Vice President (Design-Build Construction)

Company

Our client is a privately held design-build general contractor focused on commercial industrial development, with deep expertise in tilt-up concrete construction, ground-up shell buildings, and tenant improvements. The firm operates as the construction arm of a highly active private real estate platform with over 100M SF of assets, partnering closely with its affiliated ownership/development group as well as outside clients to deliver projects from early feasibility and design through construction completion.

Position

The Vice President is a leadership position within a privately held design-build general contracting firm specializing in commercial light industrial development, with core expertise in tilt-up concrete construction, ground-up shell buildings, and tenant improvements. This role collaborates routinely with the President, carrying full operational accountability for a defined geographic district — encompassing business development, preconstruction, design management, construction execution, financial performance, and team leadership. Success in this role is defined as preventing surprises to project stakeholders and delivering projects on schedule and on budget.

The Vice President functions as the quarterback of the design-build process — leading and integrating the efforts of architects, engineers, and specialty consultants from initial space planning and programming, plan check and permit-ready construction documents through construction. This means driving design team coordination, maintaining momentum across disciplines, resolving conflicts between design intent and constructability, and ensuring the overall design-build process moves on schedule and within budget. The ability to lead a design team with authority, clarity, and technical confidence is essential to success in this role.

Responsibilities

Relationships & Stakeholder Management

• Build, manage, and sustain positive, productive long-term relationships with development partners, owner clients, subcontractors, and tenants.
• Serve as the primary point of contact and trusted advisor for client principals throughout all project phases, from feasibility through closeout.
• Foster a collaborative, solutions-oriented culture with subcontractors to support quality execution, schedule adherence, and repeat participation.
• Represent our client at industry events, client meetings, and community engagements to advance brand and business development objectives.

Estimating & Client Proposals

• Prepare conceptual shell, site, and tenant improvement Rough Order of Magnitude estimates to support owner feasibility analysis and site and tenant selection decisions.
• Develop comprehensive budget estimates for design-build and negotiated scopes of work, incorporating all hard and soft costs.
• Lead preparation and coordination of RFPs and manage competitive hard-bid processes as required.
• Review subcontractor and vendor pricing, compile complete proposals, and author qualifications, exclusions, and assumptions to define scope boundaries and mitigate risk.
• Prepare owner potential change orders with full supporting documentation.

Design & Engineering Management

• Lead the overall design-build process, integrating design disciplines, maintaining schedule momentum, and ensuring coordinated, constructable, permit-ready documents are produced on time and within budget.
• Solicit, evaluate, contract, and manage design consultants, engineers, geotechnical professionals, and other specialty consultants.
• Coordinate architectural, structural, civil, MEPF, and specialty disciplines while identifying and resolving conflicts among design intent, tenant requirements, and constructability.
• Review design documents for constructability, value engineering opportunities, and economical solutions consistent with program and project requirements.
• Facilitate design review sessions with ownership groups, tenants, municipalities, and internal stakeholders.

Owner Collaboration, Tenant Coordination & Contract Management

• Maintain frequent interaction with internal development partners, external stakeholders, and tenants throughout preconstruction and construction.
• Own the tenant relationship from space planning and program definition through project delivery, serving as the primary point of contact for tenant communication, coordination, and issue resolution.
• Proactively manage owner and tenant expectations by clearly communicating schedule milestones, design decision deadlines, scope boundaries, and change order implications.
• Keep ownership continuously informed regarding tenant interactions, open items, pending decisions, and developments with potential schedule, cost, or lease implications.
• Lead owner and tenant meetings, prepare agendas and minutes, and manage contract exhibits, change orders, qualifications, exclusions, and contract document lists.

Subcontractor Buyout & Procurement

• Prepare subcontracts with detailed, trade-specific scopes of work.
• Conduct buyout meetings with awarded subcontractors to confirm scope alignment, schedule commitments, and project logistics prior to mobilization.
• Process subcontractor change order requests, evaluate merit, negotiate pricing, and issue subcontractor change orders in a timely manner.
• Maintain buyout logs and procurement trackers to ensure trade packages are contracted, insured, and ready before scheduled start dates.

Schedule Oversight & Management

• Ensure projects are delivered in alignment with owner-committed schedule milestones and lease commencement obligations.
• Prepare preconstruction master schedules covering due diligence, entitlements, technical studies, construction documents, agency approvals, and permitting.
• Develop owner-level CPM construction schedules for shell, on-site and off-site improvements, and tenant improvement projects.
• Prepare and maintain detailed trade-level CPM field schedules and verify superintendent three-week look-ahead schedules against the current field schedule.

Reporting & Document Control

• Review superintendent daily reports for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with project documentation standards.
• Prepare and distribute weekly construction progress reports to project stakeholders.
• Maintain organized, audit-ready project files including contract documents, correspondence, change orders, schedules, drawings, reports, and meeting minutes.
• Lead cost reporting in our client's ERP and maintain project files in construction management software.
• Ensure documentation is current, accessible, and properly archived throughout the project lifecycle and at closeout.

Full-Cycle Development Management

• Manage and partner with development leadership through all aspects of the development process, from land acquisition through project closeout and leasing.
• Coordinate due diligence, including geotechnical, environmental, survey, site feasibility, utility capacity, and development constraint reviews.
• Manage entitlement processing with authorities having jurisdiction and agencies, including design review approvals, plan amendments, conditional use permits, variances, and environmental compliance.
• Coordinate permit-ready construction documents, manage plan check and correction cycles, and diligently track and obtain all required permits.
• Competitively bid projects, prepare GMP proposals with thorough qualifications and exclusions, and collaborate with senior leadership on stakeholder review and approval.
• Oversee field operations from mobilization through final completion, punch list resolution, and certificate of occupancy.

Staff Oversight & Team Leadership

• Provide direct oversight, leadership, mentorship, and performance management for assigned project managers, superintendents, and administrative support.
• Review and approve timecards, time-off requests, and expense reports in accordance with policy and project staffing requirements.
• Conduct regular one-on-ones, check-ins, reviews, and development conversations with direct reports.
• Partner with executive leadership to evaluate staffing needs and lead hiring, onboarding, and offboarding processes for the district team.

Job Cost & Financial Management

• Manage job cost performance versus budget across district projects and conduct regular cost-to-complete forecasting and variance analysis.
• Identify, manage, and report financial risks early and implement corrective actions as needed.
• Oversee accounts payable, including subcontractor pay applications, vendor invoices, and consultant invoices.
• Manage accounts receivable, owner billings, collections, billing dispute resolution, job cost entries, change order logs, and budget revisions.

Property Management Support

• Review third-party tenant improvement plans submitted on behalf of ownership and assess constructability, code compliance, and potential base-building impacts.
• Provide written technical recommendations to property management and ownership on tenant improvement plan review findings.
• Respond to and coordinate resolution of building emergencies or urgent maintenance issues requiring construction expertise.
• Serve as a technical resource to ownership in support of ongoing portfolio asset management needs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Architecture, or a related field preferred; equivalent field experience and progressive commercial general contracting leadership will be considered.
• 10+ years of progressive commercial construction experience, including at least three years in project management or district/regional leadership.
• Demonstrated expertise in ground-up construction, site development, and tenant improvements.
• Deep familiarity with design-build delivery, integrated preconstruction services, design team management, plan check/permitting, construction execution, closeout, and tenant/user turnover.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent projects and project teams.
• Relationships with local subcontractors and municipal governments.
• Proficiency with construction management platforms, scheduling tools, and Microsoft Office; experience with Autodesk, Procore, CMiC, MS Project, or similar tools preferred.
• Strong command of AIA contract documents, design-build agreements, subcontract administration, entitlements, environmental compliance, municipal permitting, and agency coordination.
• Ability to read and interpret geotechnical, civil, architectural, structural, MEP, fire protection, and landscape construction documents at a professional level.

Personal Skills & Attributes

• Exceptional client-facing and tenant-facing communication skills, with the ability to build trust and manage expectations across multiple stakeholders.
• Strong financial acumen and discipline in managing project budgets, job costs, forecasts, risks, and corrective actions.
• Decisive, flexible, and solutions-oriented problem solver capable of managing complex, fast-moving project environments.
• High integrity, professional demeanor, and self-starting approach.
• Demonstrated commitment to delivering quality projects on time and within budget.
• Ability to lead design and construction teams with authority, clarity, and technical confidence.