Estimator, Engineering, Civil Engineering

About the Role

The Estimator owns the budget presented to clients across the firm’s residential portfolio, from conceptual ROM through pre-construction agreement and contract execution. Reporting to the Chief of Production, this person is responsible for producing numbers the firm can confidently stand behind.

This role requires discipline, clarity, and sound judgment. The Estimator does not shape the budget around what a client hopes it will be; they build it around the actual scope, assumptions, risks, and realities of the project. They identify missing scope before the contract is signed, confirm assumptions in writing, and make their thinking visible. They are willing to challenge ambiguity early because they care more about accuracy, accountability, and protecting the work than simply being agreeable.

• Estimates are accurate. Five percent is the floor on fixed-price work. At five, a third of margin is gone. Beyond five, the firm absorbs unacceptable losses.
• Scope gaps are caught at the desk. For example, the J-bolts and hold-downs and threaded rod that the concrete sub assumes the framer will set, that the framer assumes the concrete sub will set. Condensate lines, non-shrink grout at steel column bases, conduit for low voltage subs often get missed. Caught before contract execution, the gap costs nothing. Discovered in the field it can lead to huge delays and cost overuns.
• Subcontractor bids are fully vetted, on time, with full coverage. RFP’s are sent to at least two qualified subs for every trade. Bids leveled on scope and quality, not just price. Subs in this market often deliver bids that look like a single line item with exclusions not clearly stated; the Estimator reads those bids against historical knowledge of which sub historically misses what.
  
  Clarifications are requested in writing and incorporated into the subcontract once signed.
• Critical-path schedules hold up under contract. The schedule reflects real durations and sequencing constraints, not defaults. General conditions are estimated based on this schedule. A thorough understanding of trade sequencing is a must. Unique site conditions or design elements may require several mobilizations by the same sub. This needs to be factored in as well.
• The estimating system is still being refined – build an in-house table for lineal, area, volume, and unit costs for all major scopes of work. Full takeoffs from Bluebeam can then be used to generate highly accurate estimates prior to subcontractor input. Further, these take-offs would be used to ensure subs have everything in the plans covered.
• The firm’s ROMsare typically the most comprehensive when compared to competitors prior to precon – That’s the brand standard, and the Estimator is the one who produces it.
• The Project Manager relies on your estimates. Budget, schedule,and document management for all bids and drawings is the estimator’s responsibility prior to contract execution. On larger projects where the PM is involved during precon to assist in this process.

• Within the first two weeks, you’ll know the active and imminent precon engagements, the current Excel template’s quirks, and the bid file structure. You’ll be in conversation with every architect and sub the firm is currently estimating with. Your manager has stopped wondering if anything’s dropping.
• By day 30, at least one ROM and one detailed estimate have moved through your hands at a high standard. Bid solicitation lists are organized by sub and by trade. Allowance schedules created per project rather than held in memory. Architects know who their estimating contact is and trust the response time.
• By day 90, you own the precon function end to end. Fixed-price estimates carry deliberate, project-sized buffers rather than blanket percentages. The handoff package to the PM at contract execution is a documented package, not just a verbal walk-through. The estimator will assist in creating the best practices for project hand-off

• Estimating discipline that produces accurate numbers under pressure. Five percent is the accuracy floor on fixed-price work. The firm’s profit margin can’t…