Director, Capital Estimating - Real Estate

The Gap•Folsom, CA

About The Position

The Director, Capital Estimating owns Gap Inc.’s enterprise estimating function across four brands — Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta — and six store formats, with direct accountability for the accuracy and integrity of a $250M+ annual capital budget. This is not a back-office estimating role. The Director is a strategic business partner to Real Estate and Brand leadership — translating cost data into clear investment narratives, presenting capital performance with rigor and confidence to senior and executive audiences, and identifying where the organization should be looking next to unlock value. At the scale of Gap Inc.’s annual project pipeline, the decisions this role influences carry material impact on deal IRR, brand investment strategy, and long-term capital efficiency. The Director manages multiple outsourced professional estimating firms, sets cost-per-square-foot targets across all brands and formats, and leads value engineering discipline embedded early in design. Critically, this leader brings the business acumen to go beyond the numbers: accelerating new designs to run rate, offering brand leaders meaningful scope trade-offs that reduce capital without sacrificing intent, identifying sourcing strategies that leverage enterprise scale, and making the case for multi-year commitments where they unlock long-term cost advantage. The role is also driving Gap Inc. toward AI-assisted estimating built on its extensive database of actual project costs.

Requirements

12+ years in capital estimating, cost engineering, or construction management; multi-brand retail environment strongly preferred.
Demonstrated track record managing a large capital portfolio ($150M+) with measurable accuracy and EFC outcomes.
Experience connecting project budgets to deal IRR and investment return analysis.
Background in RCA on capital variances and translating findings into systemic process improvements.
Proficiency in estimating software (Sage Estimating, WinEst, DESTINI, or equivalent) and cost databases (RSMeans, Gordian, or equivalent); advanced Excel and Power BI.
Familiarity with AI/ML concepts and demonstrated interest in applying emerging technologies to cost estimation and capital management.
Working knowledge of retail construction delivery methods (design-bid-build, CM at-risk, negotiated GMP).
Translates cost data into clear, executive-ready narratives that drive decisions; confident and credible presenter to senior and executive leadership.
Experienced director of outsourced professional services firms — sets expectations, holds partners accountable, and maintains quality across a distributed network.
Effective without direct reports: influences through expertise, analytical rigor, and cross-functional relationships.

Responsibilities

Real Estate Approvals & Budget Estimating Deliver milestone-appropriate estimates (Conceptual through GMP) across all four brands and six formats, with clear scope basis, assumptions, and confidence levels.
Maintain format-specific cost templates and benchmarks that enable rapid, consistent budget development at each RE approval stage.
In partnership with the RE Finance team, quantify the IRR impact of capital cost assumptions and risk so Real Estate and Finance can make fully informed investment decisions.
Capital Forecasting & EFC Management Own the monthly Estimated Final Cost (EFC) process — translating job cost data, change orders, and vendor actuals into a reliable portfolio-level forecast for Finance and senior leadership.
Provide scenario modeling and sensitivity analysis to flag overrun risk and support proactive capital reallocation.
Capital Budget Management (±2% Accuracy Target) Track commitments, actuals, and projected spend across the $250M+ portfolio; enforce change order and contingency protocols; produce monthly performance reports with clear variance explanations.
Cost Targets, Value Engineering & Market Intelligence Set and maintain annual cost-per-square-foot targets by brand, format, and project type; publish updates as market conditions shift.
Lead value engineering early in design — identifying cost alternatives when scope decisions can still be meaningfully influenced.
Benchmark Gap Inc.’s costs against industry indices and retail peers; deliver quarterly market intelligence to inform capital planning assumptions and investment strategy
Project Overage Root Cause Analysis Conduct formal RCA on all projects with final cost variance greater than 5% versus approved budget — categorize root causes, present findings to senior leadership, and ensure learnings feed future estimates.
Ensure cost overruns are escalated consistently and on time through the appropriate approval chain; evaluate GC bids that exceed budget, identify project-level cost levers to offset overages, and make a clear recommendation for leadership approval.
AI-Powered Estimating Lead development and adoption of AI/ML tools to generate parametric estimates from historical project data, with defined confidence intervals.
Build an estimating interface that allows project managers to input site- and deal-specific parameters to generate a recommended starting budget — reducing manual effort and improving early-stage consistency across the portfolio.
Outsourced Firm Management Direct multiple outsourced estimating firms — allocating project load, setting quality standards and turnaround expectations, and maintaining performance accountability across all brands and formats.