Senior Project​/Program Manager

Join McKissack & McKissack's team! Immediate opening for a Senior Project/Program Manager in the Chicago, IL area. McKissack & McKissack offers opportunities to grow your career while working on transformative projects in program and construction management, architecture, and interior design. We combine technical expertise and creative vision to deliver exceptional results. Our culture values diversity, professional development, and performance. We seek team players who are humble, hungry, and smart, with strong academic or professional experience, integrity, and a client‑focused mindset.

Join a team that invests in your success and rewards ambition, integrity, and collaboration.

• Serve as the primary Owner's Representative and principal point of contact for assigned clients throughout the complete project lifecycle.
• Build and maintain strong client relationships through responsive communication and exceptional service.
• Lead projects from planning, feasibility, design, procurement, construction, commissioning, occupancy, and project closeout.
• Develop project execution strategies aligned with client objectives.
• Prepare executive presentations, project reports, and recommendations.
• Monitor project scope, budget, schedule, quality, and overall performance.
• Identify project risks early and implement effective mitigation strategies.
• Coordinate architects, engineers, contractors, consultants, user groups, and stakeholders.
• Ensure projects comply with owner requirements, contractual obligations, and project objectives.
• Direct and manage internal project resources including Project Engineers, Assistant Project Managers, Schedulers, Cost Estimators, and specialty consultants.
• Support client in leading preconstruction activities including management of a team who will conduct project planning, feasibility studies, budgeting, scheduling, constructability reviews, value engineering, project phasing, procurement planning, and contractor selection.
• Manage architects and engineering consultants throughout design.
• Coordinate McKissack scheduling and estimating professionals to develop baseline schedules and cost estimates.
• Ensure design development remains aligned with approved project budgets.
• Review constructability, phasing, project sequencing, and operational impacts.
• Lead contractor prequalification, RFQ/RFP development, bid administration, evaluations, interviews, negotiations, and contractor selection recommendations.
• Assign work, establish priorities, and balance workloads across multiple projects.
• Conduct regular internal project coordination meetings to review project status, staffing, deliverables, priorities, risks, and action items.
• Ensure all client deliverables are accurate, coordinated, timely, and meet McKissack quality standards.
• Mentor Assistant Project Managers and Project Engineers while supporting their technical and professional development.
• Promote collaboration, accountability, consistency, and continuous improvement across project teams.
• Support client in reviewing and negotiating contractor agreements.
• Monitor contractor performance and compliance with the Owner Contractor Agreement.
• Review contractor schedules, staffing, progress, budgets, payment applications, and change orders.
• Monitor construction quality to ensure work complies with contract documents, specifications, approved submittals, and applicable codes.
• Review contractor means and methods as they relate to project execution.
• Ensure that the contractor coordinates inspections, testing, commissioning, occupancy, and project closeout.
• Review contractor claims, requests for equitable adjustment, delay analyses, and requests for additional time or compensation, providing objective recommendations to the owner.
• Review contractor safety plans and monitor implementation throughout construction while recognizing that jobsite safety remains the contractor's responsibility.
• Proactively identify risks related to cost, schedule, quality, procurement, constructability, stakeholder coordination, operations, and project execution.
• Develop practical mitigation strategies before issues impact project performance.
• Coordinate with McKissack technical…