Chinburg Builders is a dynamic and growing company based in the Seacoast of NH. We are currently seeking a Full-Time Assistant Preconstruction Project Manager (Estimator).
Chinburg Builders was founded by Eric Chinburg in 1987. Over almost three decades the business has grown and become one of the most trusted names in a quality building, renovation, and management throughout our region. The company started as a small business and was successful in building strong relationships with customers, employees, and business partners. The company is innovative in its development philosophy, constantly evolving to incorporate best practices, and is committed to green building principles.
Our growing staff includes people of many diverse educational backgrounds and training. In the past few years, Chinburg has welcomed hired top-notch candidates from professional schools such as the Wentworth School of Technology, UNH engineering specialty programs, and many other schools and training across disciplines.
Given its roots as a family business, Chinburg embraces new employees as part of a larger family. We welcome people who have warmth and confidence, grit, and determination.
Position Summary
The Assistant Preconstruction Project Manager is responsible for all aspects of budget creation, including full participation in the commercial construction preconstruction (precon) process, creating internal cost estimates based on self-checked unit costs and plan analysis/take-offs, developing scopes of work, collecting hard bids, communicating bid feedback, budget estimate creation and management, review of general conditions, systems studies and comparisons, value engineering, acting as point of contact for subcontractor relations and staying abreast of industry developments applicable to estimating. The Assistant Preconstruction Project Manager also provides precon-related administrative support to all commercial construction Project Managers, maintains up-to-date records of bids received, engages in consistent communication with trade partners and manages the pre-qualification process of new trade partners.
Essential Responsibilities
Position responsibilities may include, but are necessarily not limited to, the following:
· Plan Reading, Analysis & Management
- Navigate and take-off information (quantities, areas, dimensions, material lists, etc.) from construction plans and schedules; neatly tabulate take-off information for reference and future use.
- Clearly understand the complexity of the scope of work as collectively presented in all plans (civil, architectural, interior design, mechanical, electrical, fire protection, etc.) and specifications.
- Use Bluebeam or similar to add notes, redlines and/or scope-specific detail to construction plans.
- Maintain an organized and accurate Drawing Log to account for plan set changes and revisions.
· Conceptual Budget Cost Estimating
- Develop and maintain Commercial Construction Actual Cost Database by exporting, sorting and summarizing cost data from Project Management software.
- When plans are non-existent or very limited, perform “Pre-Conceptual” cost estimating by identifying similar historical project(s) and applying an adjusted actual unit cost by first accounting for major scope differences, site logistics, escalation, etc. Understand the influence of market conditions on pricing.
- When plans are In Progress, perform Conceptual cost estimating by building out an Excel, line item-based budget by applying historical unit cost data to plan take-offs and substantiating the top 10-15 highest risk/value line items by collecting independent conceptual proposals from a subcontractor base.
- Prepare detailed labor estimates by collecting and applying confirmed rates (man-hours, crews, equipment, etc.) to estimated durations; solicit current labor rates and material pricing from subcontractors and suppliers as needed.
· Scope of Work Development
- Maintain and improve generic trade scope of work specifications by editing to eliminate ambiguity, group similar content together and, importantly, revising in real-time based on Project Manager feedback, future Change Order avoidance and/or project close-out “lessons learned.”
- On a project-to-project basis, manipulate generic trade scope of work specifications into project-specific Requests for Quotes (RFQ’s) by incorporating information collected during Plan Reading and Analysis and by visiting the site to physically document and understand the existing conditions.
- Maintain active commercial subcontractor bid list and refer/use it to create project-specific bid lists prior to distributing RFQ’s.
· Subcontractor Relationships & Feedback
- Prepare, distribute, follow-up with and collect RFQ’s from a wide and diverse subcontractor base; independently host on-site meetings as needed.
- Keep subcontractors up-to-date with project information and addenda during the bidding process; create, log and distribute Requests for Information (RFI’s) on behalf of subcontractors to the Design Team and communicate feedback to progress the bidding process.
- Set, communicate and hold to RFQ due dates; as quotes/proposals are collected, create and maintain Bid Leveling spreadsheets to assure all proposed prices reflect “apples to apples” scopes of work.
- Work with subcontractors to adjust/level proposed pricing as needed.
- Compare received pricing with expectations and/or similar historical pricing to catch or explain outliers.
· Construction Support & Other Responsibilities
- Schedule and lead info gathering meetings as needed; create agenda, keep meeting on-task, take/distribute notes.
- Attend weekly staff meetings and report on status of assignments.
- Once a construction budget is finalized, help to compile the associated Project Hand-Off Package.
- Assist Project Managers with creation of Subcontract Scopes of Work (Exhibit A’s) and Subcontract Schedule of Values preparation (typically created from the Estimator’s RFQ documentation) as needed.
- Attend any/all project close-out/review meetings with the Preconstruction Team.
