Costing Specialist

Together we are Trusted to Serve Scotland.

Are you enthusiastic, innovative, and creative and can work collaboratively across different functions of an organisation? Scottish Water’s Strategic Pricing and Cost Analytics teams are looking for an individual who enjoys working with project cost data and is able to interpret, evaluate and form conclusions on the outcome of such analysis. 

The Strategic Costing team, who are responsible for using historical cost data to produce cost curves (models) which are then used to establish early project estimates and business plan prices, are planning to increase the depth and range of the cost curves provided to our internal stakeholders.

The Cost Analytics team provide quality insights from our cost data by supporting Project Investment Appraisals, via a Cost Intelligence Packs whilst analysing cost trends between Gates, increasing cost analytics database, cost benchmarking and optimism bias metrics capability. A Costing Specialist is required to work across dual teams to help ensure that the increased workload can be delivered. 

What you’ll do 

In this role, your responsibilities include using our BEA (Benchmark Estimating Analytics) costing system to develop cost curves from historical cost and carbon data, manipulate data from multiple sources and to turn these into meaningful information and insight, using statistical techniques to provide solutions and drive value with analytics, trend analysis, translate conclusions and outputs in a way that can be easily understood by others.

Support the creation of a strong reputation through delivery of required outputs and the building and maintaining relationships with all key stakeholders. It's crucial to follow established processes and procedures to ensure the credibility and robustness of the outputs. 

Additionally, you'll play a key role in planning, producing, and ensuring compliance with internal SLAs with Finance and Regulation for regulatory returns and audits. 

The role holder will also be required to provide support to the Senior Costing Specialist in the maintenance and updating of the Corporate Costing tools. 

What you’ll need 

You will have excellent Excel skills, encompassing complex formulas and the use of Macros/VBA along with strong numeric, analytical, and literary skills, and a proven ability to understand, interpret, and manage large volumes of complex data. 

A proven ability to extract patterns, trends or models from real-world data-sets and the ability to proactively problem solve and seek continuous improvement in the quality of analysis and service delivery is crucial, as is effective communication to liaise with internal and external stakeholders.

We are also looking for a few ‘nice to haves’. Some technical awareness of the water industry, specific understanding of costing capital projects, the ability to work across disciplines within a specialist team, knowledge of the Scottish Water Business and Delivery Plans, and presentation skills. Ability to create Power BI reports and Power Apps would also be advantageous. 

This role is mainly remote working, however, travel to our hubs in central belt will be required. 

Looking out for you  

While the work we do is important, we know it’s not the only thing that matters. That’s why we make sure you have everything you need to find a good work-life balance.  

You’ll get plenty of time to recharge with 38 days of holiday every year (including public holidays). And you can even buy five more if you need a little extra time. You can also take paid time off to volunteer in your community.    

When it comes to major life events we have family-friendly policies around adoption, maternity, and parental leave. And for the everyday? We embrace flexible working.    

For your future, there’s our defined benefits pension (the ‘know-what-you’ll-get-when-you-retire’ kind), as well as life assurance.  

As for some nice extras? You will participate in a company bonus scheme. Not to mention access to SW Splash – handy rewards that can save you money on holidays, bills, and shopping.   

The not-so-small print  

This role will be a Grade 6. If you’re new to Scottish Water, you’ll join us on a starting salary of £37,815. Performance-driven pay progression would then allow you to move through the range to a maximum of £48,395. 

If you’re interested in this role – or know someone else who might be - the updates closing date for applications is midnight on the 10th August 2026.

We operate Balanced Hybrid working at Scottish Water and we encourage people to work half their time in a Scottish Water location. 

Job offers at Scottish Water are conditional, and will be confirmed on completion of our pre-employment screening, e.g. referencing, criminal record checks, license checks, etc. These checks are conducted on our behalf by a third party. Don’t worry - we’ll ask your permission before starting these checks.  

A few final things worth knowing…

Research shows that some people avoid applying for jobs unless they can meet every single criteria. If you’re interested in this job, but don’t tick all the boxes, apply anyway! We hardly ever hire people who can do every part of a job from Day One. Everyone has a learning curve. So don’t rule yourself out!

Let us know if there are any changes we can make to our recruitment process to help you perform at your best. Lots of our people have disabilities or neurodiverse conditions (including some of our recruiters!). We're also aware that some people might be experiencing temporary challenges because of life events, like menopause. We’re very used to making adjustments, so please don’t be afraid to ask.

As part of our commitment to developing a flourishing Scotland, it’s important that all our employees are Scottish taxpayers. If you join us, your home address will need to be in Scotland. If you don’t already live here, you'll need to commit to moving here within your first three months.

Please note, Scottish Water takes the safety, health and wellbeing of our employees, colleagues and customers very seriously and as such you may be subject to Drug & Alcohol testing in line with our policy.

Finally (finally!), candidates who haven’t submitted an application in the last 12 months will have their records removed from our recruitment database. You won’t need to do anything. Your data will be automatically deleted.