Estimator

The Opportunity

This is the seat where Tideview's heavy civil division gets built — and the person who fills it is expected to grow into leading it.

You will own preconstruction end to end: soliciting and leveling subcontractor and supplier pricing, running takeoffs, assembling bids in B2W Estimate, HeavyBid or Hard Dollar, and tracking every opportunity from advertisement through award. The work spans both sides of this market — public infrastructure for FDOT, county and municipal owners, and private commercial and multi-family site development for developers and general contractors. You will report directly to the President of Tideview Construction Group — no layers, no filtered information, a direct line to the person making the go/no-go call on every job we chase.

That access is the point. Estimators who can price storm, utility, roadway and commercial site development work accurately and then stand behind those numbers in the field are the people who become Chief Estimators, Preconstruction Managers and Division Presidents. We are hiring for that arc deliberately, not as a consolation for a long tenure. As the division grows, the person who priced the work and helped buy it out is the natural candidate to run it.

Location: St. Augustine, FL corporate office (on-site)
Reports to: President, Tideview Construction Group
Type: Full-time, exempt

Position Summary

The Heavy Civil Estimator owns the preconstruction process for storm drainage, underground utility, roadway, commercial and multi-family site development projects from bid advertisement through buyout and handoff to operations.

Day to day, that means reading plans and specifications, developing quantities and takeoffs, soliciting and qualifying subcontractor and supplier proposals, building crew- and production-based unit costs in bidding software, and assembling complete, competitive bids. After award, you stay with the job through buyout — writing scopes, locking in pricing, and supporting senior field leadership with submittals, design changes, delivery coordination and payment requisitions.

This is not a back-office pricing role. You will be in the plans, on the phone with vendors, in the trailer with superintendents, and in the room when Tideview decides which work to chase.

Preconstruction and Estimating

• Review plans, specifications, geotechnical reports, permits and contract documents to identify scope, exclusions, constructability issues and risk before pricing begins
• Perform and assist with quantity takeoffs for storm drainage, water and sewer, roadway, earthwork, grading, paving, MOT and site restoration
• Estimate commercial and multi-family site development packages — mass and fine grading, building pads, wet and dry utilities, storm systems and ponds, parking lots and drive aisles, curb and sidewalk, hardscape and site concrete
• Build estimates in B2W Estimate, HCSS HeavyBid or Hard Dollar using crew compositions, equipment spreads and production rates — not lump-sum guesswork
• Solicit, log and level subcontractor and supplier quotations; confirm scope coverage, unit pricing, escalation, lead times and bonding capacity
• Develop and maintain a historical cost database from completed jobs so that unit pricing reflects what Tideview actually produces in the field
• Price general conditions, indirect costs, equipment, temporary works, dewatering, sheeting and shoring, testing, and site-specific risk allowances
• Prepare quantity and pricing comparisons against the owner's engineer's estimate and against prior bid history for the same agency or developer
• Attend pre-bid meetings and site visits; document existing conditions, access constraints, utility conflicts, staging and haul routes
• Issue and respond to RFIs during the bid period and incorporate addenda and revised civil plan sets into the estimate before bid close
• Recommend alternates, value engineering and means-and-methods changes that improve competitiveness without transferring unpriced risk to Tideview — a lever that matters especially on negotiated private work

Bid Management and Tracking

• Own the bid calendar: monitor FDOT, county, municipal, utility authority and private plan rooms, and field invitations to bid from developers and general contractors on commercial and multi-family projects, for work that fits Tideview's capabilities and prequalification
• Maintain the bid log — project, owner, engineer, bid date, estimated value, go/no-go decision, bid amount, apparent low bidder and spread — and report status to the President on a standing cadence
• Prepare and present go/no-go recommendations that weigh backlog, crew availability, geography, competition, bonding and margin potential
• Assemble complete bid packages: bid bonds, qualification statements, DBE/MBE participation forms, unit price schedules, acknowledgment of addenda and all owner-required forms
• Run bid day — collect and level late quotes, update the estimate, finalize markup with the President, and submit on time and error-free
• Conduct post-bid analysis on every job: compare Tideview's number against the bid tabulation line by line, identify where we were high or low, and feed that back into the cost database
• Track conversion rate, average spread and margin by work type and by owner so the division chases the work it actually wins
• Maintain prequalification status and renewals with FDOT and other awarding agencies

Buyout and Project Support

Award is the beginning of this role's involvement, not the end of it. The estimator who priced the job carries the intent of that estimate into execution.

• Lead the buyout phase: convert bid-day quotes into executed subcontracts and purchase orders with airtight scope, schedule, insurance and retainage terms
• Negotiate final pricing on material, pipe, structures, aggregate, site concrete and specialty subcontracts; confirm quantities, delivery windows and price-hold periods
• Conduct the estimate-to-operations turnover: walk the project team through the bid assumptions, production rates, crew build-ups, quantities, allowances and known risks
• Support senior field leadership with submittals and shop drawings, tracking review status against procurement lead times
• Verify design changes and plan revisions against the contract quantities; identify and price change orders, extra work and differing site conditions early
• Coordinate material deliveries against the schedule so crews are not waiting on pipe, structures or aggregate
• Assist with monthly payment requisitions — quantity verification, stored materials, subcontractor pay applications and lien waivers
• Participate in job cost reviews with the President and field leadership, comparing actual production and cost against the estimate

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Civil Engineering or a related field — or a minimum of five years of progressive heavy civil estimating experience in lieu of a degree
• Demonstrated command of storm drainage, underground utility and roadway bidding — you can price a drainage structure schedule, a water and sewer run and a roadway typical section without supervision
• Exposure to commercial and multi-family site development bidding — grading, site utilities, ponds, parking and site concrete priced off a civil plan set rather than an agency pay item list
• Hands-on experience producing complete bids in commercial estimating software
• Fluency in reading civil plans, cross sections, profiles, details and technical specifications
• Working knowledge of public bidding procedures — addenda, bid bonds, unit price contracts, DBE participation, prequalification and award protest windows — and of private bid formats, including lump sum proposals, developer bid forms and AIA or ConsensusDocs subcontract terms
• Proficiency in quantity takeoff — digital takeoff software and the judgment to sanity-check what the software reports
• Strong Excel skills and comfort building and auditing cost models
• Ability to manage several bids with overlapping deadlines and deliver each one complete and on time
• Valid driver's license and willingness to travel to project sites, pre-bid meetings and site visits within the region
• Able to walk active construction sites and job corridors in Florida field conditions

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Construction Management or Civil Engineering
• Direct experience in B2W Estimate, HCSS HeavyBid or Hard Dollar (now InEight Estimate) — these are the tools this role runs on
• FDOT/Public experience: Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction,
• Private development experience — bidding site packages to national and regional multi-family developers, commercial general contractors, retail and industrial owners, and working through site plan approval, SJRWMD and local environmental permitting conditions
• Northeast Florida market knowledge — St. Johns, Duval, Flagler, Clay and Putnam counties, plus JEA, St. Johns County Utility Department and municipal utility standards
• Established subcontractor and supplier relationships in the region
• Familiarity with digital takeoff platforms (Agtek, InSite, Trimble Business Center, Bluebeam Revu)
• Experience estimating in a growing division where the estimator also shaped process, templates and cost libraries

Pay: $85,000.00 - $170,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person

Salary : $85,000 - $170,000