Cost Estimating Manager

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, support, and develop the estimating team while ensuring accuracy, accountability, and production goals are met.
• Oversee construction estimates, scopes of work, and change order pricing.
• Review and interpret engineering plans, specifications, surveys, and construction documents.
• Translate engineering, design, and field requirements into accurate cost estimates, budgets, and scopes of work.
• Validate labor, material, subcontractor, equipment, and production costs.
• Ensure estimates comply with contract requirements, approved pricing structures, client standards, and program guidelines.
• Manage change order review, pricing justification, documentation, and tracking.
• Drive estimating efficiency through process improvement, standardized templates, reporting visibility, and quality control.
• Collaborate with pre-construction, construction managers, project management, and operations teams to support project execution and forecasting.
• Maintain estimating tools, pricing databases, tracking systems, and KPI reporting.
• Monitor estimator workload, performance, turnaround times, and estimate accuracy.
• Identify cost trends, pricing gaps, scope issues, and opportunities for improved estimating consistency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Business, or related field preferred; equivalent experience will be considered.
• Previous leadership experience managing estimating teams or construction-related staff.
• Strong understanding of residential construction, reconstruction, repair scopes, and change order management.
• Experience preparing, reviewing, and validating construction cost estimates.
• Proficiency with Xactimate, Microsoft Excel, and construction cost analysis.
• Able to read and interpret plans, specifications, scopes of work, surveys, and field documentation.
• Strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to work cross-functionally with internal teams, clients, and subcontractors.
• High level of accountability, accuracy, and attention to detail.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with CDBG-DR, FEMA, HUD, or other disaster recovery programs.
• Experience with manufactured housing, residential reconstruction, site-built homes, or storm recovery construction.
• Familiarity with government-funded construction programs, compliance requirements, and client-approved pricing structures.
• Experience building estimating processes, tracking systems, or KPI reporting tools.
• Background working with subcontractor pricing, production schedules, and field-based construction operations.