Lead Estimator

The Lead Estimator is responsible for leading estimating function and ensuring the company consistently identifies, evaluates, develops, reviews, and submits high-quality estimates for work that aligns with the company's capabilities, capacity, strategic priorities, and profitability goals.

The Lead Estimator is responsible for leading estimating function and ensuring the company consistently identifies, evaluates, develops, reviews, and submits high-quality estimates for work that aligns with the company's capabilities, capacity, strategic priorities, and profitability goals. This position is both a working estimator and the leader of the estimating team. The Lead Estimator is expected to personally estimate significant and complex projects while also creating the structure, accountability, prioritization, and quality‑control processes necessary for the entire estimating team to perform at a high level.

Success in this role is not measured simply by the number of estimates produced. The Lead Estimator is accountable for ensuring pursues the right work, makes bid/no‑bid decisions early, develops accurate and constructible estimates, submits committed bids on time, and continuously improves estimating accuracy using actual field performance and historical results.

• Lead and personally prepare detailed estimates for heavy civil construction projects, including underground utilities, earthwork, site development, concrete paving, and related scopes.
• Review plans, specifications, bid documents, contracts, addenda, and project requirements to establish complete scopes of work.
• Develop quantity takeoffs, crew structures, production assumptions, labor and equipment requirements, material pricing, subcontractor scopes, and project costs.
• Build and maintain estimates in HCSS Heavy Bid or the company's designated estimating platform.
• Evaluate construction methods, phasing, access, schedule requirements, logistics, and other factors that affect project cost and execution.
• Identify project risks, exclusions, assumptions, opportunities, and potential scope gaps before bid submission.
• Analyze supplier and subcontractor quotations for completeness, scope coverage, competitiveness, and compliance with bid requirements.
• Lead final estimate and bid reviews with appropriate company leadership before submission.
• Ensure proposals are complete, accurate, competitive, and aligned with margin expectations and business strategy.

• Maintain visibility and accountability across the entire estimating pipeline, from initial opportunity through bid decision, estimate development, submission, and result.
• Evaluate opportunities early and drive timely bid/no‑bid decisions so estimating resources are concentrated on work has a legitimate reason to pursue.
• Prioritize opportunities based on strategic fit, customer/relationship strength, company capabilities, schedule capacity, competitive position, risk, and potential profitability.
• Coordinate with company leadership and operations when determining whether project schedules and scopes fit available company resources.
• Ensure every committed bid has a clearly assigned estimator, defined responsibilities, submission deadline, and plan for completion.
• Monitor estimating workload and redistribute responsibilities when necessary to protect critical deadlines.
• Prevent unnecessary estimating effort on opportunities that should have been declined earlier.
• Ensure committed bids are completed and submitted on time unless leadership intentionally changes the pursuit decision.
• Maintain accurate status information so company leadership has clear visibility into upcoming opportunities, committed bids,…