Utility Foreman

Hampton Roads area, Virginia // Non-exempt, hourly

You lead a utility crew installing water, sewer, storm drain, and ductbank systems on MEB's heavy civil projects. You run the daily plan, work alongside the crew on the critical operations, and answer for what your crew builds and how safely they build it.

• Crew safety. Run the daily pre-task plan and safety briefing, enforce trench safety, protective systems, shoring, boxes, and ladder access, and stop work the moment a condition is unsafe. You do not ask permission for that.
• Daily crew leadership. Assign the day's tasks, communicate the plan and the expectations, and monitor quality and production as the work goes in.
• Hands-on installation. You are on the tools for the critical operations and the complex installations. This is a working foreman seat, not a clipboard.
• Pipe and structures. Install DIP, PVC, HDPE, RCP, and steel, and support layout, manhole installation, and system tie-ins.
• Grade and layout. Establish and hold grade control for the crew, including benchmarks and basic survey.
• Production against the schedule. Plan the crew to the look-ahead, feed real durations and productivity back to the Utility Superintendent, and make the dates.
• Quality and testing. Install to specification and approved shop drawings, run and document testing with QC, correct deficiencies, and hold erosion control and SWPPP compliance.
• Equipment and escalation. Verify daily equipment inspections, coordinate rentals with the Equipment Division, and escalates risks and constructability concerns early rather than at the end of the day.

• 5+ years in utility work, including leading or directing a crew. Time spent running the work matters more than the year count
• Hands-on installation across DIP, PVC, HDPE, RCP, and steel, plus manholes, valves, hydrants, and tie-ins
• Working knowledge of trench safety that you can actually enforce with a crew: protective systems, shoring, boxes, access, and excavation limits
• Ability to establish and hold grade control, read plans and profiles, and work from shop drawings and manufacturer data
• Ability to run a daily pre-task plan and a safety briefing that the crew takes seriously
• Ability to give a Superintendent an honest duration and an honest production number
• OSHA 30, First Aid and CPR, Confined Space, Trenching and Excavation, Fall Protection, Silica, Lockout/Tagout, and Rigging and Signaling. We provide and maintain what you do not already hold
• High school diploma or GED preferred, or equivalent field experience. Valid driver's license

• Strenuous manual labor; carry, lift, and move up to 50 lbs without assistance
• Work in and around open trenches and excavation equipment on uneven, muddy ground, outdoors in all weather
• Climb, stoop, balance, and perform shovel and pick work. Required PPE at all times

The anticipated starting hourly rate for this position is $31 to $39 an hour. This is the range we expect to pay someone starting in this position. Where an offer lands within it depends on the experience you bring, the certifications and technical skills that apply to this work, the scope you have carried before, and what we pay people already doing equivalent work here.

The range covers base pay. It is a starting range, not a ceiling. People move up through it and past it as they grow with us.

• Employee ownership. MEB is employee owned. Through our ESOP, the people who build the work own the business behind it.
• Benefits. MEB pays the medical and dental premiums for our employees. We also offer vision, disability, and life insurance, FSA and HSA options, a matching 401(k), tuition reimbursement, a health and wellness program, and paid time off.
• Room to grow. Every craft ladder here is defined, from helper through foreman to craft superintendent, and it keeps going into field operations leadership. You will know what the next rung takes and we will tell you where you stand against it.
• Core values. Clients First, Safety Matters, and Family by Choice. You will see them on the jobsite, not just in the handbook.
• Who we are. Founded in 1982, MEB is a Virginia-based construction firm with more than 475 employees, headquartered in Chesapeake with a regional office in Richmond. We build resilient environments: projects that improve the communities we work in, locally and nationwide.
• What we build. Heavy civil is the core of what we do: our own crews and equipment self-perform water and wastewater treatment plants,…