Estimator job description for print, packaging and engineering firms

Before you write it

Check where an estimator's day goes before you add another.

The template

Estimator: job description.

Copy it, change the parts in square brackets, and keep the trade line that fits.

Job title

[Print, packaging or engineering] estimator

Reports to

[Sales director, commercial manager or production director]

Hours

[37.5] hours a week, Monday to Friday

Location

[Site], office based

Pay

[Your figure]. ONS pay data is below.

Purpose

Every enquiry priced accurately, within agreed margins, and sent to the customer within [one working day] for standard work.

Responsibilities

• Read each enquiry with its drawings, artwork or specification as it arrives by email, web form or phone, and log it.
• Work out the full spec: quantities, materials, sizes, processes, finishing and delivery date.
• Ask the customer about anything missing or contradictory before pricing.
• Cost each job from [our MIS or rate spreadsheet]: materials, machine time, labour, tooling, outwork and delivery, with supplier prices where needed.
• Set the price within agreed margins and refer anything outside them to [the sales director].
• Send quotes in our format, follow them up, and record each as won or lost with the reason.
• Hand won jobs to production planning with a complete spec.
• Compare estimated and actual costs on finished jobs, and keep the rate tables current.

Skills and experience

• Production or estimating experience in [print, packaging or engineering].
• Strong numeracy and confident use of Excel.
• Able to read [print specifications and artwork, carton and case specifications, or engineering drawings and revision levels].
• Experience of [your MIS or ERP] or another estimating system.
• Clear written English, and able to keep several deadlines moving.

Print

Stocks and weights, litho, digital and wide-format presses, imposition, finishing and binding.

Packaging

Board grades and flutes, carton and case styles, cutting formes and print plates, and when a job needs a new tool.

Engineering

Drawings and revision levels, materials, machining and fabrication cycle times, tolerances, and subcontract finishes such as anodising and plating.

How the job is measured

Quote turnaround, from request in to quote sent. Quote to order conversion rate. Estimated against actual cost on finished jobs.

Pay

What ONS figures say about estimator pay.

• £39,634

  median gross annual pay, full-time estimators, valuers and assessors (SOC 2020 code 3541). ONS codes print, cost and mechanical estimators here.

• £20.01

  median hourly pay excluding overtime, same group, before employer's National Insurance and pension.

Source: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025, Table 14 (provisional, UK, full-time) and the SOC 2020 coding index. The group also includes valuers and loss adjusters, so check it against local adverts.

The estimator's day

Which part of the day is reading and keying, and which is pricing.

Reading and keying

1. Open the email or form, save the drawing or artwork, log the enquiry.
2. Pull quantity, material, size, finish and date out of the text and the drawing.
3. Write to the customer about what is missing, or where the email and the drawing disagree.
4. Find what this customer was quoted last time, or the nearest similar job.
5. Key the spec into the MIS, estimating system or spreadsheet.

Pricing

Cycle times on a new part, tooling, risk, margin, and what this customer will pay. This is judgement, and it stays with the estimator.

How to decide, in two weeks

1. Have each estimator log every enquiry: when it arrived, when the quote went, and minutes spent reading and keying against minutes pricing.
2. If most of the hours are reading and keying, take that work off the estimators first and see what is left. If most are pricing, hire.
3. Put requests a day, minutes per quote and the estimator's hourly cost into the quote desk side of the order desk calculator to see what pricing quotes costs a year.

What you get from us

If the hours are reading and keying, we build that step.

We build AI into one division of a business and are measured on that division's own numbers. On a quote desk, each request is read against your own rate tables and waits as a draft quote for the estimator to check, change and send.

1. 30 minutes

   Call with you

   Which team's quotes, how requests arrive, and where they wait.

2. 1 hour

   Session with your estimators

   We watch real requests being priced. The same day, a one-page verdict: the workflow, the KPI it moves, today's baseline and a fixed price. Or a written no.

3. A fixed number of weeks

   Build

   Connected to your inbox and your rate tables. Your estimator approves every draft.

4. Every month

   Run and report

   Quote turnaround against the baseline. Stop at any report.

How it works: quote automation for UK manufacturers that make to order. Nothing is subcontracted.

Questions

What people ask about the estimator job.

What does an estimator do in a print, packaging or engineering firm?

An estimator reads each enquiry, works out the full spec, costs the materials, machine time, labour, tooling and outwork, sets a price within agreed margins and sends the quote. Won jobs go to production with the estimator's spec.

What should an estimator job description include?

The purpose, who it reports to, the duties from enquiry to handover, the trade knowledge and systems needed, and how the role is measured: quote turnaround, quote to order conversion and estimated against actual cost.

How much does an estimator earn in the UK?

ONS figures for 2025 (provisional) put median gross annual pay for full-time estimators, valuers and assessors at £39,634. The group also includes valuers and loss adjusters, so check it against local adverts.

What skills does a print estimator need?

Knowledge of stocks, presses, imposition, finishing and binding, strong numeracy, confidence with the firm's MIS and Excel, and clear writing for quotes and for questions to customers.