General Manager of Mechanical Projects

Overview

Crane Talent Group is running this search on behalf of its client.

Role

Summary:

The General Manager (GM) of DFW Mechanical Projects has full P&L ownership and enterprise accountability for the performance, growth, and culture of the business. This role is responsible for leading all functional aspects of the operation, including sales, estimating, project execution, safety, administration, workforce development, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. This role serves as the primary enterprise connector for our DFW Mechanical Projects business, ensuring alignment, transparency, and collaboration with enterprise initiatives.

The GM is expected to lead the business through continued operational and cultural transformation aligned with the company’s enterprise strategy, private-equity ownership expectations, and standardized operating model. Success in this role requires visible leadership, disciplined execution, and willingness to operate differently than in the past.

The general geographic focus area of the DFW Mechanical Projects business associated with this role includes the DFW metroplex and other locations in Texas as strategically determined in coordination with the executive leadership. The use of this team’s resources to support national work or work outside of its geographic focus area may be required due to enterprise priorities, but will be minimized, and closely coordinated with the EVP if needed.

This role reports to the EVP of the Projects Line of Business (LOB) and is a member of the senior leadership team. This role requires a broader business leader mindset, balancing local accountability with enterprise stewardship and representing our DFW Mechanical Projects business as a part of the company’s unified approach.

Key Responsibilities:

Full Business Ownership & Financial Performance

• Own P&L performance, cash flow, working capital, backlog quality, and margin outcomes.
• Deliver minimum 15% year-over-year revenue growth while protecting margin and cash discipline.
• Ensure accurate forecasting, budgeting, and reporting using enterprise financial and operational KPIs.
• Actively manage risk, change orders, claims, and contractual compliance.

Sales, Market Growth & Customer Relationships

• Lead local market strategy, key account relationships, and pursuit prioritization.
• Personally engage with strategic customers, GCs, and owners.
• Ensure disciplined go/no-go decision making aligned with enterprise risk standards and processes.
• Build a predictable pipeline that supports growth targets.
• Manage/tracking CRM+ through complete sales process
• Enforce adherence to enterprise estimating standards, tools, and review processes.
• Ensure estimates are accurate, complete, and aligned with execution capability.
• Participate in executive-level estimate reviews and risk assessments.
• Drive continuous improvement in hit rate, estimate accuracy, and post-job feedback loops.
• Manage/tracking CRM+ through complete sales process

Project Execution & Operational Discipline

• Ensure consistent use of enterprise project execution standards, including:
• Project startup and turnover
• Cost controls and forecasting
• Change management
• Closeout discipline
• Champion use of Build Ops and other enterprise systems despite imperfections, ensuring data quality and adoption. This includes training project execution team on use of Build Ops to effectively and efficiently manage cost forecasting, trending metrics, and earned value.
• Hold project teams accountable to safety, quality, schedule, and financial performance.
• Hold project managers, superintendents, and other roles accountable to enterprise-wide positional requirements and responsibilities.

Leadership, Culture & Employee Experience

• Set the tone for how leaders show up: visible, accountable, decisive, and aligned.
• Build a culture of ownership, transparency, and performance, not entitlement or legacy practices.
• Develop and retain high-performing leaders, address underperformance decisively.
• Support enterprise approaches to hiring, compensation, performance management, and communication.
• Drive employee engagement, safety culture, and workforce development.
• Fully embrace and actively support changes…