Position Summary
The Construction Estimator – Sales & Business Development is responsible for managing construction opportunities from initial inquiry through qualification, estimating, proposal, contract award, and project handover, while proactively developing relationships that generate new business.
This role combines construction estimating and pre-construction coordination with client-facing sales and targeted business development. The position serves as the first point of contact for incoming project inquiries, develops accurate and profitable estimates, manages prospective clients through the proposal process, and maintains proactive relationships with referral partners, past clients, and target accounts.
The role works closely with clients, project managers, field staff, subcontractors, suppliers, architects, consultants, and other stakeholders to ensure project scope, budgets, risks, schedules, and expectations are clearly defined before construction.
Success requires balancing three core responsibilities within one full-time position: estimating and pre-construction, management and conversion of incoming opportunities, and proactive business development.
Key Responsibilities
1. Lead Management & Opportunity Qualification
· Serve as the first point of contact for incoming residential and commercial project inquiries.
· Respond promptly and professionally to prospective clients.
· Conduct initial discovery to understand project objectives, scope, budget, timelines, decision-making requirements, and client expectations.
· Qualify opportunities based on project fit, feasibility, profitability, company capacity, location, timing, and likelihood of proceeding.
· Recommend whether opportunities should proceed to estimating, require further qualification, or be declined.
· Schedule and conduct quote appointments and site visits as appropriate.
· Maintain accurate records of inquiries, opportunities, follow-ups, proposal status, and next actions within company systems.
· Maintain visibility of the sales pipeline and communicate significant opportunities, risks, and workload requirements to management.
2. Estimating & Cost Development
· Review project plans, drawings, specifications, scopes of work, site information, and other documentation to understand project requirements.
· Perform quantity take-offs for labour, materials, equipment, and subcontracted work.
· Develop accurate project costs including labour, materials, equipment, subcontractors, permits, overhead, contingencies, and required profit margins.
· Obtain and evaluate supplier, vendor, subcontractor, and trade pricing.
· Prepare detailed estimates, budgets, quotations, bid submissions, and client proposals.
· Develop conceptual and preliminary estimates where projects are still in the planning or design stage.
· Evaluate project feasibility, profitability, risk, company capacity, and bid suitability.
· Identify scope gaps, exclusions, assumptions, allowances, risks, and potential cost exposures.
· Prepare revised estimates, scope alternatives, substitutions, and re-pricing as required.
· Support change-order pricing when estimating expertise or original scope knowledge is required.
· Maintain complete and accurate estimating documentation.
3. Site Review & Scope Development
· Conduct site reviews to assess existing conditions, access, logistics, project constraints, and construction requirements.
· Identify constructability concerns, potential hidden conditions, risks, and conditions that may affect cost, schedule, or execution.
· Clarify client requirements, product selections, finishes, and scope details before finalizing pricing.
· Assist clients in refining project scope and understanding available options.
· Recommend practical and cost-effective construction solutions and alternatives where appropriate.
· Ensure assumptions and unknown conditions are appropriately documented and reflected in proposals.
4. Client Sales & Proposal Management
· Build professional relationships with prospective clients throughout the estimating and sales process.
· Prepare and present estimates and proposals in a clear and client-friendly manner.
· Explain project scope, pricing, assumptions, allowances, exclusions, alternatives, and anticipated timelines.
· Respond to questions and address concerns throughout the decision-making process.
· Maintain consistent and timely follow-up on outstanding quotations and proposals.
· Help clients evaluate scope, materials, budget options, and project alternatives without compromising required quality or profitability.
· Identify barriers preventing an opportunity from proceeding and work with the client and internal team to resolve them where appropriate.
· Negotiate scope and commercial terms within established company authority.
· Assist in securing signed contracts, approvals, deposits, and other project commitments.
· Maintain professional communication throughout the sales cycle, regardless of whether an opportunity is ultimately awarded.
5. Proactive Business Development
· Dedicate a defined portion of the workweek to proactive relationship development and opportunity generation.
· Build and maintain relationships with prospective and existing clients, referral partners, and strategic industry contacts.
· Develop relationships with relevant sources of recurring or referred work, including property managers, developers, Realtors, designers, architects, commercial organizations, past clients, and other industry partners.
· Conduct regular outreach rather than relying solely on incoming inquiries.
· Maintain relationships with past clients to encourage repeat business and referrals.
· Identify prospective target accounts, partnerships, markets, and project opportunities aligned with company capabilities.
· Follow up on referrals and relationship-generated opportunities.
· Participate selectively in networking, industry, community, and relationship-building activities where there is reasonable business-development value.
· Represent the company professionally and communicate its services, capabilities, and value proposition accurately.
· Track business-development activities and resulting opportunities to evaluate effectiveness.
6. Supplier, Vendor & Subcontractor Coordination
· Obtain competitive pricing from suppliers, vendors, subcontractors, and trades.
· Evaluate quotations for completeness, scope alignment, competitiveness, and risk.
· Clarify and negotiate pricing, scope, availability, and terms where appropriate.
· Develop and maintain professional supplier and subcontractor relationships.
· Maintain current supplier, vendor, and subcontractor information.
· Monitor material, labour, subcontractor, and relevant market pricing to support accurate estimating.
· Identify alternative products, suppliers, or construction approaches where they may improve value, availability, schedule, or profitability.
7. Estimating Systems & Continuous Improvement
· Maintain and update estimating templates, quote templates, assemblies, pricing databases, cost libraries, and related tools.
· Ensure estimating and opportunity information is accurately entered into company software systems.
· Review historical estimates and actual project costs to identify variances and improve future estimating accuracy.
· Work with project management and finance as appropriate to understand significant cost or margin variances.
· Maintain organized estimating records and supporting documentation.
· Identify opportunities to improve estimating accuracy, efficiency, consistency, and proposal quality.
· Contribute to the development of standardized estimating practices and processes.
8. Project Handover & Operational Coordination
· Coordinate with project managers and other operational staff before project award where input is required regarding constructability, capacity, sequencing, or schedule.
· Develop reasonable preliminary project-duration and scheduling assumptions for estimating and client discussions.
· Participate in formal handover of awarded projects to operations.
· Clearly communicate the approved scope, budget, allowances, assumptions, exclusions, client commitments, schedule assumptions, supplier and subcontractor information, identified risks, and other relevant estimating information.
· Ensure project documentation required for operational handover is complete and accessible.
· Respond to reasonable estimating, scope, and pricing questions after handover when knowledge from the pre-construction process is required.
· Support pricing of significant scope changes where appropriate while maintaining clear separation between estimating responsibilities and day-to-day project management.
Workload & Role Allocation
This position is designed as a single full-time role. Responsibilities are expected to be prioritized approximately as follows:
· 50–60% — Estimating & Pre-Construction: site reviews, scope development, take-offs, costing, trade pricing, proposals, estimating systems, and project handover.
· 20–25% — Inbound Sales & Opportunity Management: inquiry response, qualification, client discovery, proposal presentation, follow-up, negotiation, and conversion.
· 20–25% — Proactive Business Development: targeted outreach, referral relationships, past-client engagement, target-account development, and networking.
Allocation may fluctuate based on estimating volume and business needs. Active estimating and qualified client opportunities take priority, while consistent business-development activity remains an ongoing expectation.
The role is not intended to assume responsibility for day-to-day project management, field supervision, marketing administration, or general company operations.
Qualifications
Education & Experience
· Construction estimating experience, preferably within residential and/or commercial renovation or general contracting.
· Strong understanding of construction methods, materials, labour requirements, productivity, sequencing, and project costing.
· Experience interpreting drawings, specifications, scopes of work, and construction documentation.
· Experience performing quantity take-offs and developing detailed project estimates.
· Experience obtaining and evaluating supplier and subcontractor pricing.
· Experience preparing and presenting client proposals and quotations.
· Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with clients and build professional relationships.
· Sales, account development, or business-development experience within construction or a related industry is preferred.
Technical Skills
· Strong mathematical, analytical, and cost-analysis skills.
· Proficiency with estimating, quoting, project management, and standard office software.
· Ability to learn and effectively use company estimating, CRM, project management, and reporting systems.
· Strong documentation and record-management skills.
· Ability to interpret project financial information, margins, and cost variances.
Personal Attributes
· Strong attention to detail and commitment to estimating accuracy.
· Commercially minded with an understanding of revenue, margin, risk, and profitability.
· Confident and professional in client-facing situations.
· Comfortable initiating conversations and proactively developing business relationships.
· Strong communication, listening, negotiation, and interpersonal skills.
· Organized and able to manage multiple opportunities, estimates, follow-ups, and deadlines simultaneously.
· Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities.
· Self-directed and accountable for maintaining momentum without requiring continuous supervision.
· Collaborative and able to work effectively with operations, field staff, suppliers, subcontractors, and clients.
· Able to balance the client's objectives with the company's operational requirements and financial interests.
Performance Expectations
Performance will be evaluated using a balanced scorecard that recognizes estimating quality, profitable sales performance, client experience, and proactive business-development activity.
Key measures may include:
· Responsiveness to incoming inquiries.
· Effective qualification of prospective projects.
· Estimate and proposal turnaround time.
· Accuracy and completeness of estimates.
· Estimate accuracy compared with actual project costs.
· Achievement of target gross profit margins.
· Quote-to-contract conversion rate.
· Revenue and gross profit generated from awarded work.
· Quality and completeness of project scopes.
· Identification and management of estimating and project risks.
· Consistency and quality of proposal follow-up.
· Number and quality of qualified opportunities maintained within the pipeline.
· Consistent proactive business-development and relationship-building activity.
· Opportunities and revenue generated through referrals, repeat clients, and proactive outreach.
· Client satisfaction and professionalism.
· Effectiveness of supplier and subcontractor relationships.
· Quality and completeness of project handovers.
· Accuracy of sales and estimating records.
· Continuous improvement of estimating systems, templates, cost information, and processes.
Performance expectations should balance revenue with profitability and estimating quality. Sales volume or conversion should not be pursued at the expense of appropriate project selection, accurate estimating, achievable schedules, or required gross margins.
Overall Accountability
The Construction Estimator – Sales & Business Development is accountable for helping maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified, appropriately scoped, accurately estimated, and profitable construction opportunities.
The position is expected to take ownership of opportunities from first contact through contract award and operational handover, while actively developing the relationships necessary to generate future work.
The objective is not simply to produce estimates or maximize sales volume, but to help secure the right projects, at the right price, with clearly defined scope and expectations, so that awarded work is positioned for successful and profitable execution.
Join us as we build a future where your expertise can make a significant impact on our projects!
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $35.00-$45.00 per hour
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
