practices across the full project lifecycle. This is a hybrid role, with on-site presence at our Walnut Creek office required 3 days a week.

To be successful in this role you must have excellent communication skills and be comfortable operating in a client-facing capacity. Candidates must have a Visa or be a US Citizen authorized to work.

• Provide estimating and cost planning, including producing and presenting the final cost plan.
• Collaborate with the design services team, general contractor, and owner in the development and reconciliation of cost estimates.
• Reconcile changes and assist the general contractor to ensure that their data is accurate.
• Meet with the general contractor and owner’s project manager to gather status information and prepare cost estimate updates.
• Prepare written comments on the general contractor’s submissions, including the executive summary.
• Estimate and negotiate change orders throughout the construction lifecycle.
• Inform and drive design and engineering priorities based on cost impact.
• Work proactively with minimal supervision to resolve scheduling and budget issues.
• Manage cost checks and carry out progress valuations and pay-application reviews on larger projects.
• Manage change control, post-contract cost variances, contingency management, and commitment tracking logs.

• Develop cost plans and estimates through the design phase, delivering updated cost plans at each design milestone (schematic, design development, and construction documents).
• Prepare detailed conceptual cost estimates and cost studies from schematic or feasibility-level documentation.
• Provide commercial input to design option analysis and lead value engineering exercises.
• Develop variance summaries between estimates as the design evolves.
• Prepare detailed instructions to bidders, trade-specific clarifications, and comprehensive bid packages.
• Solicit and evaluate subcontractor bids using bid tally sheets, and lead negotiations on behalf of the client to secure fair, competitive pricing.
• Make subcontractor award recommendations to the client/owner and support the finalization of subcontracts with trade partners.
• Participate in — and often lead — request-for-proposal (RFP) responses and formal cost/budget presentations to the client.

• Perform quantity surveying, cost control, and change management activities throughout the project lifecycle.
• Ensure that post-contract cost variances and change control processes are managed effectively.
• Produce monthly cost reports for presentation to the client.

• Experience working in a construction cost management or estimating role.
• College and/or post-graduate degree in construction management, cost management, quantity surveying, engineering, or a field related to construction.
• 5+ years of full-lifecycle cost management and/or estimating experience on private and public construction projects.
• Professional accreditation a plus. Saylor values the following credentials:
  • AACE International certification — Certified Cost Professional (CCP) or Certified Estimating Professional (CEP). Preferred, given our primarily U.S.
    
    -based client base.
  • Chartered Quantity Surveyor — RICS, CIQS, AIQS recognized as the international equivalent and welcomed from internationally trained candidates.
  • ASPE Certified Professional Estimator (CPE)
• Working knowledge of U.S. unit costs and the factors that affect construction cost, with the ability to estimate across all scopes of work.
• Experience leading cost management on medium to large, high-value building or infrastructure projects of medium to high complexity.
• Familiarity with the U.S. competitive bidding process — soliciting and evaluating subcontractor proposals, using bid tally sheets, and making award recommendations.
• Software…