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Houston, Texas, United States
Onsite
Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company on a mission to supply the critical minerals powering modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. We’re reimagining the minerals supply chain by combining deep industry expertise with advanced software, automation, and data-driven decision-making.
The role
We are hiring a Cost Control Engineer to own the cost baseline, the forecast, and change control on Mariana's capital projects.
You will build the cost breakdown structure, convert the sanctioned estimate into a control budget, track commitments and actuals, and produce the forecast at completion that the business plans against. The role sits between engineering, procurement, construction, and finance — the path where a commitment becomes an accrual becomes an invoice becomes a capitalized asset — and your job is to make sure the number is the same in all four places. Cost control here is not a monthly report assembled by hand. The reporting is expected to come out of the system and building that pipeline is as much the job as running it.
What you'll do
Set the baseline. Build the WBS and cost breakdown structure with the planner and estimator, convert the sanctioned estimate into a control budget, and lock it
Track commitments and actuals. Purchase orders, subcontracts, change orders, and field costs, reconciled to the ERP every month with no unexplained variance
Forecast. Maintain estimate to complete and estimate at completion by control account, with the basis for each forecast written down rather than carried in your head
Measure earned value. Set rules of credit with the planner, measure physical progress, and report cost and schedule performance at a level where someone can act on it
Run the trend and change process. Identify potential changes early, quantify them, route them for approval, and keep the approved budget log clean
Manage contingency drawdown. Track contingency and management reserve against the risk register and report what is left honestly
Produce cash flow. Maintain the project cash flow and funding curve for finance and treasury
Verify payments. Review contractor invoices and progress claims against measured progress and contract terms
Report. Create, issue and present the project cost report and the dashboards leadership actually opens
Automate the pipeline. Cost data should move from the ERP, procurement, and the schedule into the report/dashboard without re-keying. Build the connections, the reconciliations, and the exception checks that catch a bad number before a person does
Desired qualifications
Education. BS in engineering, construction management, finance, or a related field
Experience. 5–12 years of project cost control on capital projects in mining, minerals, refining, chemicals, power, or heavy civil. Senior candidates will have owned cost on a project above $100M total installed cost
Earned value in practice. You have applied earned value management on a live project, not only in training, and can describe where it broke down
Systems. Hands-on with a project cost management system such as EcoSys, InEight, Prism, or Procore, and with an ERP such as SAP, Oracle, or NetSuite
Data fluency. Advanced Excel, plus SQL, Power BI, or Python at a level where you build your own reporting instead of requesting it
Change discipline. You have run a trend and change management process end to end and can say what you would do differently
Accounting interface. Comfortable with commitments versus actuals, accruals, capitalization, and funding authorization mechanics
Certification. AACE Certified Cost Professional or Certified Cost Technician, or PMI credentials, are a plus
Everyone Gets Home Safe. We never put speed or cost ahead of people.
Extreme Ownership. We take full responsibility for outcomes, relentlessly driving toward solutions.
Engineer Out Requirements, then Automate. We simplify, optimize, and then automate for scale.
Share Your Legos. We collaborate openly, share knowledge, and empower each other to build bigger, better solutions.
Join us as we build the future of responsible mineral sourcing and supply!
