What are the responsibilities and job description for the Pre-construction Estimator position at Collabera?

Job Description

Job Title : Pre-Construction Estimator

Job Location : Columbus, OH; Herndon, VA; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Portland, OR

Job Duration : 12 Months (Contract to hire)

Pay Rate : $60.00 / hr to $62.00 / hr

Job Description : Overview :

Our client is seeking a motivated and experienced Construction Estimator to join our global Pre-construction team.
This role involves collecting and analyzing construction data, maintaining a comprehensive cost database, reverse-calculating unit prices, benchmarking for future projects, and developing user-friendly benchmarking templates as part of the preconstruction support team.
Each project at our client is like 300- 400 million dollars – very large-scale projects
The estimator then narrows down to ground-up projects à conceptual à are you in commercial construction or residential construction? Any commercial background or infrastructure is fine.
Looking for a conceptual construction estimator not just a project or program manager – they are only working in the construction field and have no conceptual estimate experience.

Org : Our client team within global Data Centers projects

Team size : Preconstruction team – 100-150 ppl – very big org

The hiring manager has 4-5 reports to him

The hiring manager’s team is called “Estimating Analytics in Preconstruction

The hiring manager’s direct customers are pre-construction managers internally.

Preconstruction managers do everything from the construction start at the job site some spend 1 yr drilling, estimating done, budget done, GC bidding, GC onboarding, and starting then his team hands off.

The hiring manager’s team is focusing on the budgeting and estimating side of it

Challenges from the past interviews :

Some estimators have done only hard bids and are not able to back-calculate the unit rate for each trade.

Also, this role is to create and update conceptual estimate templates for customer use which requires a high-level skill set in Excel.

Most candidates were missing Excel and lacked a conceptual estimator who is from a GC background (general contractor)

Seeing typical Construction PM resumes – this is not a PM role

Must have :

We are seeking a candidate with a strong background in the General Contracting (GC) industry, specifically with experience as an estimator.

The ideal candidate should have experience in hard bidding, where they have received architectural and engineering drawings, solicited bids from multiple contractors, and compiled competitive proposals. For example, they should understand the process of submitting bids to owners, being the lowest bidder to win projects, and sometimes not securing the project despite competitive pricing.

While a hard bid background is valuable, we are primarily looking for someone who has transitioned from hard bidding to providing conceptual estimates for future projects.

This includes the ability to work with limited information, such as 1-5 page drawings or historical project data, to develop high-level cost estimates for upcoming construction projects.

Experience in conceptual estimating and a deep understanding of construction costs is essential.

The ideal candidate should have 5-10 years of relevant experience as a construction estimator, with expertise in analyzing data, reverse-calculating unit prices, benchmarking for future projects, and creating templates.

They should have hands-on experience with large-scale ground-up construction projects, including foundation, structural, and electrical work, rather than just small residential or modeling projects.

A 4-year degree in a relevant construction or project management field is acceptable.

Advanced Excel skills are required, including proficiency in pivot tables, VLOOKUP, macros, data validation, data conditioning, averages, rates, and linking data.

The candidate should also be willing to travel once a month. Experience in data center construction is a plus but not a mandatory requirement.

Key Qualifications :

Extensive experience (5 years) working with a general contractor, with an emphasis on ground-up construction projects.

Proven ability to develop conceptual estimates based on limited information using historical trade-level cost data.

Strong proficiency in creating and utilizing unit prices from historical data and preparing Excel templates for internal use.

A strong desire for continuous learning and growth, with the potential for long-term opportunities at out client

Location : This role requires in-office work three day per week at one of the following locations :

Columbus, OH

Herndon, VA- 2nd preference on candidate location

Atlanta, GA

Chicago, IL- top priority preference candidate location

Portland, OR - last location on the list – too far as most of the teams sit in East Coast

Travel Requirements :

Occasional domestic and international travel for training, site visits, and team-building activities (approximately 15%).

Once a month travel à for 2-3 nights visiting data centers

Reimbursement travels will be via beeline

Travel anywhere within the US

Responsibilities :

Collect and organize construction cost data for future projects and benchmarking.

Validate and standardize historical construction cost data for integration into internal databases.

Develop unit prices based on quick take-offs and historical costs.

Research and analyze construction cost trends through published sources, local market conditions, and studies.

Assess macro-economic trends to forecast construction costs for medium- and long-term planning.

Collaborate with Preconstruction Managers to enhance associate experience and improve database and templates.

30% of their time will be spent in cost data collection – to build the estimate, benchmarking, understanding numbers, and cost database

30% of all those costs into creating a template, estimating future projects based

30% training and managing this program- support preconstruction managers and have them do the estimates

Basic Qualifications :

Minimum 5 years of experience in a general contractor role, specializing in both conceptual and hard bid estimates.

Proven experience in developing conceptual estimates for ground-up projects with limited information.

Bachelor’s degree in Quantity Surveying, Construction Management, Construction Engineering, or a related field.

Proficiency in MS Excel and MS Word, with the ability to adapt to new computer systems quickly.

Self-motivated with the ability to learn and execute tasks independently.

Excellent interpersonal skills for effective collaboration with various corporate stakeholders.

Data Center Construction Experience is a plus.

Leadership Principles :

Bias for action, deep dive skills, deliver results, go above and beyond

Interview process :

3 rounds of interview; initial round 30 minutes with sunny and last 2 rounds with his peers

Behavioural questions, about their resumes, conceptual estimates, their large scale projects, ground-up projects, excel, utilizing unit prices

Company Description

Collabera is a Global Digital Solutions Company providing Software Engineering Solutions for the world's most tech-forward organizations in the areas of Engineering, Cloud and Data / AI. With its roots serving the engineering needs of the world's most recognized businesses in Technology, Financial Services, Telecom and Healthcare, Collabera today operates across 60 locations in 11 countries, serves 30% of the Fortune 500, and has exceeded the industry growth rate by 3-4x for several years.

Company Description

Salary : $60 - $62

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