Shape winning bids before the first shovel hits the ground
As our Commercial Preconstruction & Estimating Specialist, you’ll turn drawings and concepts into precise, competitive numbers. Your day blends focused plan review, field perspective, and cross-functional collaboration with leadership, project management, and sales to secure profitable work and hand off projects seamlessly to construction.
A day in the life
You start by diving into architectural, structural, civil, and MEP drawings and specifications. After completing detailed quantity takeoffs, you build comprehensive budgets that account for labor, materials, subcontractors, equipment, overhead, and profit. Midday, you’ll issue bid invitations, qualify subcontractor proposals, and craft a pre-construction RFP package. In the afternoon, you’re on-site for a walkthrough, clarifying scope, uncovering risks and value engineering options, and submitting pre-bid RFIs as needed. You wrap by aligning with company leadership and the PM/sales teams to ensure a clean transition from estimating to construction.
What you’ll deliver
- Accurate, competitive estimates across hard-bid, design-build, and conceptual pursuits
- Thorough takeoffs and complete project budgets (labor, materials, subcontractors, equipment, overhead, profit)
- Clear identification of scope gaps, risk items, and value engineering opportunities
- Well-structured pre-construction RFP packages
- Timely, well-documented responses to subcontractor RFIs and proactive pre-bid RFIs
How you’ll work
- Review architectural, structural, civil, and MEP plans/specs with precision
- Prepare conceptual, budgetary, negotiated, and competitive bid estimates
- Send bid invitations, actively solicit coverage, and rigorously qualify and review subcontractor bids
- Participate in pre-bid meetings, project walkthroughs, and perform site visits to confirm scope with customers
- Collaborate closely with leadership, project management, and sales to win work and ensure a smooth handoff into construction
What makes you effective here
- Organized, detail-forward, and able to manage multiple deadlines at once
- Comfort moving from the desk to the jobsite and back, keeping momentum across tasks