Director of Construction

Overview

The Director of Construction leads the construction team and oversees all new restaurant and remodel projects, ensuring each location is built to Portillo’s design standards, operational needs, and brand expectations. This role directs the work of the Construction team and applies strong leadership and project management practices across all phases from planning and design through construction and turnover. This position is accountable for cost, schedule, quality, and for establishing management and technology systems that drive efficiency, transparency, and communication.

Success in this role requires collaboration across all departments to deliver high-quality, on-brand restaurants on time and within budget.

Family:

• Coach, set clear expectations, and hold Construction team and third-party partners accountable to deliver consistent, high-quality results
• Build strong relationships with cross-functional partners including Real Estate, Operations, Legal, Supply Chain, Marketing, Finance, and external consultants to ensure alignment and seamless execution
• Foster open and proactive communication between Construction, equipment vendors, New Restaurant Opening (NRO) team, Operations, and other stakeholders throughout each project lifecycle
• Gather post-project feedback from NRO and Operations to sustain success and identify continuous improvement opportunities

Greatness:

• Manage development schedules, cost estimates, and construction budgets to ensure all projects meet or exceed schedule, cost, and quality standards.
• Own and continuously improve construction technology platforms, reporting tools, and data standards to support scalability, cost control, and transparency
• Oversee all pre-construction due diligence, including surveys, engineering, environmental assessments, and traffic studies, to support timely openings
• Lead permitting, planning, and zoning processes in partnership with Real Estate, architects, engineers, and consultants
• Conduct constructability reviews and apply value engineering techniques to achieve operational excellence and cost efficiency
• Review and approve General Contractor bids, contracts, and pay applications, ensuring alignment with Portillo’s standards and expectations
• Oversee development, review, and approval of construction documents to ensure accuracy and consistency with brand and operational requirements
• Conduct site inspections and performance reviews for General Contractors and key suppliers to ensure accountability and adherence to performance expectations
• Lead and manage the design and execution of all new prototype formats. Assign a prototype manager, ensure timelines are met around deliverables, and be able to audit the design. Revise prototypes with updates as needed
• Develop and manage the Construction department’s budget, tracking progress against plan

Energy:

• Lead effective project management processes across pre-construction, construction, and post-construction phases to ensure consistent, on-time delivery
• Develop master schedules and milestone timelines for all projects and ensure ownership of key deliverables
• Create and maintain communication systems that promote transparency, collaboration, and timely decision making
• Conduct regular status meetings with the Construction team and vendors to monitor progress, address challenges, and celebrate wins
• Ensure timely receipt of Certificates of Occupancy and coordinate seamless restaurant turnover to Operations
• Oversee completion of all punch list activities in partnership with Operations to deliver a fully operational restaurant experience

Fun:

• Cultivate a high-energy, engaged team culture that celebrates milestones and takes pride in bringing Portillo’s iconic restaurants to life
• Encourage creative problem solving and leverage technology to enhance efficiency and communication
• Apply lessons learned from each project to continuously strengthen processes, collaboration, and results
• Other duties as assigned

Organization Relationships

The Director of Construction directly manages Construction Project Managers and works with Real Estate, Legal, Operations, Talent, Risk Management, Asset Protection, Accounts Payable,…