Quantity Surveying Recruitment Agency

NEC4 is the current edition of the New Engineering Contract suite, developed by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and published by NEC. It covers Options A (priced with activity schedule), B (priced with bill of quantities), C (target contract with activity schedule), D (target contract with bill of quantities), E (cost reimbursable) and F (management contract). It has become the dominant contract suite on UK public-sector and major infrastructure work including AMP8 water, RIS3 highways, Network Rail CP7 and HS2. JCT is the Joint Contracts Tribunal suite, with JCT Design and Build 2016 and JCT Standard Building Contract the most widely-used forms on private commercial, housebuilder and a share of public-sector building work. A QS CV without depth on the contract form the brief actually runs under rarely clears senior shortlisting.

The New Rules of Measurement suite published by RICS for UK building work. NRM1 is the Order of Cost Estimating and Cost Planning for Capital Building Works, used at early stages for order-of-magnitude cost planning. NRM2 is the Detailed Measurement for Building Works, used for detailed bills of quantities. NRM3 is the Order of Cost Estimating and Elemental Cost Planning for Building Maintenance Works, used for lifecycle and maintenance cost planning. For civil engineering, CESMM4 (Civil Engineering Standard Method of Measurement, fourth edition) remains widely used. Named-standard fluency is a screening criterion on most UK QS briefs.

Employer's Agent is the role performed on JCT Design and Build contracts, typically by a Chartered Surveyor (often a Chartered Quantity Surveyor) acting on behalf of the Employer to administer the contract, issue instructions, certify payments and coordinate with the Contractor. It requires strong JCT Design and Build fluency, commercial and contract administration competence, and is commonly held by senior consultancy-side QSs and dedicated client-side practitioners. We brief Employer's Agent mandates across public-sector, housebuilder and commercial developer clients.

Three distinct delivery contexts. Contractor-side QS works for the main contractor, managing sub-contract procurement, applications for payment, valuations, variations, compensation events (NEC) and final account. Consultancy-side QS (also called PQS or cost consultancy) works for an independent cost consultancy practice, acting for Employers on pre-construction estimating, cost planning, contract administration and final account oversight. Client-side QS is in-house with a public-sector body, housing provider, university, retailer or corporate estate, running the commercial function from the Employer's seat. Pay bands, expected experience mix and career paths differ across the three, and our screening is context-led.

BCIS is the Building Cost Information Service, published by RICS. It maintains UK construction cost data, inflation indices, cost analyses and benchmarking data across building types, regions and trades. Estimators, senior QSs and cost consultants use BCIS for cost planning, benchmarking and inflation forecasting. BCIS fluency is typically expected on senior cost consultancy and pre-construction estimator CVs in the UK.

A Compensation Event is the NEC4 mechanism by which changes in scope, risk or time (as defined by specific compensation event triggers in the contract) are identified, notified, quoted, assessed and incorporated into the Prices and Completion Date. The Compensation Event process is central to NEC commercial management. A senior NEC4 QS CV typically demonstrates live compensation event notification, quotation, assessment and resolution experience, and this is what we screen for on NEC4 briefs.

Broad 2026 market ranges. Graduate QS 28 to 34 thousand. Assistant QS 32 to 42. Project QS / Intermediate 40 to 55. Senior QS 52 to 72. Managing QS 65 to 85. Commercial Manager 65 to 95. Senior Commercial Manager 85 to 115. Commercial Director 110 to 170 plus. Consultancy-side typically sits slightly below contractor-side at the same grade, with Associate Director and Technical Director salaries at cost consultancies running 90 to 140 plus. NEC-heavy infrastructure QS and civils QS commonly command a premium on contractor-side. London and tier-one contractor premiums apply. Day rates for contract QS roles run 350 to 800 depending on seniority and contract complexity.

Yes. Civils and infrastructure QS is a meaningful share of our volume, particularly on NEC4 Option C target-cost schemes running under AMP8 water (Thames Water, Severn Trent, United Utilities, Anglian, Yorkshire, Southern, Welsh Water and Scottish Water SR27), RIS3 highways, Network Rail CP7 civils and HS2. CESMM4 civils measurement, claims and change management, and dispute avoidance (including CIArb-route practitioners) all sit within the civils QS brief. Our Civil Engineering and Rail & Transport pages cross-link to this discipline page.

Yes, across all senior levels. Commercial Manager, Senior Commercial Manager, Commercial Director and Head of Commercial placements are briefed regularly. These roles require different assessment than shop-floor QS: P&L exposure, sub-contract procurement strategy, dispute avoidance, team leadership and Board-level commercial reporting are all in scope. MRICS, MCIOB or dual-credential candidates are common at this level.

Yes. Graduate QS and APC-route structured training placements are a core volume on our desk, particularly for tier-one contractor and PQS consultancy graduate intakes. We work with clients that offer RICS-accredited structured training and support APC progression to Final Assessment, across the full tier-one contractor and PQS consultancy graduate scheme market (Mace included).

Yes, across all three. Permanent placements are the majority volume. Contract cover is common on scheme mobilisations, final account close-out, NEC4 compensation event peaks and civils framework surges. Interim Commercial Director and Head of Commercial placements are used on post-acquisition commercial integration, framework bid mobilisation and senior turnarounds.