Vice President, Cost and Commercial

Vice President, Cost, Commercial & Pre-Construction

The Vice President, Cost, Commercial & Pre-Construction is accountable for defining and executing Vantage's end-to-end cost and commercial strategy, from early-stage development and estimating through to construction delivery and close-out.

This role ensures that Vantage's rapid growth is underpinned by robust cost planning, disciplined estimating, strong contractual frameworks, and consistent commercial governance, enabling the business to scale without compromising cost certainty, financial control, legal protection, or long-term asset value.

The Vice President acts as the ultimate authority on cost, estimating, and commercial strategy, shaping how Vantage develops budgets, prices risk, structures contracts, and manages value across the full lifecycle of development.

The Vice President, Cost, Commercial & Pre-Construction leads all cost planning, estimating, and commercial management activities across the Development & Delivery portfolio. This role sets the strategic direction for how Vantage:

• Develops early-stage cost models and benchmarks
• Produces and validates estimates across design maturity stages
• Structures contracts and procurement strategies
• Allocates risk and manages change
• Ensures contractual compliance
• Maintains accurate and timely cost reporting practices
• Protects enterprise value from concept through delivery

This role goes well beyond project oversight. It owns the integrated cost and commercial operating model, ensuring consistency across regions, partners, and project phases, while guiding senior leaders through complex decisions involving cost certainty, affordability, risk exposure, and investment trade-offs.

The Vice President is a key member of the Delivery leadership team and a trusted advisor to Executive leadership, Finance, Legal, Development, and Design Engineering.

Core Accountabilities

Cost Strategy, Pre-Construction & Estimating (Expanded)

(Primary upstream focus)

· Define and lead Vantage's pre-construction, cost planning and estimating strategy across all sites and regions.

· Establish a tiered estimating approach aligned to design maturity (concept, schematic, detailed design, IFC), ensuring progressive cost certainty.

· Own the development and maintenance of:

• Cost benchmarks and regional cost intelligence
• Standardised estimating methodologies and assumptions
• Portfolio-wide cost databases and escalation models

· Ensure robust cost planning and validation during development, investment approvals, and stage-gate processes.

· Partner with Development and Design Engineering to drive:

• Value engineering and cost optimisation at early stages
• Design-to-budget discipline
• Alignment between design decisions and cost/commercial outcomes

· Provide executive oversight and challenge on:

• Business cases and capital expenditure plans
• Contractor pricing and tender returns
• Affordability and cost-risk trade-offs

· Ensure strong integration between estimating, procurement strategy, and contracting approach

Commercial & Contractual Strategy

(Integrated with pre-construction)

· Define and own Vantage's commercial and contractual strategy, ensuring alignment with estimating assumptions and risk pricing.

· Establish contract frameworks that:

• Reflect accurate cost and risk positions established during pre-construction
• Appropriately allocate risk
• Enable controlled flexibility
• Protect long-term commercial and operational interests

· Ensure that commercial strategies are informed by early-stage cost certainty and market intelligence

· Act as executive sponsor for major procurement and tendering strategies, including contractor engagement models.

· Lead complex negotiations with General Contractors, consultants, and key suppliers.

Contractual Governance & Change Control

· Hold ultimate accountability for contractual compliance and commercial governance across the portfolio.

· Ensure alignment between:

• Baseline estimates
• Approved budgets
• Contract values and change control

· Own the change control philosophy, ensuring:

• Impacts are measured against original estimates and business case assumptions
• Cost and time implications are fully quantified and transparent

· Provide executive oversight of claims, disputes, and commercial escalations, ensuring alignment with original risk and pricing strategy.

Portfolio Cost Control, Forecasting & Cashflow

· Accountable for the integrity of cost data from estimate through to final account, ensuring a clear golden thread across:

• Initial estimates
• Approved budgets
• Forecasts and outturn costs

· Ensure robust portfolio-level visibility of:

• Cost performance vs estimate
• Contingency usage and risk drawdown
• Cashflow and funding alignment

· Partner with Finance to ensure alignment between project-level cost positions and enterprise financial reporting

Commercial & Cost Operating Model, Systems & Standards

· Develop and continuously evolve an integrated cost, estimating, and commercial operating model

· Ensure consistent application of:

• Estimating standards and tools
• Cost management processes
• Commercial governance frameworks

· Sponsor development of digital cost tools, data platforms, and analytics capabilities

· Drive data-driven decision making, leveraging cost intelligence across regions and projects

· Ensure strong integration between Delivery, Finance, Legal, Development, Procurement, and Design Engineering

Continuous Improvement & Cost Intelligence

· Lead portfolio-level reviews of:

• Estimate accuracy vs outturn
• Cost performance trends
• Commercial outcomes and dispute drivers

· Embed lessons learned from estimating through delivery into future cost plans, procurement strategies, and contract models

· Sponsor continuous improvement initiatives focused on:

• Cost certainty
• Speed of decision making
• Reduction in commercial risk and variability

· Build a culture of proactive cost intelligence rather than reactive cost control

Senior Leadership & Influence

· Act as the enterprise leader for cost, estimating, and commercial strategy

· Guide executive stakeholders on:

• Investment decisions
• Cost-risk trade-offs
• Market conditions and pricing dynamics

· Set expectations for cost discipline and commercial rigour across all project stages

· Build strong relationships with internal leaders and external partners

· Champion Vantage's values, while providing independent challenge and judgement

Leadership Expectations & Ways of Working

The Vice President is expected to:

• Lead with strategic clarity across the full project lifecycle (concept to delivery)
• Balance cost certainty, risk management, and delivery pragmatism
• Drive early intervention rather than late-stage correction
• Enable and empower teams across pre-construction and delivery
• Coach and develop senior estimating and commercial talent
• Foster a culture where cost and commercial discipline enables better outcomes

Experience & Qualifications

· Degree in Quantity Surveying, Commercial Management, Engineering, or similar (or equivalent senior-level experience)

· 12+ years' experience in senior cost, estimating, and commercial leadership roles

· Proven track record of:

• Leading pre-construction, estimating, and cost planning functions at scale
• Managing contractual risk across large, complex capital programmes
• Designing integrated cost and commercial governance frameworks

· Experience operating at portfolio or enterprise level in a fast-growth environment

· Strong understanding of market pricing, contractor behaviour, and procurement strategies

· Willingness to travel internationally as required (typically <20%)

Strategic Value of the Role (Exec Lens)

This role:

• Embeds cost certainty from concept stage, not just cost control during delivery