Chief Estimator-Heavy Civil

About the Company

Our client is a Southern California heavy civil contractor specializing in earthwork, grading, excavation, demolition, and site development. The company delivers public works and private-sector projects, providing self-performed construction services and coordinating subcontracted scopes to meet project requirements.

With a focus on operational excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement, the organization is committed to building strong client relationships, developing its people, and delivering quality results. Its culture emphasizes empowerment, integrity, accountability, and a commitment to excellence.

About the Position

The Chief Estimator will lead the estimating department and drive public works business development throughout Southern California. Reporting directly to the President, this individual will oversee estimating personnel, develop a qualified bid pipeline, and guide competitive pursuits to support a public works portfolio targeting more than $20 million in annual recognized revenue.

The ideal candidate brings substantial heavy civil estimating experience, strong commercial judgment, and the leadership skills needed to develop a team and build lasting relationships with public agencies, school districts, general contractors, and industry partners. This is a hands-on leadership position that requires a strong office presence in Murrieta, with travel throughout Southern California as needed.

Key Responsibilities:

- Estimating Leadership: Lead and develop a team of estimators and takeoff technicians, establish priorities, balance workloads, review estimates, and maintain consistent estimating procedures.

- Public Works Estimating: Direct competitive bids for projects generally ranging from $1 million to $15 million, including grading, excavation, demolition, clearing, paving, site concrete, hauling, recompaction, and underground utilities.

- Business Development:
Build and maintain relationships with public agencies, school districts, general contractors, and strategic partners to identify opportunities and strengthen the company's market presence.

- Bid Pipeline Management: Develop a qualified pipeline of opportunities to support annual revenue objectives, targeting a balanced portfolio of school and education projects and other public works pursuits.

- Bid Strategy:
Lead bid/no-bid evaluations based on project fit, available resources, competition, contract terms, bonding requirements, cash flow, and anticipated profitability.

- Estimate Development:
Review plans, specifications, quantities, labor and equipment production rates, material pricing, subcontractor proposals, schedule requirements, and bid documentation to ensure complete and competitive estimates.

- Risk Management:
Identify and evaluate scope gaps, differing site conditions, utility conflicts, earthwork quantities and balances, hauling and disposal assumptions, schedule constraints, and unfavorable contract provisions.

- Operations Coordination: Partner with project managers, superintendents, and operations leadership to validate estimating assumptions and facilitate a smooth transition from award to project execution.

- Financial Performance: Monitor bid volume, win rates, awarded backlog, estimated gross margins, revenue performance, estimate accuracy, and early project cost variances.

- Continuous Improvement: Use bid results and project feedback to refine production assumptions, improve estimating processes, and strengthen departmental performance.

- Team Development:
Mentor estimators and takeoff technicians, share technical knowledge, and support the onboarding and development of additional estimating resources.

Requirements

- Significant experience in heavy civil construction estimating, particularly grading, excavation, site preparation, and related self-perform scopes.

- Demonstrated experience leading estimating efforts for public works projects and supervising or providing senior-level oversight to estimating personnel.

- Strong understanding of California public bidding requirements, with experience involving school districts, education owners, prevailing wage projects, prequalification, and bonding processes preferred.

- Proven ability to develop production-based estimates using construction drawings, specifications, soils reports, site assessments, labor and equipment costs, subcontractor pricing, and material quantities.

- Working proficiency with B2W Estimate or a comparable estimating platform.

- Familiarity with AGTEK, Bluebeam, or equivalent takeoff and plan-review tools; customer relationship management platforms; and AI-assisted tools such as ChatGPT or Claude.

- Strong financial and commercial judgment, including the ability to evaluate project margins, contract risk, resource availability, and bid strategy.

- Demonstrated ability to build client relationships, develop new business opportunities, and present bid recommendations to executive leadership.

- Excellent communication, organizational, and analytical skills, with strong attention to detail and follow-through.

- A collaborative, approachable leadership style with a genuine commitment to mentoring, teaching, and developing team members.

- Alignment with the company's core values of empowerment, lean thinking, innovation, transformation, excellence, honesty, and integrity.

- Willingness to travel throughout Southern California as needed.

- Ability and willingness to maintain a consistent office presence in Murrieta.

Benefits

- Competitive compensation based on experience and qualifications, $175,000-$225,000

- Leadership opportunity with direct access to the President and influence over company growth strategy.

- Opportunity to build and develop an estimating team and improve department processes.

- Ability to influence project selection, bidding strategy, and public works market expansion.

- Collaborative environment that values innovation, continuous improvement, professional development, and accountability.

- Company bonus and benefits programs, with details provided during the interview process.