As a Trainee Project Controls Cost Engineer, you’ll help major projects stay financially controlled by supporting cost estimating, budgeting, forecasting, performance reporting, and cost risk management.

Working alongside Project Managers, Project Planners, Engineers, and Project Controls specialists, you will help ensure projects remain within budget and that project cost performance can be accurately tracked, forecast, and reported.

You will:

• Support the development of project cost estimates, budgets, and cost baselines.
• Help create and maintain Cost Breakdown Structures (CBS).
• Monitor actual project expenditure against approved budgets.
• Track cost performance, variances, and emerging financial risks.
• Support forecasting activity, including likely final project costs and Estimate at Completion inputs.
• Produce cost performance information and reports to support project decision-making.
• Work closely with Project Planners to understand how schedule progress impacts cost performance.
• Support integrated project controls reporting across cost, schedule, performance, and risk.

Think of this role as the financial control centre of a project — providing accurate cost insight, performance information, and forecasts to help project teams make informed decisions.

What We’re Looking For

We’re interested in potential rather than specific experience.

You’ll be well suited to this opportunity if you enjoy working with numbers, solving problems, interpreting information, and supporting others to make good decisions.

You will have:

• Strong numerical and analytical skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Confidence working with data and information.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Good organizational skills and the ability to manage information accurately.
• Initiative, adaptability, and a willingness to learn.
• A collaborative approach to problem-solving.
• Integrity, professionalism, and the ability to work in a highly regulated environment.
• Permanent Right to Work in the UK.

Previous experience in project controls, finance, estimating, data analysis, or engineering environments may be helpful, but it is not essential.

Working Pattern — Post Training

Following successful completion of training and deployment into NRS, you’ll benefit from a compressed working week:

• 37 hours per week
• 9.25 hours per day
• Monday to Thursday*
• Every Friday off *with the exception of Winfrith, which operates a 4.5-day on-site policy per week.

Why Join Us?

• Earn while you learn — salary from day one.
• 10 weeks of specialist Project Controls, Cost Engineering, and Planning training.
• Build skills in estimating, cost baselines, forecasting, Earned Value Management, and performance reporting.
• Learn how cost and schedule information are integrated to support major project delivery.
• Work on nationally significant nuclear decommissioning and infrastructure projects.
• Access structured career development, mentoring, and ongoing learner support.
• Join a growing profession with long-term progression opportunities.
• 28 days annual leave (including bank holidays) plus additional benefits.

Your Future Starts Here

This is more than a job — it’s a supported route into a high-demand profession where you can develop valuable project controls, cost engineering, and performance management skills while contributing to nationally important work.