Estimating, Cost & Proposal Engineer Jobs in Energy: Demand, Pay & Skills
Part of Plutarch’s ongoing analysis of skill demand in energy hiring — last updated 12 November 2026, based on 1127 tracked postings.
As of 12 November 2026, Plutarch tracked 1127 unique open Estimating, Cost & Proposal Engineer postings at energy employers. 127 postings disclosed annual pay, with a United States median of USD 120,000.
Demand for estimating, cost and proposal talent is concentrated in the United States, with the United Kingdom and Canada also showing meaningful volume and smaller but notable activity in India and France. Most postings do not state a seniority level, but where a level is named, senior and lead-type titles clearly outnumber junior and executive ones, pointing to a market skewed toward experienced practitioners. Titles span electrical, civil, piping, quantity surveying and proposal-writing specialisms, suggesting employers are sourcing across several distinct skill pools rather than one uniform role.
AI-written summary, 12 November 2026. The figures below are counted from the postings and updated weekly.
Seniority
Only 49 of 1,127 titles are early career. 412 are senior or above, and 666 state no level.
- Early career 49
- Senior, lead, staff or manager 379
- Leadership 33
- Level not stated in title 666
Where
The United States has 464 of 1,127 postings (41%). 366 are in other countries or state none.
- United States 464
- United Kingdom 110
- Canada 81
- India 63
- France 43
- Other or not stated 366
Disclosed pay by country · annual
Half of the 127 United States postings that state pay sit above USD 120,000.
| Country | Lowest to highest employer midpoint | Median | Postings stating pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | USD 55,000–225,000 | USD 120,000 | 127 of 369 |
| Canada | CAD 78,000–148,000 | CAD 121,000 | 10 of 63 |
| United Kingdom | GBP 40,000–71,000 | GBP 53,000 | 8 of 69 |
Directional, not conclusive. Each figure is the midpoint of a salary range an employer disclosed in a public job posting, derived from public market sources and rounded to the nearest thousand. Samples are small, so a country appears only when at least 5 open postings disclose annual pay. At these sample sizes, do not compare one role’s median against another’s — the difference between them is smaller than the error on either.
How many employers state pay
United States postings state pay in 147 of 369.
| Country | Postings we could read that state pay |
|---|---|
| United States | 147 of 369 |
| United Kingdom | 9 of 69 |
| Canada | 12 of 63 |
| India | 3 of 39 |
| France | 1 of 32 |
Counted from the same open postings as above, leaving out postings whose text we could not read for pay. A posting that states pay per hour or per month counts here, but not in the annual figures above. Pay disclosure tracks local pay-transparency law more closely than employer policy, so a low rate is not evidence that employers here pay less.
Who is hiring
No employer leads. Eiffage SA has 54 postings, about 5% of the market. 758 postings are at other employers.
| Employer | Open postings |
|---|---|
| Eiffage SA | 54 |
| AtkinsRéalis | 52 |
| EMCOR Group, Inc. | 39 |
| WSP Global Inc. | 32 |
| Aecon Group Inc. | 30 |
| Turner & Townsend | 26 |
| Mortenson | 24 |
| Spie batignolles | 24 |
| Siemens Energy | 23 |
| ABB | 22 |
| KBR | 22 |
| Quanta Services, Inc. | 21 |
| Other employers | 758 |
How these roles are titled
The titles employers use for this role, most repeated first. Titles shown without a count appeared once.
- Estimator · 35 postings
- Senior Estimator · 24 postings
- Quantity Surveyor · 23 postings
- Cost Engineer · 16 postings
- Electrical Estimator · 16 postings
- Senior Quantity Surveyor · 13 postings
- Proposal Manager · 12 postings
- Chief Estimator · 9 postings
- Lead Estimator · 9 postings
- Project Estimator · 9 postings
- Bid Manager · 8 postings
- Estimator II · 8 postings
- Senior Mechanical Estimator · 8 postings
- Senior Electrical Estimator · 7 postings
- Sr. Estimator · 7 postings
What employers ask for
Skills and tools named in the text of 776 open postings we could read in full, most named first.
Excel is named in 37% of the postings we read, and Project scheduling (Primavera, MS Project) in 13%.
| Skill or tool | Postings naming it | Employers |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | 289 of 776 | 122 |
| Project scheduling (Primavera, MS Project) | 102 of 776 | 46 |
A skill counts when the posting names it anywhere — requirements, role description or the employer’s own introduction. A skill is shown only when at least 3 postings from at least two employers name it. Postings whose full text we did not read are left out of these counts rather than counted as asking for nothing.
Patterns in the job titles
- Cost estimating
- Quantity surveying
- Electrical estimating
- Civil estimating
What the postings suggest about filling this role
The high share of senior and lead-level titles relative to junior ones suggests employers are competing for experienced estimators and proposal professionals, which can lengthen searches. At the same time, the large pool of postings with no stated level and spread across many technical specialisms gives recruiters multiple entry points, which can ease sourcing for less senior openings.
AI-written, 12 November 2026. Read from employer demand only. These sources show what employers advertise, not how many people are available to hire, so this is a reading of the vacancies rather than a measure of scarcity.
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