Manager, Preconstruction Estimating & Planning

About Us:

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Divcon delivers fully integrated automation solutions nationwide that optimize performance, energy efficiency, and reliability across HVAC, lighting, power monitoring, and mission-critical systems. Leveraging advanced technologies - including Allen-Bradley PLCs, Ignition SCADA, and Delta DDC systems - we combine deep technical expertise with field-tested execution to deliver precise, scalable, and high-performance solutions.

About the role:

The Manager, Preconstruction Estimating & Planning is responsible for developing accurate quantity surveying, cost, resource, labor, material, and schedule assumptions to support Divcon sales bids and early preconstruction planning. This role partners with Sales to understand customer needs, bid requirements, and scope expectations, then coordinates with internal business partners to determine the resources, materials, engineering effort, programming effort, panel build requirements, procurement lead times, and field labor needed to support proposed work.

This role serves as the responsible estimating and planning partner for pre-award opportunities, ensuring bid inputs are complete, realistic, and aligned with internal execution capabilities. The Manager, Preconstruction Estimating & Planning does not own final sales strategy or full project execution, but provides the quantity surveying, cost, resource, and operational planning intelligence needed to support customer proposals and improve the transition from sales opportunity to project delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Sales to understand customer needs, bid requirements, project scope, technical expectations, site conditions, and proposed delivery timelines.
• Lead quantity surveying and develop comprehensive cost estimates for labor, materials, equipment, panel building, engineering, programming, subcontractor support, travel, and other project-related requirements.
• Build resource estimates that identify the quantity, type, level, and timing of support needed from Field Operations, Engineering, Programming, Panel Shop, Procurement, QA/QC, and other internal teams.
• Evaluate customer specifications, drawings, narratives, bills of quantities, schedules of values, sales feedback, and technical requirements to identify scope assumptions, exclusions, risks, and execution impacts.
• Coordinate with Engineering to estimate design effort, design schedule, drawing requirements, technical review needs, and lead times required to generate design specifications and project documentation.
• Coordinate with Programming and SCADA or controls teams to estimate programming hours, system complexity, testing requirements, integration needs, and sequencing considerations.
• Partner with Procurement, Engineering, and Panel Shop teams to validate material requirements, vendor pricing, long-lead items, component availability, panel build timelines, and ordering constraints.
• Lead bid leveling and commercial evaluation of supplier and subcontractor quotations, normalizing scope, pricing, qualifications, exclusions, and commercial terms to support complete and comparable bid inputs.
• Develop and maintain a documented basis of estimate for each opportunity, including scope boundaries, quantity takeoffs, pricing sources, productivity assumptions, escalation, allowances, contingency, exclusions, and estimate maturity.
• Incorporate internal lead times, resource availability, material procurement timelines, historical productivity, and execution constraints into bid assumptions and preconstruction planning inputs.
• Identify estimating gaps, ambiguous scope items, customer requirement risks, resource constraints, and schedule concerns before bids are finalized.
• Maintain preconstruction cost and risk registers, evaluate cost and schedule exposure, and recommend appropriate allowances or contingency based on the level of scope definition and identified project risks.
• Lead constructability, value engineering, and lifecycle cost reviews with technical and operational stakeholders to identify practical alternatives that improve cost, schedule, quality, and execution outcomes without compromising customer requirements.
• Prepare clear estimate summaries, resource assumptions, planning notes, and handoff documentation for Sales, Operations, Engineering, Programming, Procurement, and Panel Shop stakeholders.
• Facilitate internal estimating reviews to confi