# Estimator, Modular R&D

**Company:** [Fluidstack](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/fluidstack)
**Location:** Austin, TX
**Role:** Other
**Salary:** $186k – $220k/yr
**Experience:** 7+ years
**Skills:** cost modeling, construction estimating, mechanical estimating, electrical estimating, modular construction, vendor negotiation, should-cost analysis, data center design, takeoffs, unit pricing
**Posted:** 2026-07-18

> Own the cost model and produce estimates for Fluidstack's modular data center product across structural, mechanical, electrical, and controls scopes. Provide rapid pricing for design trade-offs, interrogate vendor quotes, and reconcile estimates against actuals to improve accuracy.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Build and own the cost model for the modular data center product, covering every assembly across structural, mechanical, electrical, and controls scopes.
- Produce estimates at every design release so the program always knows what the product costs before it commits to build.
- Price design alternatives in days, giving engineers cost facts on trade-offs like cooling configuration, electrical distribution, and skid versus site-built scope.
- Interrogate vendor quotes line by line with supply chain, and build should-cost models for the equipment categories that dominate unit cost.
- Reconcile estimates against actuals after each build and fold the variance back into the model, so the next estimate is tighter than the last.

## Requirements
- Personally estimated mechanical, electrical, or modular construction scopes: takeoffs, unit pricing, vendor pricing, and a final number you stood behind when the project was won or lost.
- Built cost models other people could run without you in the room, and they held up.
- Reconciled estimate versus actual and changed your assumptions when the data said you were wrong.
- Priced options for engineers in the middle of a design decision, delivering a usable number in hours when the decision couldn't wait.
- Know where estimates fail (scope gaps, labor productivity, escalation, freight) and you've caught those failures before they priced a bid.
- Worked directly with design engineers early in product development, where drawings are incomplete and the estimate still has to be right about what matters.

## Nice-to-Haves
- Data center or mission-critical estimating.
- Modular or offsite manufacturing cost experience.
- NECA or MCAA labor units.
- Estimating platforms beyond spreadsheets.
- Early-stage R&D or product cost work.

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