Job Description
Job Description
Project Estimator — High-End Custom Residential
Location: San Francisco, CA (onsite)
Employment type: Full time
Compensation: $140,000–$170,000 per year, based on experience
Reports to: Director of Preconstruction
About the company
Our client is a well-established San Francisco Bay Area general contractor with more than 25 years of experience building complex, architect-designed custom homes. Their projects carry high design standards, exacting detail and difficult site conditions, and are built in close partnership with some of the Bay Area's most respected architecture firms. The team works on an open-book, cloud-based process and continues to care for homes after handover.
The role
The Project Estimator leads cost work in preconstruction and supports budget control once construction starts. You prepare budgets at Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents and value engineering stages, for both negotiated and hard-bid work. The role calls for a highly qualified estimator who knows what high-end custom homes really cost and can explain every number to owners and architects.
What you'll do
- Review incoming estimate requests and advise leadership on feasibility
- Build vendor and subcontractor bid lists and manage the bid calendar
- Perform quantity take-offs in Bluebeam, PlanGrid or similar
- Solicit, qualify and level subcontractor and supplier bids
- Build conceptual, preliminary and detailed estimates from take-offs, quotes and unit costs
- Set line-item contingencies where documents are incomplete or unclear
- Write clear assumptions, exclusions, clarifications and allowances
- Visit sites to capture conditions that affect cost
- Lead value engineering with the owner and architect
- Submit RFIs to clarify bid documents and flag omissions to the project team
- Support early schedules, construction sequencing and risk reviews
- Track budgets on active projects, price changes, and route change orders to the PM
- Build and maintain strong subcontractor relationships
What you bring
- 5+ years of construction estimating, with deep high-end custom residential experience
- Bachelor's degree in construction management or equivalent experience
- Advanced Excel; proficiency in Bluebeam and/or PlanGrid, and Procore
- Ability to build an accurate estimate, budget and schedule and explain it clearly
- Strong negotiation skills with subcontractors and suppliers
- A high standard for accuracy and follow-through
- Willingness to travel to job sites
What we look for
Sound judgment, integrity, respect for every person on the project, a team-first approach, honest communication, and real pride in craftsmanship.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, vision and life insurance
- Flexible spending accounts (health and dependent care)
- Accrued vacation and sick time
- Ten paid holidays
- 401(k)
- Cell phone reimbursement
Our client is an equal opportunity employer.