Lead Project Cost Estimator

About the job Lead Project Cost Estimator


About Us

Triangle DeCon Services Inc. is a boutique full service real estate advisory firm with a focus on project development and construction management for our valued private developers and public organizations in Southern California. We are a young, energetic, ethical, professional, knowledgeable, customer-centric and multilingual team looking to deliver the most value to our clients and build/promote trust with them. Our team consists of licensed Professional Engineers (PE), certified Project Management Professionals (PMP), certified professional with Design Build Institute of America (DBIA), licensed General Building Contractor and other industry designations. We can provide entitlement, development, design, procurement, construction management, project management, expert witness and litigation support services on a variety of building types. Our experienced team have provided these services to successfully deliver various facilities for public school districts, college districts, universities, commercial developers, hospitality owners, multinational CM/PM consultants and other valued clients.

Job Summary

Are you looking to apply your skills and utilize your experience to make a difference in our community? Are you motivated to collaborate with a diverse team of professionals to deliver new projects for our clients? Triangle is waiting for you to join our team!

This is a full-time position with Los Angeles Unified School District.

The ideal candidate is a highly experienced construction cost estimating professional with extensive expertise in budgeting, conceptual estimating, change order analysis, and claims review for large, complex building projects. They possess strong leadership skills, experience supervising estimating teams, and a thorough understanding of construction costs, building systems, and public sector construction practices. This individual is analytical, detail-oriented, and capable of developing accurate, independent cost estimates to support project planning, negotiations, and successful project delivery.

Responsibilities

• Leads and supervises a team of Estimators, including designating daily assignments
• Plans and participates in the preparation of construction cost estimates of buildings or other structures from drawings, outlines, and specifications
• Prepares and reviews cost estimates and forms and other materials submitted to secure State and/or federal grants and loans from school aid programs and represents the district on matters pertinent to securing such funds
• Checks construction cost estimates submitted by commissioned architects and engineers for accuracy and completeness and compares them with District estimates
• Confers with commissioned architects and engineers to resolve differences in their cost estimates and District estimates for each project and negotiates agreements on preliminary estimates of construction costs
• Conducts studies and prepare reports when contractors' bids vary widely from the agreed construction cost estimate
• Checks segregations of contract costs as estimated by building contractors and recommends acceptance or rejection as a basis for progress payments
• Analyzes change orders on construction work under contract and approves or rejects extras or credits submitted
• Prepares or reviews cost estimates for projects
• Establishes and maintains procedures for approval of plans and specifications for building projects and submission of approved projects to public bidding
• Develop methods for maintaining data used in records, charts, and graphs reflecting estimated construction costs compared with actual costs
• Conducts and participates in seminars and workshops with staff and minority contractors relative to school construction bidding procedures, contracts, and cost estimating
• Estimates costs of damages to District property caused by fire, natural disaster, and major acts of vandalism
• Establishes budgets for school building projects
• Assists other branches with related functions
• Prepares preliminary and final independent cost estimates of projects for comparison with designer or contractor for PM/CM to establish negotiating position
• Prepares change order estimates for Owner Authorized Representatives to establish
  negotiating position
• Provides support in price negotiations
• Prepares claim analysis and estimates
• Review of contractor's claims and proposals for merit and accountability
• Performs related duties as assigned

Required Experience:

• Combined Qualifications: Candidates who meet one of the two sets of combined qualifications
  below will be considered for this position:
• A) Fourteen (14) years full-time paid professional experience in the preparation of
  complete cost estimates for major/complex type I, II, or III, and V building
  construction as defined by the State building codes AND
  B) Graduation from a recognized college or university with a bachelor's degree in
  architecture, engineering or construction management AND
  C) Three (3) years of full-time paid experience in supervising estimators AND
  D) Must have worked for a construction cost consulting firm for at least five (5) years
  OR
• A) Twenty (20) or more years solid full-time paid professional experience in the
  preparation of complete cost estimates for major/complex type I, II, or III, and V
  building construction as defined by the State building codes AND
  B) Degree not required AND
  C) Five (5) years of full-time paid experience in supervising estimators AND
  D) Must have worked for a construction cost consulting firm for at least five (5) years

Required Skills:

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written
• Extensive knowledge and experience in developing conceptual and pre-construction cost estimates for complex school building projects
• Ability to prepare cost estimates quickly in a fast- paced working environment
• Knowledge of current local construction labor and material costs
• Extensive experience in developing and estimating the scope of work for change orders
• Ability to compare the independent cost estimate with contractor proposal to quickly identify differences
• Ability to develop scope of work based on RFI/RFC answers and estimates the detailed costs of those scopes of work independent of the contractor proposal