South East Water UK
Cost Controller

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Summary
Do you thrive in a collaborative environment where your financial expertise directly impacts the bottom line? Are you ready to be the anchor that keeps multi-million pound projects sailing smoothly on budget? As Cost Controller, you won't just be crunching numbers—you will be the strategic backbone of our project delivery. You will ensure we apply absolute best practices in cost control, providing the deep-dive analysis and precise allocations that our project management and commercial teams rely on to succeed. Beyond the spreadsheets, you'll act as a vital bridge across departments, partnering closely with our engineering team to deliver accurate, streamlined monthly commercial reporting. If you are looking for a role where your insights genuinely shape the future of our projects, this is it.
Main responsibilities
Project Lifecycle Support
- Play a key role in the project lifecycle from initiation to completion, by ensuring all projects are accurately represented and managed within P6 and the IMS systems. This includes creating and baselining new project schedules, managing all change requests, and ensuring adherence to the established change management process.
- Drive project performance by regularly analysing and reporting on key metrics such as Schedule Performance Index (SPI) and Cost Performance Index (CPI).
- Proactively identifying and addressing any significant cost or schedule variances, providing critical insights to stakeholders.
- Manage all financial aspects of projects, including the timely completion of Capital Expenditure Request (CER) forms to secure necessary funding.
Contractor and Stakeholder Collaboration
- Act as the primary point of contact for contractors, attending on-site progress meetings to monitor project execution.
- Ensure contractual compliance by thoroughly reviewing contractor-submitted programs against NEC contracts and other relevant obligations.
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
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Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
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Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
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Health, Safety, and Compliance
- Contribute to a safe work environment by participating in Health & Safety initiatives and conducting on-site Safety Observations to identify and report potential hazards.
You'll need:
Skills / Qualifications / Experience
- P6 primavera formal training to professional level.
- Proficiency in preparing and presenting detailed financial reports and analyses.
- Organisational abilities, with a proven ability to collaborate effectively within a team to meet deadlines.
- Solid understanding of cost accounting principles and financial analysis techniques.
- A good, demonstrable level of experience as a project controller in the construction industry using P6.
- Expertise in planning and scheduling.
- Strong understanding of change management.
- Technical understanding of Earned Value and VOWD.
- Knowledge of relevant Health and Safety regulations.
- Relevant construction experience on major multi-disciplinary infrastructure projects.
Other Requirements
- Employees are required to be flexible and to be prepared to perform duties and other tasks within their capabilities.
- The nature of our business is such that the contents of any job profile are subject to change from time to time.
Grow a career with a meaningful purpose.
We know the communities we serve are diverse. We recognise creativity comes from diversity not similarity. That’s why we are enthusiastic about creating inclusion across age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and identity. You will experience our dedication to equal opportunities and fair treatment for all: through your recruitment, employment and career progression with South East Water.
Benefits package
- Excellent Stakeholder pension scheme, up to 10% employer contribution.
- 5 weeks holiday plus bank holidays per annum, increasing to 6 weeks with length of service.
- Flexible annual leave policy to buy or sell holiday leave.
- Paid volunteering days.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Health cash plan.
- Life assurance.
- Wellbeing related benefits.


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What can you expect from your recruitment?
To apply for this position, please submit your CV on our career’s website. It is necessary for you to have the legal right to work in the UK when you begin employment with South East Water. Additionally, as part of the employment offer, you will need to pass background, identity, and employment referencing checks.
If this sounds like the opportunity you’ve been looking for, apply now!
South East Water kindly asks that recruitment agencies refrain from submitting CVs to our employees or associates without explicit invitation from our HR Resourcing team. CVs sent on a speculative basis will not be acknowledged and will not assume any responsibility for fees or commissions in the event that we hire a candidate who applied directly or subsequently introduced by an instructed agency.
Compensation package
£42,000 - £49,000 p.a. dependant on experience
Be you, belong and valued.
Grow a career with a meaningful purpose.
Introduce yourself to our recruiters and we'll get in touch if there's a role that seems like a good match.
We supply top-quality drinking water to 2.3 million customers in the southeast of England. Through a network of 9,000 miles of pipe, we deliver 544 million litres of water every day. It's the skill and expertise of our employees that ensures our water meets the highest standards. We make sure we can meet the needs of our customers both now and in the future.
Grow a career with a meaningful purpose.
- Come to work to be safe, valued, and trusted.
- We’ll encourage you to create and pursue new opportunities for personal growth.
- A place to be the real you, build deeper connections and enjoy a sense of belonging.
- Be invested in helping us to create a sustainable water supply for now, and in the future.
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