Chief Estimator

Chief Estimator | Heavy Civil | Southern NH / MA Border

Lead your team. Own the number.

We're recruiting a Chief Estimator for a well-established, self-performing heavy civil and industrial contractor on the New Hampshire / Massachusetts border.

You'll run and manage the estimating department and present to the leadership team. When the company decides what to chase and how to price it, you're in the room.

Why experienced estimators make this move
If you're at a national contractor, you know how it goes. You build a careful estimate, it climbs three levels, and it comes back as someone else's number. Go/no-go gets decided in another office. You're one of many senior estimators, and the bids you're proudest of carry someone else's name.

This is different.

There's one Chief Estimator here, and it's you. You report directly to the President, and the distance from your desk to a decision is short.

The estimate you sponsor is the one that goes out the door. And the way the department builds that estimate is yours to set.

If you'd rather own the number than defend it to people who didn't build it, you'll like this seat.

The work

• Projects from $15 million to $200 million
• Building construction, water and wastewater treatment, industrial and heavy civil
• Municipal, state and federal owners across the Northeast
• CMAR and design-build

The company self-performs much of its work, so you're pricing its own crews and equipment in site/civil, concrete and process mechanical, not just collecting sub numbers. These are technical, multi-discipline estimates where one missed scope can sink the job, and that's what makes them worth winning.

Leadership wants the right number, not the low one. Nobody here will ask you to buy a job.

The bid board is full, and work is secured into 2027.

The honest tradeoff
This isn't a 10,000-person company with an estimating group in every region.

It's a mid-sized contractor. That means less support and more ownership. The role is onsite: office-based, with limited travel for site visits. Company vehicles available.

It's also a full-time estimating job, not estimating plus project management. If you've done both, that's welcome, but this seat is all about the numbers.

And the accountability is real. When a bid wins or loses, everyone knows whose estimate it was.

What you'll do

• Lead a team of six estimators
• Price the self-perform packages and support conceptual estimates. A separate preconstruction lead handles the client-facing GMP work, so your time stays on the number
• Read the contract documents early and find the risk and the opportunity in each bid
• Set the estimate schedule and hold the discipline estimators to their milestones
• Keep document and revision control tight as the estimate develops
• Close every gap so nothing falls out of the number
• Review the final multi-discipline estimate and take it to leadership
• Run bid day on hard-bid work
• Own how the department estimates. The process, the tools and the team are yours to shape, and leadership is looking for you to change what isn’t working.

What we're looking for

• A proven manager: team leadership, organization and follow-through. Your job is to keep the discipline specialists in your team firing on all cylinders.
• 10+ years of estimating, ideally across several self-perform disciplines
• Experience in heavy civil, industrial and building construction
• Water and wastewater treatment plant experience is a plus, but not a requirement
• A track record of leading other estimators to a complete, multi-discipline estimate
• Engineering, construction management or other technical degree, or equivalent experience
• HCSS HeavyBid and AGTEK preferred. Strong on another platform? We’ll train you.

Compensation

• up to $280,000
• Bonus tied to company performance, with a path into the company stock program
• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision
• 401(k) with company match
• Flexible time off and paid parental leave

Why consider this position?
Most estimators spend their careers making someone else's number better. This is the role where the number gets set.
You’ll work directly with operations leadership, so real production rates come back into your next estimate.
You'll price large, technical work for owners who care how it gets built, and you'll do it for a company that backs the number with its own crews.
You'll are a strong leader of people. We're looking for someone who wants to be a manager not just a number cruncher.
The hiring process is short: two rounds, and the President makes the call.

If you'd like to learn more, call or text me anytime.

I'm happy to have a confidential conversation and tell you more about the company and the opportunity. Call me.

Colm 617.216.3666

** Offer is subject to a background check and drug screen.

Click here to apply online