Earthworks Estimator - Grading, Cut and Fill Take-Off Specialist

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TYPE OF WORK

Full Time

SALARY

Above market rates based on experience

HOURS PER WEEK

38

DATE UPDATED

Aug 29, 2026

JOB OVERVIEW

Full-time | Monday to Friday, Australian business hours | Long-term | Above market pay

ABOUT THE ROLE

This is a full-time role with an established Victorian civil construction contractor. Their work is earthworks, drainage and pavements on subcontract civil packages to head builders, on jobs between roughly AUD 200,000 and AUD 5 million.

Grading and earthworks take-off is the most important task in this role. Everything else sits behind it.

This is a specialist role. We are not looking for a general construction estimator. We are looking for someone whose core skill is earthworks and grading takeoff on civil projects.


BEFORE YOU APPLY, ANSWER THIS TO YOURSELF

On your last earthworks job, what bulking or shrinkage factor did you apply, and why that number? If that question does not have an immediate answer for you, this role is not for you.

Please do not apply if your estimating background is buildings, fit-out, MEP, structural steel or general trade packages. Please do not apply if your earthworks experience is checking or pricing quantities that somebody else measured.


WHAT YOU WOULD DO

- Build cut and fill take-offs from civil drawings
- Measure pavements and stormwater drainage
- Work from geotechnical reports and structural drawings as well as the civil set
- Produce your own working, in a form someone else can audit
- Flag scope gaps, assumptions, exclusions and risk items before a number goes out
- Work to Australian terminology, units and standards


TOOLS AND SOFTWARE

You will be properly equipped. If you need a specific tool to do the work well, tell us in Question 8 and we will sort it out.

What we care about is whether you can build a surface from a drawing, produce a take-off you can stand behind, and know when a number looks wrong.


MUST HAVE

ESSENTIAL: A civil engineering or quantity surveying background, with real experience behind it.

ESSENTIAL: Grading and earthworks take-off experience on civil or infrastructure projects, on real jobs you can describe in detail.

ESSENTIAL: You can read a geotechnical report and price from it.

- Able to read civil drawings and structural drawings
- Experience measuring pavements and stormwater drainage
- Strong Excel
- Fluent in a PDF measurement and mark-up tool
- Excellent written and spoken English
- Available Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm Australian Eastern Time
- Reliable internet and a professional home working setup


NICE TO HAVE

- Australian project experience
- Bulk earthworks on subdivisions, land development or road projects
- Experience building surfaces from contours, spot levels or point files
- Experience pricing from first-principles rate libraries, including plant and labour rates


WORK SAMPLES - PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY

We are asking every applicant to attach examples of earthworks and grading take-off work you have actually done. This is the single biggest thing that will get your application looked at.

Send as many of these four as you can. One is better than none. All four will get your application read first.

1. A grading or earthworks take-off spreadsheet showing cut and fill
2. An earthworks heat map, or a cut and fill colour map
3. A pavement take-off mark-up
4. A drainage take-off mark-up

REDACT ANYTHING CONFIDENTIAL.


WHAT IS ON OFFER

- Above market rate pay
- Full-time and long-term with one client, not project-by-project gig work
- Supported by a dedicated manager whose role is to help you succeed
- Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm Australian Eastern Time. (with some variations by agreement)
- Ongoing salary reviews


HOW TO APPLY

Submit your updated resume, attach your work samples, and answer every question below.

ATTENTION: you must directly answer these questions in your application to be considered. Applications without answers will not be read.


1. List the files you have attached and what each one is. If you have attached nothing, write NONE.

2. Name two earthworks jobs you took off. For each one: the project type, the approximate cut and fill volumes, whether the site balanced, and what you did with the surplus or the shortfall.

3. A car park levels plan gives you finished surface levels. The pavement build-up is 40mm asphalt on 100mm Class 3 on 200mm Class 4. Landscape areas get 100mm of topsoil. You have already built the existing surface from the feature survey. What surface do you difference against to get the bulk earthworks cut and fill, and how do you build it?

4. Show your arithmetic on this one. Cut is 8,000 cubic metres and fill is 8,000 cubic metres, measured between surfaces. The geotechnical report gives a bulking factor of 25% and a compaction factor of 10% for the site clay. Does the site balance? What do you order in, and what do you cart away?

5. A geotechnical report tells you: uncontrolled fill to 0.8m, stiff clay below, groundwater at 2.6m, refusal at 3.2m, and rock in one borehole only at 2.9m. The structural drawings show a basement pad requiring excavation to 1.5m across the footprint. What do you price differently because of that report, and what do you write as an exclusion or an assumption when the number goes out?

6. A 180m run of DN450 Class 3 concrete pipe falls from 1.2m to 4.1m of cover across five pits. How do you measure and structure this for pricing, and what quantities besides the pipe itself do you produce?

7. Which earthworks quantities end up in a contract but do not appear as a line or a level on the civil drawings? Where do you find them? If you have worked to Australian standards or specifications, name one and one thing it required that changed your quantities.

8. What software do you use, and what would you want us to provide? Say roughly how many years on each. If there is a tool you work best in that you do not currently have access to, name it.

9. What is your expected monthly salary in PHP, what hours do you work right now, and when could you start?

SKILL REQUIREMENT
Estimate Quantity Surveying Quantity Takeoff
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