Senior Procurement Engineer

Senior Procurement Engineer

Clayco is a full-service, turnkey real estate development, master planning, architecture, engineering, and construction firm that safely delivers clients across North America the highest quality solutions on time, on budget, and above and beyond expectations. With $8.1 billion in revenue for 2025, Clayco specializes in the "art and science of building," providing fast track, efficient solutions for mission critical, industrial, life sciences, power & energy, aviation, commercial, institutional, residential and sports & entertainment related building projects.

The Senior Procurement Engineer will have real field experience, strong character, and the drive to build something that outlasts any individual project. You have walked job sites, managed contracts through execution, and been accountable for commercial outcomes. You take ownership without being asked, bring solutions rather than problems, share what you know, and get better with every project. You are energized by an incomplete system, not unsettled by it. As this team grows and the function matures, the people who helped build the foundation will be best positioned to grow with it. What we ask in return is genuine ownership, consistent follow-through, and a commitment to making the team and the work better over time. We want out of the box thinkers who know how to partner with other teams, while also being the consistency, process, and standard holders. The voice of risk and reason, and equally the voice of solution and teamwork.

This role is hired into a specific segment; we are looking for 8+ years of direct experience across Compute, Data Center, Industrial, Process, Energy, High Rise, MEP, or General construction with the subcontractors, scopes, and commercial outcomes that come with it.

The Specifics of the Role

• Own cost tracking from first bid through executed subcontract; maintain a live view of committed, awarded, and pending values against the project budget so that cost exposure is visible at every stage of buyout
• Reconcile subcontract values against the GMP on a scope-by-scope basis; identify and communicate variances early so that the project team can make informed decisions before commitments are locked
• Build and maintain the basis-of-cost file for every awarded scope: unit rates, allowances, exclusions, alternates, and the documented rationale behind each negotiated value
• Assess the cost impact of every change event before routing it for approval; distinguish between true scope additions, gaps in the original bid, and subcontractor commercial plays, and price each accordingly
• Track cost-to-complete across your scopes throughout execution; flag cost trends, emerging overruns, and rebuy risk to the project team before they become realized losses
• Support Owner-facing cost reporting for sole-sourced and design-assist scopes; ensure open-book documentation is accurate, current, and defensible at every review

Procurement Execution

• Build and release complete bid packages using the standardized Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); lead leveling, gap analysis, negotiation, and award so every scope enters the field with a clear, defensible commercial foundation
• Own the basis-of-cost defense through Negotiation Approval; facilitate open-book pricing reviews with the Owner for sole-sourced design-assist scopes
• Complete the Contract Attachments Checklist per scope before Award Approval and ensure Owner Liquidated Damages flow down to every subcontract scope that drives the relevant milestone
• Assemble executed subcontract packages with correct exhibits, flowdowns, and insurance; identify and resolve cycle time delays before they affect the project schedule

Contract Management

• Manage subcontracts through the full execution lifecycle so that performance issues, compliance gaps, and commercial deviations are surfaced and resolved before they become project-level problems
• Monitor subcontract cost obligations through execution: track payment applications against the schedule of values, flag billing anomalies, and ensure amounts certified align with work in place
• Own post-execution compliance tracking so subcontractors arrive ready to work and nothing critical is outstanding
• Own change management for your scopes: assess each event against enterprise rules (change order, new contract, or rebuy), price the cost impact independently before negotiating, and maintain fallback bidder lists so that a sub failure or GMP rejection does not stop the project

Field Credibility and Constructability

• Engage directly with field teams during preconstruction and buyout; attend site walks and constructability reviews as an active contributor who brings procurement perspective to buildability conversations
• Identify sequencing constraints, design gaps, and safe-to-build risks at the bid package level before they generate change orders in the field
• Facilitate clean Estimating-to-Operations handoffs by documenting assumptions, clarifications, vendor exceptions, and open items so that hard-won precon knowledge is not lost at the transition

Team and Enterprise Contribution

• Bring solutions to the team, not just status: when a buyout is struggling or a process is not working, diagnose the root cause and propose a specific fix rather than flagging the problem and moving on
• Maintain and enforce WBS templates, scope libraries, bid tools, and QA checklists; when you find something outdated or missing, update it rather than working around it
• Support struggling buyouts enterprise-wide by resetting strategy and aligning teams; serve as a technical SME for complex scopes, design-assist transitions, and rebuy events
• Treat every buyout cycle as a source of institutional knowledge; capture lessons learned and translate them into updates that make the next project easier for everyone on the team

Requirements

• 8+ years of procurement, estimating, or construction management experience on large-scale commercial, industrial, or mission-critical projects
• Direct, hands-on experience in your market segment with scopes you have procured, subcontractors you have managed, and commercial outcomes you have owned
• Demonstrated experience managing subcontracts through full execution: change management, performance monitoring, and closeout
• Direct experience with project cost management: buyout reconciliation against GMP, cost-to-complete tracking, change order pricing, and Owner-facing cost reporting
• Direct negotiation experience at $5M or more per scope with the ability to build and defend a basis-of-cost file
• Meaningful site presence and constructability experience; procurement decisions informed by direct knowledge of how work gets built
• Working command of contract structure: WBS format, scope exhibits, LD language, flowdown clauses, and QCS-format subcontracts
• Proficiency in BuildingConnected or equivalent, Procore, and Excel for WBS-format bid leveling
• A track record of improving processes, not just running them

Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Business, or Supply Chain preferred. Equivalent field experience considered. CCM, CPP, or CPSM a plus.

Some Things You Should Know

• Our clients and projects are nationwide Travel will be required.
• No other builder can offer the collaborative design-build approach that Clayco does.
• We work on creative, complex, award-winning, high-profile jobs.
• The pace is fast!

Why Clayco?

• 2025 Best Places to Work St. Louis Business Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, and Phoenix Business Journal.
• 2025 ENR Midwest Midwest Contractor (#1).
• 2025 ENR Top 100 Design-Build Firms Design-Build Contractor (Top 5).
• 2025 ENR Top 100 Green Contractors Green Contractor (Top 3).
• 2025 ENR Top 25 Data Center Builders Data Center Contractor (Top 3).

Benefits

• Discretionary Annual Bonus: Subject to company and individual performance.
• Comprehensive Benefits Package Including: Medical, dental and vision plans, 401k, generous PTO and paid company holidays, employee assistance program, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, disability coverage, learning & development programs and more!

Compensation

• The salary range for this position considers a wide range of factors in making compensation decisions including but not limited to: Education, qualifications, skills, training, experience, certifications, internal equity, and location. Compensation decisions