About Small Housing BC
Small Housing BC is a non-profit organization working to expand the supply of small-scale, gentle density housing across British Columbia. We work with homeowners, builders, local governments, and industry to remove the practical barriers that keep good housing from getting built — through research, training, policy support, and direct technical assistance.
About the role
If you know how an offsite construction factory prices, details, and schedules a job, and you can explain that to a builder who has only ever framed on site, then this is your role. You’re the person a builder calls when they want to know whether prefabrication will actually work for their project, and what has to change to make it work.
You will run the project’s technical help desk, and work directly with builders on prefab readiness: reviewing their plans, identifying what needs to change for factory production, and guiding them through specification, manufacturer fit, transport and site integration. Much of this is hands-on level work with small firms who have only ever built on site and need someone who can show them, concretely, what a manufacturable set of plans looks like.
You will also be the internal technical authority behind our training program and advisory services, and you will support the Project Lead on manufacturer partnership work by assessing capability, capacity, and product fit.
You will report to the Project Lead and work alongside the Planning & Research Lead, the Project Coordinator, and a range of contracted specialists.
Working arrangement
This is a term position, dependent on project funding, ending March 31, 2028. This position is remote, based within British Columbia, but it is not a desk role. You must reside in British Columbia for the duration of the term.
Expect regular travel within the province to builder sites, manufacturer facilities, training sessions, and industry events, with occasional in-person team days. Occasional international travel may be required in support of partnership and investment outreach led by the Project Lead.
Key responsibilities
Technical help desk
- Establish and run the project’s prefab help desk as the credible first point of contact for BC builders, developers, and trades exploring offsite methods.
- Respond to technical enquiries covering offsite methods, design and detailing, standards and certification, procurement, transport and logistics, and site integration.
- Triage complex enquiries, escalate where specialist input is needed, and build a reusable knowledge base from recurring questions.
- Maintain response quality and turnaround so the service is genuinely useful to firms working to live project deadlines.
Prefab readiness and plan review
- Review builders’ drawings and specifications and identify what must change for the design to be manufacturable off site.
- Provide practical design-for-manufacture guidance — module and panel breakdown, dimensional discipline, connection and interface detailing, service routing, and tolerance considerations.
- Advise on the cost, schedule, and Code implications of moving a project from site-built to offsite delivery.
- Guide builders through certification and approval pathways, including CSA A277 plant certification requirements and the local authority approval process.
- Produce practical reference materials — checklists, readiness assessments, and worked examples — that let builders self-assess before they come to us.
Direct support to builders on live projects
- Support small and medium-sized builders through the practical steps of a prefab project: specification, manufacturer selection, sequencing, transport planning, and site integration.
- Help firms understand where offsite delivery changes their own workflow — procurement timing, cash flow, crew scheduling, and site preparation.
- Troubleshoot problems as they arise between builder and manufacturer, and capture what is learned for the benefit of the next firm.
Construction financing and lender connections
- Maintain a working understanding of the construction financing landscape as it applies to offsite delivery, including how lenders assess prefab projects and where their requirements differ from site-built construction.
- Advise builders on how offsite delivery changes their financing profile — manufacturer deposits, factory milestone payments against traditional site-progress draw schedules, security over work held at a factory, and the cash flow consequences of paying for a module before it arrives on site.
- Build and maintain relationships with lenders, credit unions, and financing intermediaries active in BC residential construction, particularly those with existing or emerging appetite for offsite projects.
- Connect builders to appropriate lenders and support early conversations by presenting the offsite delivery model in terms a credit adjudicator will recognize.
- Identify where financing operates as a systemic barrier to prefab adoption in BC and feed that back into project research, advocacy, and funder reporting.
Training and curriculum
- Act as the internal subject matter authority to the contracted curriculum vendor developing the prefab-readiness training program.
- Review and validate all training content for technical accuracy and practical relevance to BC conditions.
- Deliver or co-deliver technical sessions to builders, developers, and trades.
Manufacturer capability assessment and matchmaking support
- Maintain current technical intelligence on manufacturer capacity, capability, product fit, and supply chain conditions.
- Assess manufacturers against builder requirements and advise on suitable matches; support introductions and early technical conversations.
- Support the Project Lead on partnership and investment outreach, including the International Investment Prospectus, by providing technical assessment of prospective partners and their technologies.
- Represent Small Housing BC at industry events and sector missions as required.
International technology and investment connections
- Maintain current knowledge of offsite construction technology in leading international markets, including European, Nordic, Japanese, and other advanced prefabrication sectors.
- Identify international technology providers, equipment suppliers, and building systems with application to BC's small-scale housing sector, and assess their technical fit against BC codes, climate, and market conditions.
- Support BC prefab firms in evaluating international technology — production equipment, building systems, software, and licensing arrangements — including technical due diligence on suitability and transferability.
- Broker introductions between BC manufacturers and international technology and investment partners, and carry the technical content of those conversations.
- Provide technical assessment of prospective international partners and their technologies in support of the Project Lead's investment outreach and the European Investment Prospectus.
- Advise on the practical path to adopting international technology in BC — certification, code compliance, supply chain, and workforce implications.
- Seven or more years in offsite or modular construction, residential construction, or building design and technical services, including substantial hands-on technical work.
What you bring
Required
- Ability to read, interpret, review, and mark up construction drawings and specifications, and to advise on what needs to change for factory production.
- Practical working knowledge of design-for-manufacture principles and of how factory production differs from site-built work in detailing, tolerance, sequencing, and cost.
- Demonstrated knowledge of offsite construction methods — volumetric modular, panelized systems, mass timber, and component prefabrication.
- Working knowledge of the relevant standards and certification landscape, including CSA A277, CSA Z240 MH, CSA Z250, and the BC Building Code.
- Working knowledge of construction financing in residential development — draw schedules, progress advances, and how lenders assess risk — and an understanding of where offsite delivery complicates conventional lending structures.
- Experience advising builders, contractors, or owner-operators on technical decisions with real commercial consequences.
- Ability to translate technical complexity into clear, practical guidance for people without a technical background.
- Willingness to travel regularly within British Columbia to builder sites, manufacturer facilities, and industry events.
- Resident of British Columbia and legally entitled to work in Canada.
Strong assets
- Direct experience inside a prefabrication or modular manufacturing operation — engineering, detailing, estimating, or production.
- Formal background in building science, engineering, architecture, architectural technology, construction management, or a construction trade.
- Experience with plan review, building code consulting, or the permitting and approvals process.
- Experience designing or delivering technical advisory services, help desks, or industry support programs.
- An existing network within BC or Canadian prefabrication and modular manufacturing.
- Experience contributing to curriculum development or professional training delivery.
- Familiarity with European or Asian offsite construction markets and technologies.
- Experience working with construction lenders, credit unions, or financing intermediaries, or direct experience in construction lending.
- Experience with technology transfer, equipment procurement, licensing arrangements, or inbound investment support.
Equity, diversity and inclusion
Small Housing BC is committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve. We welcome applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people of all gender identities and sexual orientations, and others who may contribute to the diversity of our organization.
If you require accommodation at any stage of the hiring process, please let us know at [email protected], and we will work with you to meet your needs.
We recognize that strong candidates may bring this experience through non-traditional routes — including the trades, the factory floor, or business ownership — rather than a conventional professional pathway. If you can do this work, we want to hear from you.
How to apply
Please submit a resume and a brief cover letter describing your relevant experience to [email protected] with the subject line “Industry Advisor — Prefabricated and Modular Construction.” Only applications submitted via email to [email protected] will be reviewed.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We thank all applicants for their interest; only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
Pay: $110,000.00-$125,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental care
- Employee assistance program
- Extended health care
- Paid time off
- Work from home
Work Location: On the road
