Civil Estimator, Tendering and Costing (Remote, Full-Time, Long-Term)

CIVIL ESTIMATOR, TENDERING AND COSTING
Australian civil contractor | Full-time | Work from home in the Philippines | Long-term | Above-market pay

An established Victorian civil contractor is hiring a full-time Civil Estimator to price and prepare its tender and quote submissions. The work is earthworks, drainage, subdivision, utilities and concreting, mostly for local government and public sector buyers.

You will estimate in two directions. As prime contractor, the business tenders direct to councils and government. As subcontractor, it quotes civil packages to other builders. Both are civil. There is no building or fitout work in this role.

Long-term, full-time, working exclusively for one Australian business. Home-based in the Philippines, with no relocation, travel or overseas placement.

HAVE YOU APPLIED FOR A CIVIL ESTIMATOR ROLE WITH KASAMA BEFORE?

Please apply again. This is a new opening at a different company, not a repost of a role you have already seen. A previous application does not carry over and does not count against you. Send your current resume and answer the questions below.

THE ROLE

Government work is not won on price alone. The number matters, but so does the case around it: a method written for that job, the real risks named, evidence that you understand the site, and the right corporate information supplied. Evaluators notice the difference immediately.

So this is not only a take-off and pricing seat, and in fact on some jobs the take-offs are done for you. If you like building the sales argument as well as the number, you will do well here. If you would rather price the job and hand it to someone else to write up, this is not the role for you.

The business sees more opportunities than it can currently answer. Your job is to lift the number of submissions going out while improving their quality and the judgement behind which ones are worth chasing.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Work with the team to review, shortlist and select the tenders worth chasing.
• Read the tender documents, drawings and specifications. Identify what is in, what is out, and what needs a question lodged before pricing.
• Price the work: confirm supplied quantities or take them off yourself, then build the estimate across labour, plant, materials and subcontractors.
• Source and chase supplier and subcontractor quotes, post civil packages on Estimate One, quote to builders where the business is bidding as subcontractor, and build the relationships that make the next quote easier to get. Log every quote with the item, supplier and date so pricing is reused rather than chased twice.
• Set the questions to be answered on site, brief whoever attends, and write what comes back into the submission.
• Build and lodge the submission: a project-specific methodology, a risk register naming the real risks such as ground conditions, long-lead items and plant access, clear assumptions and exclusions, an MS Project programme with a critical path, accurate returnable schedules, and the corporate documents the buyer asked for. Then handle post-tender questions.

THE SUPPORT YOU GET

You will have a dedicated manager whose job is to make you successful. That means proper onboarding, access to the information, software and people you need, workflows and templates designed together with you, and problems cleared out of your way.

Your work is reviewed before anything is lodged. Accuracy is still yours to own.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Demonstrated civil estimating experience: earthworks, drainage, subdivision, roadworks, utilities or similar. This is the one requirement we cannot train around, and applications without it will not be progressed.
• Confident reading civil drawings and specifications and producing accurate quantity take-offs.
• Fluent in digital take-off and estimating software. Tell us what you use. We are not tied to a particular package.
• Strong written and spoken English, and a professional manner on camera. You will write documents that Australian government evaluators read and score, and you will be on phone and video calls with the team and with suppliers.
• Working knowledge of MS Project, or the ability to get there quickly.
• Strong Excel or Google Sheets.
• Organised and deadline-driven, able to run several live submissions at once without dropping detail.
• Reliable internet and a professional home working setup.
• Able to work a day shift aligned to Melbourne business hours, which means an early start in the Philippines.

NICE TO HAVE

• Australian civil project experience, or familiarity with Australian standards and tender portals.
• Local government or council tendering experience.
• Experience quoting civil packages to head contractors as well as tendering direct.
• A working sense of Australian supplier and subcontractor pricing.
• Drafting or CAD experience.
• Experience in improving internal processes and systems for tendering and estimating.

WHAT IS ON OFFER

• Above-market monthly pay, negotiable based on experience.
• Long-term, stable, full-time work.
• Melbourne business hours, Monday to Friday.
• Software, licences and tender portal access provided.
• A dedicated manager invested in your success.
• Real scope to shape how the estimating and tendering process is built.

HOW TO APPLY

Send your current resume and answer all eight questions below. If you have one, include a sanitised sample of your work with client details removed. A methodology or risk register you wrote yourself tells us more than a priced spreadsheet.

1. Your civil estimating background: years, project types, typical value ranges, and whether you tender as prime contractor, quote as a subcontractor, or both.

2. Walk us through one civil submission end to end: the project, roughly what it was worth, what you were responsible for, what software you used, and whether it won.

3. Do you write the methodology and risk register yourself, or does someone else do that part? If you write them, how do you approach it?

4. How do you source and compare supplier and subcontractor pricing, and what do you do when someone will not come back to you?

5. Which software do you use in your estimating (take-offs, project plans, pricing, documents and so on)?

6. Do you have Australian project experience? Please describe.

7. Have you worked on setting up or improving tendering systems and workflows? Please describe.

8. Your expected monthly salary in PHP, earliest start date and notice period, and confirmation you can work a day shift aligned to Melbourne business hours. Tell us if you have worked remotely for an overseas client before.

Shortlisted candidates go to a short video interview and a brief estimating exercise.