Data Center Cost Specialist

Description

Fermi America is building the largest private power campus in the United States to serve the compute demand of artificial intelligence. Project Matador, our flagship development in Carson County, Texas, is planned to scale to approximately 17 GW of generation, comprising roughly 11 GW of natural gas, 5.4 GW of nuclear, and 600 MW of solar. We deliver behind the meter power at a speed and density the incumbent grid cannot match.

Position Summary

Owner's cost specialist responsible for coordinating and validating cost control, forecasting, and reporting on data center construction projects. This role reviews and validates contractor cost data, invoices, and forecasts, ensures contract compliance, and holds contractors accountable to their contractual cost and reporting obligations — rather than producing the contractor's cost reports — with a focus on the MEP-heavy, equipment-driven cost profile of data center builds.

Key Responsibilities

• Review and validate the contractor cost control cycle — budgets, commitments, accruals, actuals, ETC/EAC forecasts, and variance analysis — against owner budgets and contract terms.
• Validate and challenge contractor cash flow forecasts across the project life cycle.
• Coordinate and validate long-lead equipment and major MEP procurement cost tracking.
• Review, validate, and approve invoices, purchase orders, commitments, and change orders; confirm compliance with contract terms and reimbursable/non-reimbursable classifications.
• Support owner earned value reporting in coordination with the scheduling team.
• Reconcile contractor cost data with owner systems (e.g., Oracle Unifier) to maintain a single source of truth.
• Manage contractors to maintain contractual cost and reporting requirements and hold them accountable.
• Prepare owner-side cost reports and independent analysis for project leadership and stakeholders.
• Produce accurate, complete, and timely cost information and data that enable senior leadership to make informed decisions on projects.

Requirements

• 3+ years of cost control/analysis experience on construction or capital projects, including data center or mission-critical facilities.
• Owner's-representative or owner-side experience validating contractor cost data and invoices preferred.
• Strong command of cost controls — commitments, accruals, actuals, ETC/EAC, and cash flow.
• Experience with invoice/PO/change-order validation and enforcing contract cost compliance.
• Proficiency with cost-management systems (Oracle Unifier or equivalent) and advanced Excel.
• Familiarity with data center cost drivers — MEP scopes and long-lead equipment.
• Strong attention to detail and clear communication skills.