Senior Manager, Construction Operations

About the role

Fortis Fire & Safety is seeking a Senior Manager, Construction Operations to own project financial performance across our contracting branches. This is a high-accountability, field-rooted leadership role built around one core discipline: ensuring that every project we sell is executed at or above its estimated margin — and that when a project begins to slip, we identify it early, understand why, and correct it fast.

Responsibilities

• Own the slip/gain/fade management framework across all branches — establish, implement, and continuously improve how Fortis tracks, reports, and responds to project margin variance.
• Drive weekly cost-at-completion forecasting disciplines; ensure Project Managers are actively comparing actual vs. estimated labor hours, material costs, and subcontract commitments on every active project.
• Define and enforce early warning indicators for project margin erosion: labor overruns, procurement delays, change order backlog, schedule slippage, and billing lag.
• Lead structured project reviews (kickoff, mid-project, and closeout) with a consistent focus on financial performance, root cause analysis of variance, and corrective action accountability.
• Analyze gain/fade patterns across the portfolio to identify systemic estimating, procurement, or execution issues — and translate findings into process corrections.
• Partner with Finance to ensure project financial reporting is timely, accurate, and decision-ready.
• Oversee construction project planning and execution across all branches to ensure projects are properly staffed, scheduled, resourced, and coordinated from award through closeout.
• Develop and enforce standardized project startup procedures: verify scope alignment, confirm labor and material budgets, establish project schedule milestones, and set performance baselines before work begins.
• Ensure field teams are executing in accordance with contract requirements, safety standards, and customer commitments — and that project managers are proactively managing risk, not reacting to it.
• Facilitate coordination across estimating, design, fabrication, procurement, and field operations to eliminate execution breakdowns that drive cost and schedule overruns.
• Conduct operational site visits and project audits to assess execution quality, labor productivity, and schedule adherence in the field.
• Develop and implement standardized operating procedures, project controls, and performance expectations across all Fortis branch locations.
• Drive operational consistency while accommodating branch-specific market conditions and business needs.
• Serve as the company’s primary subject matter expert for sprinkler contracting operations, construction best practices, and project execution.
• Collaborate with executive leadership to align operational strategy with Fortis’s growth objectives and M&A integration needs.
• Partner with branch leadership to assess staffing capacity, forecast labor demand, and align workforce deployment with backlog and project pipeline.
• Establish clear performance expectations and accountability structures for Project Managers and field operations teams.
• Mentor and develop Project Managers and Operations Managers, building a bench of leaders capable of executing projects at Fortis’s performance standards.
• Work with Human Resources to identify talent gaps and support targeted recruiting, onboarding, and development efforts.
• Support branch leaders in achieving revenue, margin, and productivity targets; identify and escalate underperformance early with specific corrective action plans.
• Partner with Finance and Operations leadership to improve forecasting accuracy, cost control, and backlog management discipline.
• Drive initiatives that improve labor efficiency, subcontract performance, and overall project profitability across the portfolio.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in the sprinkler contracting or fire protection industry, with direct accountability for project financial performance.
• Demonstrated expertise in slip/gain/fade management and cost-at-completion analysis in fire sprinkler contracting environment.
• Proven track record managing multi-branch or multi-region construction operations.
• Deep working knowledge of sprinkler system construction, labor productivity management, subcontract management, scheduling, and project controls.
• Strong financial acumen: able to read and act on project cost reports, earned value data, and branch P&L.
• Experience developing and deploying standardized operational processes and performance management systems across multiple locations.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills; credible with field teams and executive leadership alike.
• Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Business, or related field; equivalent industry experience considered.

Preferred Qualifications

• NICET certification or other relevant fire protection industry certifications.
• Experience with ERP, project management, and construction management software platforms.
• Leverage of Lean Construction, Six Sigma, or other process improvement training and application in a field operations context.
• Experience supporting PE-backed or rapid-growth organizations through M&A integration and operational scaling.

Pay

$110,000 - $130,000 USD

Schedule

This role is based in Schaumburg, IL but has a Multi-State Scope. The ideal candidate is deeply fluent in the field realities of sprinkler contracting — labor productivity, subcontract management, material procurement, and schedule execution — and brings that fluency to bear in driving measurable improvement in project outcomes across all branches.