Preconstruction Executive

About the Company

RNGD is a rapidly scaling organization emerging as a nationally recognized leader in construction through our unique Renegade mindset focused on innovation, creativity, and culture. The team is made up of a highly engaged group of seasoned professionals and emerging leaders. We are creators who believe that what we build drives the growth of our cities and that to fulfill our mission, we must constantly challenge the old way of doing things. Headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, we thrive on building communities, building teams, building leaders, and growing the business throughout the Southeast region with additional offices in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Preconstruction Executive – Civil Construction that will provide executive leadership for RNGD’s civil preconstruction function and guide pursuits from initial opportunity assessment through estimate development, proposal submission, client interviews, contract award, and turnover to Operations. Success in this role means RNGD pursues the right opportunities, estimates are reliable and clearly documented, project risks are identified early, proposals communicate meaningful value, and awarded projects transition to Operations with complete and actionable information

This role establishes civil preconstruction strategy, estimating standards, review controls, and resource priorities across the pursuit portfolio. The Preconstruction Executive evaluates opportunities, leads complex pursuits, validates major estimates, identifies material risks, and ensures proposed project approaches are competitive, executable, and aligned with RNGD’s financial and operational objectives.

The Preconstruction Executive partners with Mission Critical leadership, Business Development, Operations, Project Management, Scheduling, Safety, Quality, Risk Management, Legal, clients, design partners, subcontractors, and suppliers. This role also builds and develops the civil preconstruction team and strengthens the systems, data, and processes that support consistent decision-making.

The Preconstruction Executive will focus on priority customer profiles identified by the Mission Critical Business Unit, including data centers, power generation, defense, and industrialized construction.

Core Responsibilities

- Civil Preconstruction Strategy and Portfolio Leadership

- Lead the civil preconstruction portfolio from initial opportunity evaluation through contract award and operational turnover.

- Partner with Civil sector leadership and Business Development to evaluate opportunities based on strategic alignment, client relationships, technical capabilities, resource capacity, risk, and financial objectives.

- Lead go/no-go recommendations and establish pursuit strategies, priorities, milestones, responsibilities, and review requirements.

- Align preconstruction resources with the pursuit pipeline, organizational capacity, project complexity, and anticipated award timing.

- Forecast preconstruction workload, backlog, staffing needs, and other resources required to support the civil business.

- Provide executive visibility into pursuit status, estimate development, significant risks, resource constraints, and recommended actions.

- Pursuit, Estimating, and Proposal Leadership

- Direct the development of conceptual, preliminary, design-development, and final estimates for civil and infrastructure projects.

- Establish expectations for scope completeness, quantity validation, production assumptions, labor, equipment, materials, subcontractor coverage, indirect costs, escalation, contingency, and fee.

- Lead executive estimates and bid reviews and challenge pricing, quantities, assumptions, productivity expectations, and execution strategies.

- Oversee the development of proposal narratives, bid schedules, scope clarifications, alternates, value-analysis options, and other pursuit deliverables.

- Ensure pricing reflects current market conditions, supplier and subcontractor input, historical performance, project constraints, and identified risk.

- Recommend final pricing and submission decisions in accordance with established approval authority.

- Scope, Risk, and Commercial Alignment

- Lead constructability and risk reviews involving scope, geotechnical conditions, environmental requirements, permitting, existing utilities, site access, logistics, schedule, procurement, and execution constraints.

- Identify scope gaps, ambiguities, conflicts, exclusions, allowances, qualifications, and unresolved requirements before commitments are made.

- Develop practical mitigation strategies and ensure material risks are reflected appropriately in pricing, scheduling, contracting, and execution planning.

- Partner with Risk Management and Legal to evaluate insurance, bonding, contractual, and commercial requirements and escalate matters requiring specialized review or approval.

- Collaborate with Operations, Safety, Quality, and project leadership to validate proposed methods, sequencing, productivity assumptions, and resource plans.

- Maintain clear documentation of estimate assumptions, decisions, unresolved exposures, and approved exceptions.

- Client, Designer, and Trade Partner Engagement

- Build trusted relationships with clients, designers, consultants, subcontractors, suppliers, and industry partners throughout the pursuit and preconstruction process.

- Lead client interviews, preconstruction meetings, design reviews, value-analysis discussions, and collaborative planning sessions.

- Communicate cost, schedule, constructability, procurement, and risk information clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

- Partner with design teams to evaluate alternatives that improve constructability, cost predictability, schedule performance, and project value without assuming design authority.

- Develop strong subcontractor and supplier participation to improve market intelligence, scope coverage, competition, and execution confidence.

- Support Business Development and sector leadership in positioning RNGD as a trusted civil construction partner.

- Operational Handoff and Project Readiness

- Integrate preliminary scheduling, logistics, procurement, staffing, equipment, self-perform planning, and project controls into the preconstruction process.

- Ensure proposed execution strategies reflect available resources, production capabilities, site conditions, and operational priorities.

- Lead the formal turnover of awarded work to Operations, including the estimate basis, scope, assumptions, commitments, risks, clarifications, procurement priorities, and schedule strategy.

- Confirm Operations understands the commercial and operational basis of the estimate and that unresolved matters have clear ownership and follow-up requirements.

- Remain engaged through project startup and early procurement to support continuity and resolve preconstruction-related questions.

- Compare estimated assumptions with actual cost, productivity, procurement, and performance information and incorporate lessons learned into future pursuits.

- Team Leadership, Standards, and Continuous Improvement

- Build, lead, and develop a capable civil preconstruction team with clear roles, performance expectations, review responsibilities, and accountability.

- Allocate personnel and resources based on pursuit priorities, workload, complexity, and business needs.

- Establish consistent estimating standards, templates, review gates, documentation practices, and quality-control expectations.

- Develop employees through coaching, feedback, meaningful assignments, professional-development opportunities, and succession planning.

- Advance the use of estimating technology, historical cost information, production data, market intelligence, and standardized workflows.

- Use pursuit outcomes, project performance, stakeholder feedback, and lessons learned to improve estimating accuracy, predictability, efficiency, and competitiveness.

Preferred Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in construction management, civil engineering, estimating, or a related field preferred; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.

- Twelve or more years of progressive civil construction, estimating, preconstruction, or operations experience, including leadership of complex pursuits and teams, preferred.

- Strong knowledge of earthwork, underground utilities, drainage, concrete, asphalt paving, site development, infrastructure, environmental, geotechnical and related self-perform civil scopes.

- Experience leading hard-bid, negotiated, design-build, CMAR, and other collaborative project-delivery pursuits preferred.

- Demonstrated ability to lead executive estimate reviews, client presentations, constructability reviews, risk evaluations, value analysis, and operational handoffs.

- Strong leadership, commercial judgment, communication, negotiation, and stakeholder-management capabilities, with proficiency in estimating, scheduling, document-management, and project technology platforms.

Core Competencies

- RNGD Values Alignment

Exemplifies RNGD’s core values:

- Renegade Mentality

- Sweep Floors

- Build Together

- Honor Promises

- Strategic Civil Preconstruction Leadership

- Translates sector strategy, market opportunities, client needs, organizational capacity, and project complexity into disciplined pursuit and preconstruction priorities.

- Demonstrates a Renegade Mentality by challenging assumptions and developing practical strategies that improve competitiveness, predictability, and responsible growth.

- Estimating, Cost, and Risk Judgment

- Evaluates scope, quantities, production assumptions, pricing, schedule, logistics, and risk to support reliable estimates and informed commitments.

- Demonstrates the Sweep Floors mindset by examining critical details and Honors Promises by ensuring decisions are supported by complete, accurate, and transparent information.

- Client and Pursuit Partnership

- Builds credibility with clients, designers, consultants, subcontractors, suppliers, and internal leaders and communicates value throughout the pursuit process.

- Builds Together by creating alignment, encouraging early collaboration, and developing solutions that support the client, project team, and business.

- Operational Readiness and Accountability

- Ensures awarded work transitions to Operations with clear assumptions, commitments, risks, priorities, and execution information.

- Honors Promises by maintaining ownership through turnover, communicating concerns early, and supporting delivery against established commitments.

- Team Leadership and Continuous Improvement

- Develops preconstruction professionals and strengthens estimating standards, technology, historical information, review practices, and organizational capability.

- Combines Build Together with a Renegade Mentality by sharing knowledge, developing people, and continually improving how RNGD plans and pursues civil work.

RNGD is an Equal Opportunity Employer