Airoom, Chicagoland’s premier design/build firm, is seeking a highly experienced Director of Procurement and Estimating. This position is responsible for managing the Purchasing Department staff, who complete material takeoffs from construction drawings (blueprints) and handle purchasing activities to support the construction teams and logistics process.
Additional responsibilities include training staff, managing cross-department communication, and coordinating with vendors and subcontractors to identify and remove barriers that could delay project progress, thereby enhancing client satisfaction. The Director must have extensive experience in vendor management, negotiation, pricing and discount structures, logistics, displays, cooperative advertising agreements, and warranty support.
Airoom projects typically involve twelve to fifteen individual subcontractors and ten to fifteen material vendors to complete fieldwork. The Purchasing Department is responsible for performing takeoffs for all trades and vendors as accurately as possible, thoroughly reviewing plans, and determining the most efficient use of materials and labor.
Experience in managing multiple projects simultaneously, along with strong scheduling and progress reporting skills, is essential for collaboration with other departments in Airoom’s design/build process, known as S.T.A.R.T. The department must deliver four to five fully estimated, purchased, and confirmed projects per week to the Field Production Department, while also supporting daily and weekly change orders from field staff.
Procurement
- Jobs sent to the field
- Issuance of all purchase orders & work orders as well as required field change orders.
- Vendor negotiations and management
- Overall agreements and job negotiations
- Co-op advertising agreements
- Subcontractor negotiations and management
- Purchasing data base maintenance
- Job cost accounting
- Phased project costs
- Estimates vs. actual by phase
- Project close out review
- Weekly production and project reports
- Implementation & maintaining take-off and purchasing standards
- P&L responsibility
Estimating
- Oversee all cost estimation activities within an organization.
- Support sales and development team for custom pricing needed to sell projects and changes made during development.
- Develop departmental strategies and integrate cost management solutions.
- Ensure all cost estimates align with the company's financial objectives and standards. Protecting profitability and margin
Customer Service and Integration
- Communication between departments
- Oversee employees within the Purchasing Department and enforces proper implementation and action.
- Inventory management
- Directs, coordinates and resolves inter-departmental issues
- Regular staff reviews and training
Contacts
- Position reports directly to the senior management. Weekly reports are compiled and assembled through regular senior management meetings.
- Direct interaction with the accounting department to discuss and analyze profitability, budgets, cash flow and percentage of completion.
- Direct interaction with all managers to implement and enforce scheduling for continued production across all related departments.
- Contact Sales Manager, Architectural Manager, Project Managers, SVP of Operations and Production Managers to resolve issues regarding design, pricing and project development and to answer questions related to production procedures.
Position Requirements
Technical Requirements
- Broad-based construction industry knowledge across multiple processes and disciplines
- Working knowledge of CRM, estimating software, scheduling software and related systems, techniques and components for departmental and individual reporting
- Ability to manage, maintain and update estimating and purchasing software as required and understand the creation of construction estimating assemblies for labor and materials and unit pricing.
- Knowledge of construction industry standards and building techniques
- Negotiating annual programs with material vendors and subcontractors.
Managerial Experience Requirements
- Five years of management and experience with hiring, training and managing staffing needs and workflows.
- Direct successful managerial experience with employees in a service organization.
- Successful background in motivating employees and directing teams of people to a common goal.
- Ability to interview, train and lead a diverse group of employees, vendors and subcontractors to successful completion of multiple simultaneous construction projects
- Ability to manage and control groups of people at meetings and functions
Job Type: Full-time
