What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Preconstruction position at Cella Building Company?
Director of Preconstruction
Cella Building Company | Grand Rapids, MI | Leadership Team
We're looking for the person owners want across the table.
Cella Building Company is a West Michigan design-build and construction management firm focused on adaptive reuse, multifamily, healthcare, and commercial and industrial work. Our clients choose us because we solve problems early. We sit down with an owner, understand what they're trying to accomplish, and come back with a real solution: a concept, a budget, a schedule, and a path to get it built.
We're looking for an experienced construction professional to lead that work. This is a seller-doer role. You'll bring in new clients and opportunities, develop the solution, price it, present it, and take it to a signed contract. Then you'll hand it to our construction team to deliver.
This is not an estimating job, and it's not a pure sales job. It's for someone who has spent a career in Michigan design and construction, has the relationships to show for it, and knows construction well enough to sell only what can actually be built.
What you'll own
• Winning new work. You'll build and use relationships with owners, developers, architects, brokers, and lenders to create opportunities, and you'll lead pursuits from first conversation to contract.
• Solving the client's problem. You'll run discovery meetings, understand the owner's business goals, budget, and schedule, and develop design-build solutions on the spot and in detail.
• Pricing and proposals. You'll develop conceptual through detailed budgets, evaluate subcontractor and vendor pricing, and identify value-engineering opportunities. You'll prepare and present proposals that win.
• Design coordination. You'll work with architects and engineers to shape concept designs that hit the owner's budget, and you'll review documents for constructability and scope gaps.
• Contracts. You'll structure deals across design-build, negotiated, CM, and competitive-bid delivery.
• Handoff. You'll transition awarded projects to operations with a clean scope, budget, and schedule.
• Building the pre-construction team. Today, pre-construction at Cella is led by our CEO and Director of Construction. You'll take ownership of it and grow it over time, adding estimators and designers as the work grows.
• Shaping our growth. You'll partner with business development and the CEO on which markets, clients, and opportunities Cella pursues.
What you'll have behind you
• Business development support to help open doors and maintain relationships
• An experienced construction operations team to deliver what you sell
• In-house civil engineering through Cella Design
• A voice on the leadership team
Who you are
• You have 10 years in commercial construction, with deep preconstruction and estimating experience.
• You have established relationships across the Michigan design and construction community. Owners and architects already call you.
• You're comfortable leading meetings with owners and decision-makers and presenting designs, budgets, and proposals with confidence.
• You know subcontractor and material pricing in this market.
• You understand construction contracts and every major delivery method.
• You'd rather own an outcome than hand off a number.
DBIA Designated Design-Build Professional™ (DBIA-DBP) is strongly preferred. Most of our work is design-build.
Compensation
• Competitive base salary
• Company vehicle and full benefits
• An uncapped share of the gross profit on work you bring in and close
• A path to a long-term stake in the company for the right person
- You'll be paid on what you add. If you're the person who wins the work and knows how to deliver it, there's no ceiling here.