Senior Cost Planning Manager

at  OCS Group

ABOUT THE COMPANY:

OCS UK & Ireland is a leading facilities management company with a turnover of £1.7bn and 50,000+ colleagues. We deliver innovative, award-winning services to the public and private sectors and our mission is to make people and places the best that they can be.
This role sits within our Hard Services business division that provides utility services to a wide range of prestigious clients.
Working at OCS is more than just a job; it’s an amazing opportunity to begin or expand your career in Facilities Management. OCS has an ambition to become an ‘Employer of choice’ in our sector and are proud to invest in our colleague’s personal and professional development. OCS provides our colleagues with opportunities to gain qualifications through funded development programmes that are aligned to the knowledge, skills and behaviours attached to their role.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

Days of Working: Monday to Friday
Leading on the consolidation of pricing activities on large and/ or complex new development and retention opportunities, the Senior Cost Planning Manager will be responsible for interpreting the full suite of cost affecting RFP/ ITT requirements and developing robust input & output models to satisfy both internal governance and final submissions to the client.
The Senior Cost Planning Manager supports the Business Development function in all financial aspects of the bid and forms the consistent link between Commercial, Estimating and Finance teams. She/he will contribute to the development of the cost consolidation model which is both a bid strategy tool and ultimately a schedule to the Contract of successful bids.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Provide commercial and financial input and leadership to the Business Development Team

The Senior Cost Planning Manager will ensure:

• Both Divisional and Group commercial pricing and financial solutions are aligned to ensure competitiveness and operational viability for Tech Services.
• The financial information on tender submissions is presented in an optimised commercial and strategic manner.
• The pricing of tenders are robust and accurate, inclusive of all cost considerations, and demonstrates compliance with tender requirements;
• internal review meetings are coordinated, and final outputs accurately reflect proposed solutions.

You will improve and develop the capability and competency of the Pricing function by ensuring that you:

• Design and lead implementation of bid finance models and processes for large scale and/ or high complexity tenders, consulting with a range of stakeholders and coordinating support.
• Ensure standard and bid specific model assumptions are based on rigorous analysis of actual data where available and reliable forecasts. Data sets can include but not be limited to i.e. repeat direct costs/ prelims, inflation projections, treasury budget updates.
• Ensure consistency and integrity of bid submissions between explanatory bid documents (i.e. method statements, specifications, contracting models) and the consolidation model by detailed reconciliation to cost.
• Develop and maintaining a strong, positive yet challenging relationship with the broader business development / operational teams. Able to actively input into non-financial decision making and strategy setting discussions.
• Prepare multiple scenarios both internally and externally based on changes to variables such as contracting model options, scope of service, investment, indexation, R&O’s.
• Identify and mitigate financial risks associated with new development bid submissions and existing business operations for the purposes of renewal activity.
• Review bid financial models and/or financial analysis completed or partially completed by Estimating, BD or operations staff
• Review and assess risks from contractual documents (e.g. Payment Mechanisms, Pricing Schedules and Evaluation Model, Reconciliation exercises).
• Produce finance related sections of commercial papers presented to clients including VfM/ financial savings/ income not captured in the financial model.
• Deliver outputs for internal governance, that are insightful, of a high level of integrity and help internal committees to make decisions by displaying scenarios/ sensitivities.
• Strategically complete client cost returns/ pricing schedules based on the consolidation model ensuring all modelled revenue across the whole contract is accounted for in both Pricing Schedule and Evaluation model and that auxiliary schedules (e.g. Projects/ Rate Items and Cost of Capital/ Mobilisation costs) are completed.
• Complete post-investment reviews for new contracts and significant investments and ensure we learn the lessons from them by preparing detailed reconciliation of model outputs to actuals/budget (post award) including rigorous interrogation of root causes of variance
• Work alongside Commercial, Operational and Finance colleagues to support mobilisation of contract wins including budget preparation, annual reconciliation and review
• Proactively support Commercial & Operational colleagues with financial and technical analysis ensuring consistency of methodologies from bid to delivery stages.
• Actively maintain commercial awareness/intelligence of both FM industry and macroeconomic trends