Project Manager

THE OPPORTUNITY

FCL Builders, a 50-year-old, employee-owned national contractor built around industrial distribution, cold storage, and data center construction, is bringing project leadership into the Kansas City market for the first time. As Project Manager, you will own a project start to finish: contract and scope, schedule, budget, subcontractor buyout, change orders, and the day-to-day relationship with the owner's representative. You will work shoulder to shoulder with a dedicated Superintendent and a lean project team, on projects that are big-box and big-box-adjacent by design: warehousing and distribution, cold storage, and increasingly, data centers.

FCL does not have a physical office in Kansas City yet. The team is being stood up now, managed for the moment out of Chicago, as part of a deliberate expansion into a market where FCL already has active project work. That means you are getting in on the ground floor of a new region, backed by the full weight of an 11-office national platform, rather than inheriting someone else's playbook. Depending on the project, this role will carry a real travel component, and FCL is upfront about that: some assignments run largely from a home office, others require sustained onsite presence for data center builds with a rotating schedule between the job site and home.

WHY THIS ROLE

Real Ownership, Not Just a Paycheck

FCL is 100 percent employee-owned. The people running projects here have an actual stake in how the company performs, not a distant shareholder or private equity owner counting the upside. Build a project at FCL and you're building something the company, and its people, genuinely own.

Built to Last, Not Burn You Out

FCL has hired good PMs straight out of large general contractor competitors who were simply worn down chasing megaprojects with no end in sight. FCL is deliberate about not doing that. At roughly 250 people across 11 offices, you're a name leadership actually knows, not a resource getting rotated through someone else's growth plan.

A Real Path Into Data Centers

FCL would rather invest in a strong industrial or commercial PM and grow them into data center work than demand you already be a niche MEP specialist on day one. This is a company actively building its bench for its fastest-growing, highest-margin product line, and it will bet on the right person over the flashiest resume.

THE COMPANY

FCL Builders was founded in Chicago 50 years ago and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. What started as a Chicago and Midwest general contractor has grown into an 11-office national, employee-owned platform, with locations including Dallas, Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Irvine, Sacramento, Tampa, Houston, and Columbus. Across its history, FCL has completed more than 1,200 projects and built over 625 million square feet of industrial space nationwide, with a 97 percent customer retention rate.

Everything FCL builds is big-box or big-box-adjacent. The company's bread and butter is industrial distribution and warehousing; roughly a decade ago it built a specialty in cold storage construction, work it continues today for clients like Dot Foods; and over the past five years it has expanded into data center construction, growing alongside enterprise clients such as Edged. FCL does not build high-rises, apartments, or bridges. Projects are staffed as cross-functional "One FCL" teams rather than siloed by region, so a relationship that starts in one market gets supported by expertise from across the company.

FCL is employee-owned and intentionally stays small and nimble, with roughly 250 people across its 11 offices. That size means everyone, including project executives, is expected to roll up their sleeves, and it is also why FCL has walked away from technically strong candidates who did not fit the culture, preferring to develop someone with the right attitude over a flawless resume. Every new hire outside Chicago is flown into FCL's headquarters for an immersive three-day orientation covering company history and culture, a job site visit, introductions to the project teams and leadership, and social time with the broader team, so no one starts on an island.

WHAT THE ROLE ENTAILS

Pre-Construction & Scope: Read and own the owner's contract, develop the written project scope and budget, and stay engaged through design review milestones, RFIs, and pre-construction planning with the design team.

Schedule & Budget Ownership: Build the critical path schedule, coordinate subcontractor buyout and contracting, and own the monthly cost-to-complete and profit projections for your project.

Change Order Management: Evaluate and process subcontractor change orders, develop and negotiate owner change orders, and keep the budget and project system current so scope never gets ahead of written agreement.

Relationship Management: Be the owner's representative's go-to point of contact, coordinate daily with your Superintendent on field progress, and run weekly site meetings with documented minutes and schedule updates.

Financial Oversight: Review and approve payment applications, oversee closeout documentation and final payment collection, and keep the project's financial picture accurate month to month.

Team Development: Coordinate the Superintendent's project package so the field has what it needs, and mentor Project Engineers and Assistant Project Managers working toward their own PM role.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

First 90 Days:

• Complete FCL's three-day Chicago orientation and meet leadership and project teams across the company
• Fully onboarded on your assigned project's contract, budget, and schedule
• Established a working rhythm with your Superintendent and the project's subcontractor base
• Running your first weekly site meetings and issuing meeting minutes on schedule
  

First 180 Days:

• Full ownership of the project budget and change order pipeline, subcontractor and owner side, without hand-holding
• Recognized by the owner's representative as their go-to contact on the project
• Track record of fast RFI turnaround and clean subcontractor coordination
• Actively mentoring a Project Engineer or Assistant Project Manager, if one is on your team
  

First 365 Days:

• Delivered, or clearly on pace to deliver, a project at or above the profit projected at proposal
• Recognized inside FCL as ready for larger, more complex scope, including data center work
• Built at least one repeat relationship with an owner or subcontractor that extends past this project
• Contributing directly to how FCL stands up and staffs its Kansas City presence

WHAT YOU BRING

Required:

BS/BA in Architecture, Civil Engineering, Construction Management, or equivalent work experience

Minimum of 5 years managing commercial or industrial construction projects in the $5M to $30M-plus range

Strong grasp of scheduling, budgeting, cost control, and safety procedures

Ability to read construction documents and specification manuals, and to compile and analyze project data

Willingness and ability to travel as project needs require

Nice to have:

• Prior experience on data center or other mission-critical projects
• Healthcare or other heavily MEP-focused project background
• Intermediate to advanced proficiency in CMiC, Bluebeam, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Office

Qualities that lead to success here:

• Ownership: Fully accountable for every piece of the project, financial health included, not just the parts that are easy
• Team Player: Rolls up sleeves alongside the project team rather than delegating and directing from a distance
• Financially Sharp: Tracks budgets closely and consistently protects, or improves on, the profit projected at proposal
• Client-Centric: Builds trusted relationships with owner's representatives that outlast any single project
• Coachable & Growth-Minded: Wants bigger, more technical work, including data centers, rather than staying in a comfort zone

WHO THRIVES HERE

FCL is looking for commercial or industrial Project Managers who want more responsibility and bigger, more technical projects, not people chasing a bigger title.

• You've run projects in the $5M to $30M-plus range for a general contractor or specialty contractor and can own one from start to finish
• You'd rather be in the field and on the phone with your Superintendent than buried in internal politics
• You're comfortable with travel and flexible about where the work takes you
• You want to grow into more technical, higher-stakes project types like data centers
• You value being part of a small, collaborative team over being a name on an org chart

This isn't the right seat for a senior PM or project-executive-track leader who mainly wants to delegate and direct without doing the hands-on work. FCL has tried that fit before, and it hasn't worked out.

THE SEAT IN SUMMARY

This is a chance to help a 50-year-old, employee-owned national contractor establish itself in a brand-new market, on some of the most in-demand project types in commercial construction today.

• Ground-floor role in FCL's Kansas City market entry
• Direct line into the fast-growing data center and cold storage side of the business
• Backed by an 11-office national platform and a three-day immersive onboarding
• A hands-on, non-political seat where the work speaks for itself
• A real path to bigger, more complex projects as you prove yourself