Director — Project Estimating Services

Posted: 31 Jan 2012
Apply deadline: 30 Apr 2012
Location: CO-Denver,USA

Job Description:

Description

 

Founded in 1921 and publicly traded since 1925, Newmont (www.newmont.com) is one of the largest gold companies in the world.  Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the company has approximately 34,000 employees and contractors, with the majority working at Newmont's core operations in the United States, Australia, Peru, Indonesia and Ghana.  Newmont is the only gold company listed in the S&P 500 index and in 2007 became the first gold company selected to be part of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.  Newmont's industry leading performance is reflected through high standards in environmental management, health and safety for its employees and creating value and opportunity for host communities and shareholders.

 

PURPOSE:
In concert with capital effectiveness principles and with a mindset driven to mitigate business risk, this position recommends effective and fit-for-purpose estimating plans for each stage in the project development cycle.  The Director Project Estimating is accountable for communication and cross-functional alignment with estimate plans.  
Working at the Manager of Managers level, this position provides leadership in setting team objectives and ensures that estimating disciplines (internal and/or third party) and project stakeholders are working efficiently to produce estimates to established plans.  
This position leads reviews of integrated estimates for quality of the estimate and consistency with the project execution plan and schedule.
To validate the accuracy of estimates, this position is also responsible for acquiring relevant capital and operating cost data and for developing metrics to benchmark current estimates relative to industry best performance. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
• Function as the Subject Matter Expert for total integrated capital (initial and sustaining) and operating costs estimates at the AFE level. 

• Recommend strategy and preferred methodologies for developing high quality, fit-for-purpose estimates at each stage of project development.  

• Provide planning and oversight of work to deliver capital estimates and forecasts on multiple studies and projects in execution. 

• Manage the estimate risk assessment process to ensure consistency in recommendations of contingency and accuracy.  Calibrating the quality of an estimate relative to actual project experience, provide  realistic assessments of cost and schedule risk and recommend contingency and accuracy range at each stage of project development.  As a SME in application of probabilistic risk analysis for establishing estimate contingency and accuracy assessment, provide quality assurance of input data, modeling parameters, and interpretation of output.

• Leverage subject matter expertise to increase effectiveness of estimate and forecast reviews.  Have capability to prepare owner’s (engineer’s) estimates used to interrogate and validate contractor proposals. 

• Analyze internal and external project historical data to develop cost and schedule metrics and algorithms for future estimates (conceptual to detail).  Maintain the pulse on global and regional economic trends, including cost escalation, that impact civil and infrastructure costs and schedule durations.

• Develop and continuously improve standards, guidelines, and tools to prepare and analyze cost estimates/forecasts and to develop metrics for estimating future studies and projects.   Communicate content and intent of these standards and associated performance expectations to internal functions and to external partners.

• Audit compliance with agreed standardization.  Assume a lead role in structured “health checks” of execution stage projects.  Audit and advise on estimate-to-budget allocation, trending, forecasting, and cost and contract administration processes.

• Recommend and maintain expertise in software tools and database resources for validation of estimates developed by contractors and operations groups.

• Pre-qualify and provide oversight of work delegated to third party consultants providing integrated estimating, forecasting, and related services (e.g. quantity surveying, trend/change estimating, claim evaluation).

• Maintain a collaborative working relationship with D&D project directors, study directors, and global functional leads as well as with consultant/contractor counterparts.

• Maintain a network of peer contacts and participate in professional groups to ensure current knowledge and application of industry best practices in estimate development and risk assessment.  
• Develop presentations and in-house training modules to communicate methodologies used in preparing capital and cost estimates appropriate to each stage of project development.  
• Train, develop, and mentor estimating staff in areas of specialization.

• The above duties and responsibilities are representative of the nature and level of work assigned and are not necessarily all-inclusive.

 

WORKING CONDITIONS:
• Position is located at Denver Corporate Office.

• Position will require travel to domestic and international locations to support project estimating and forecasting initiatives.

 

Qualifications

 • Bachelor of Science degree in engineering, project management/controls, construction management or related discipline required.  
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in risk analysis techniques and associated software packages (e.g. Crystal Ball, @Risk) required.
• Specialized training in mineral economics, finance, or related topics desired.  
• 20-25 years of relevant progressively responsible experience in estimation of capital and operating costs in heavy industries, in both owner and contractor roles.  Minimum of 10 years of experience as senior level, and minimum of 5 years of leadership and management experience leading an estimating department.  
• Experience base includes 10-15 years specialization in mining and minerals processing, with exposure to design and construction of major integrated mine/processing/infrastructure projects (TIC value $2B+).  
• Home office and field experience in both greenfield and brownfield (expansion) project environments.
• Experience on projects designed, fabricated, and constructed in multiple global regions. 
• Reflecting depth of experience, possess extensive knowledge of unit cost, installation rate, labor productivity, schedule duration metrics “norms” and ranges experienced on mining and other heavy industrial projects.
• Demonstrated track record, during challenging project execution environments (e.g. escalating costs, shortages of resources), in assessing project risk and in recommending appropriate estimate contingency.
• Experience base to be international in scope, on projects designed and constructed in multiple global regions.   Experience with and ability to apply lessons learned on projects with alternative physical environments (e.g. developing countries, remote locations, and/or seismic conditions), project execution approaches, labor and material unit costs, supply chains, contracting mechanisms, and cost escalation trends.    
• Proven performance leading teams to accomplish goals and objectives.  Ability to build and maintain relationships with stakeholders.
• Initiative and time management skills to function in a dynamic multitasking environment.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills and ability to confidently present and defend estimates and associated risk analyses to senior management.  Must be able to communicate effectively with all levels of project management, technical, and non-technical staff. 
• Bilingual skills, or English a second language a plus.
• Subject Matter Expert (SME) level of knowledge in conceptual to detailed estimating methodologies, probabilistic risk analysis.

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