Superintendent

Job Description

Job Description

THE OPPORTUNITY

FCL Builders, a 50-year-old, employee-owned national contractor built around industrial distribution, cold storage, and data center construction, is bringing field leadership into the Kansas City market for the first time. As Project Superintendent, you will run the job site day to day: directing subcontractors and trades, managing the schedule in the field, enforcing safety and quality, and serving as FCL's face on site for owners and design teams. You'll work in close partnership with a Project Manager, on projects that are big-box and big-box-adjacent by design, ranging from industrial warehousing to cold storage to data centers.

FCL does not have a physical office in Kansas City yet. The team is being stood up now as part of a deliberate expansion into a market where FCL already has active project work, which means you'd be one of the first field leaders establishing FCL's presence and reputation there. Superintendents at FCL are expected to be genuinely open to travel. Depending on the project, that can mean an extended stretch on site followed by time at home, particularly on data center builds that require sustained on-site coverage. You'll stay tethered to one of FCL's offices and its team and culture, even while the job site moves.

WHY THIS ROLE

Real Ownership, Not Just a Paycheck

FCL is 100 percent employee-owned. The people running the jobs have an actual stake in how the company performs, not a distant shareholder collecting the upside. Build here, and you're building something you genuinely own a piece of, not just billing hours toward someone else's balance sheet.

Built for Road Warriors, Not Burnout

You've probably heard about the mega data center campuses going up in the middle of nowhere that keep crews housed for months or years at a stretch. FCL is deliberate about not doing that to its field leaders. At roughly 250 people across 11 offices, you stay tethered to a team and an office, not parked indefinitely on a remote megasite.

Fit Over a Perfect Resume

FCL has walked away from technically excellent superintendents who turned out to be drama filled and not supporting of a strong work site, and would rather develop someone who is a genuine team player. If you'd rather roll up your sleeves and earn trust in the field than lean on a title, this is a company that notices and rewards it.

THE COMPANY

FCL Builders was founded in Chicago 50 years ago and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. What started as a Chicago and Midwest general contractor has grown into an 11-office national, employee-owned platform, with locations including Dallas, Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Irvine, Sacramento, Tampa, Houston, and Columbus. Across its history, FCL has completed more than 1,200 projects and built over 625 million square feet of industrial space nationwide, with a 97 percent customer retention rate.

Everything FCL builds is big-box or big-box-adjacent. The company's bread and butter is industrial distribution and warehousing; roughly a decade ago it built a specialty in cold storage construction, work it continues today for clients like Dot Foods; and over the past five years it has expanded into data center construction, growing alongside enterprise clients such as Edged. FCL does not build high-rises, apartments, or bridges. Projects are staffed as cross-functional "One FCL" teams rather than siloed by region, so a job site gets support from expertise across the whole company.

FCL is employee-owned and intentionally stays small and nimble, with roughly 250 people across its 11 offices. That size means everyone, including project executives, is expected to roll up their sleeves, and it is also why FCL has passed on technically strong superintendents who did not fit the culture, preferring to develop someone with the right attitude on site over a flawless resume. Every new hire outside Chicago is flown into FCL's headquarters for an immersive three-day orientation covering company history and culture, a job site visit, introductions to the project teams and leadership, and social time with the broader team, so no one starts on an island.

WHAT THE ROLE ENTAILS

Pre-Construction Setup: Review the contract, drawings, and subcontractor scopes; complete the job set-up checklist, site logistics plan, and any required SWPPP, ICRA, or ILSM documentation; and coordinate with the local municipality on inspections and occupancy.

Daily Field Execution: Orchestrate the build from groundbreak to completion, coordinate construction activities for scheduling purposes, and keep daily logs and progress photos accurate and current.

Schedule & Issue Management: Flag anything that will meaningfully affect the schedule to your Project Manager early, and document field issues along with who is responsible for resolving them.

Team & Trade Relationships: Chair weekly project construction meetings, meet daily with subcontractors on the day's plan, and build effective working relationships with owners, owner's reps, and building staff.

Safety Leadership: Enforce PPE, fall protection, and all site safety policies; keep the site clean and organized; and maintain construction barriers, security, and building regulations around noise and access.

Quality Control: Verify drawing measurements against actual field conditions, catch discrepancies early, and work with the project team to correct them before they compound.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

First 90 Days:

• Complete FCL's three-day Chicago orientation, including a job site visit and introductions across the project teams
• Fully set up on your assigned project: logistics plan, permits, subcontractor scopes, and job set-up checklist complete
• Running daily subcontractor huddles and weekly site meetings independently
• Established a clear communication rhythm with your Project Manager

First 180 Days:

• Track record of clean, accurate daily logs and progress photos with no gaps
• Recognized by subcontractors and the owner's representative as the clear authority on site
• Clean safety record on your job site, with proactive enforcement rather than after-the-fact correction
• Identified and resolved at least one significant field issue before it affected the schedule

First 365 Days:

• Delivered, or clearly on pace to deliver, a project on schedule with a low punch list count
• Recognized as someone FCL can put on its most demanding job sites, including data center builds
• Built subcontractor and owner relationships strong enough to follow you to your next project
• Established as a go-to, road-ready field leader within your region

WHAT YOU BRING

Required :

• High school diploma or GED
• Minimum of 10 years of project supervision experience in industrial or large commercial construction
• Extensive knowledge of scheduling, cost control, and safety procedures
• Ability to lift, carry, or move objects up to 50 lbs, and to work in varied physical positions and job-site conditions
• Willingness and ability to travel as project needs require (up to 75+%)

Nice to have:

• OSHA 30-Hour certification
• Intermediate to advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office, including Microsoft Project
• Prior experience on data center, cold storage, or other mission-critical builds

Qualities that lead to success here:

• Ownership: Takes charge of the job site and creates structure rather than waiting for direction
• Road-Ready: Genuinely open to travel and flexible about where the next project takes you
• Proactive: Flags problems early and shows up with a solution already in hand
• Team Player: Leads by working alongside subs and crews, not just directing from the trailer
• Detail-Driven: Keeps logs, measurements, and punch lists tight enough that nothing slips through

WHO THRIVES HERE

FCL is looking for field leaders who want to build, not just supervise from a distance.

• You've supervised industrial or large commercial projects for 10-plus years and can run a site with minimal oversight
• You're genuinely open to travel and comfortable being the road warrior on a project team
• You'd rather solve a field problem than write a memo about it
• You want in on some of the most in-demand, technically complex builds in the industry, including data centers and cold storage
• You take pride in a clean site, a tight punch list, and a subcontractor base that respects you

This isn't the right seat for someone who wants a fully local, single-site role with no travel, or someone looking for authority on a job site without doing the daily, hands-on work of a superintendent.

THE SEAT IN SUMMARY

This is a chance to be one of FCL's first field leaders in a brand-new market, running some of the most in-demand project types in commercial construction today.

• Ground-floor role in FCL's Kansas City market entry
• Direct line into fast-growing data center and cold storage project work
• Backed by an 11-office national platform and a three-day immersive onboarding
• A field-first role where your judgment and hustle drive the outcome