Cost Controller

Closing Date

JobTitle: Cost Controller

Location: Durrington Worthing

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37

Salary: From 45k depending on skills and experience

About the role:

The Cost controller is responsible for the end-to-end financial control of the Smart Metering Programme ensuring accurate forecasting reporting and governance across Opex and Capex.

What you will be responsible for:

• Maintain a single source of financial truth reporting consistently and on time at all levels
• Capture and manage all Opex and Capex spend at a detailed level
• Provide end-to-end financial management including tracking reporting and analysis; purchase order and invoice processing; and finance system updates
• Coach workstream leads on forecasting and profiling spend
• Identify and report budget risks and opportunities with clear actions and mitigations
• Month-end / period close alignment: ownership of timetable cut-off accruals/prepayments and reconciliation steps (BEX Capex - FBPs post journals this role often coordinates and validates)
• Capex governance & accounting compliance: making sure Capex vs Opex treatment is correct evidence is retained and approvals meet policy (useful if youre updating BEX/SAP)
• Maintain an audit trail of budget approvals and subsequent changes.
• Change control impact on budget: formal linkage between scope change requests and budget movements (not just an audit trail of approvals).
• Vendor/contractor cost control: checking invoices against contract/SOW/milestones rate cards timesheets and ensuring correct cost coding
• Data quality controls: checks on master data/cost centres/WBS and resolving exceptions (blocked invoices mismatched POs etc.)
• Contribute financial inputs to programme and governance reporting packs
• Ensure the full financial scope is captured and kept up to date
• Stakeholder cadence: running regular cost reviews with workstream leads (weekly/fortnightly) not just coaching forecasting
• Benefits/ROI linkage (light-touch): ensuring costs can be mapped to business case lines/benefits themes so reporting tells a coherent story

What youll bring to the role:

• Significant experience in a project finance management accounting or finance co-ordinator role supporting programmes/projects
• Proven experience managing detailed Opex/Capex budgets including actuals forecast and variance analysis.
• Hands-on experience with purchase order and invoice processing cost coding and resolving exceptions (e.g. blocked invoices mismatches).
• Experience working to month-end timelines (cut-off accruals/prepayments and reconciliations) and maintaining a clear audit trail of budget changes.
• Strong Excel skills (e.g. pivot tables lookups basic data modelling) and experience maintaining data quality across financial trackers.
• Experience using finance systems (e.g. SAP) and project cost structures (e.g. WBS/cost centres); experience updating Capex systems (e.g. Bex) is desirable.
• Experience partnering with Finance Business Partners and coaching non-finance stakeholders to improve forecast accuracy.
• Experience in a regulated or highly governed environment is desirable

Southern Water is at the forefront of transforming Britains water industry investing significantly to enhance resilience sustainability and service excellence. With 7.8bn planned investment for 2025-30 this is an unparalleled opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed.

You will be joining at a time of significant change working alongside a highly skilled leadership team with a clear vision for the future. We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact influence major strategic decisions and drive long-term value creation

At Southern Water we believe diverse perspectives drive innovation. If youre passionate about making a positive impact and think you can bring value to our team wed love to hear from youeven if you dont tick every box. Your unique skills and experiences could be exactly what we need.

If this role isnt quite what youre looking for but are keen to be contacted about opportunities at Southern Water you can register your details here: Introduce Yourself (- Introduce Yourself)

Our Commitment to Diversity

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds identities and experiences. We do not discriminate based on race ethnicity gender sexual orientation age disability religion or any other protected characteristic. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process please let us know.

Additional information:

In line with Southern Waters security requirements successful candidates will be required to provide evidence of their identity eligibility to work in the UK criminal record check (DBS) and verification of their employment and/or education history for the past three years.

Appointment to this role is subject to the successful completion of all preemployment checks including security vetting.

Please note that if a candidate does not meet the required security standards or fails to pass the vetting process Southern Water reserves the right to withdraw the offer of employment.

Some positions may also require higher levels of security vetting which may involve providing additional documentation.