Director of Field Operations @ QH&A

Kelso Industries•Wilmington, DE

17h•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Field Operations is responsible for the overall performance, coordination, and productivity of Quality Sheet Metal’s field operations. This position provides direct leadership and oversight to all Field Superintendents and is accountable for ensuring that manpower is properly allocated across all active projects based on workload, schedule, budget, and project requirements. A primary responsibility of this role is to ensure that projects are neither overmanned nor undermanned and that field labor hours are managed in accordance with the original estimated and budgeted hours. The Director of Field Operations will work closely with Superintendents, Project Managers, and company leadership to identify productivity concerns early and take corrective action before they negatively impact project profitability. The position is also responsible for identifying and documenting field changes, additional work, scope changes, and other conditions that may result in change orders so the company is properly compensated for work outside the original contract scope.

Requirements

Extensive experience in commercial sheet metal and HVAC construction.
Strong understanding of field installation, fabrication, project sequencing, and manpower planning.
Previous experience managing Superintendents, Foremen, and large field workforces.
Ability to understand project estimates, labor budgets, and productivity reports.
Strong ability to identify work that falls outside the original contract scope.
Proven ability to troubleshoot complex field and construction issues.
Strong leadership, communication, and accountability skills.
Ability to travel regularly between active project sites.

Responsibilities

Provide direct leadership and oversight to all Field Superintendents and establish clear expectations for manpower management, productivity, scheduling, communication, and accountability.
Regularly review the performance and manpower requirements of all active projects with each Superintendent.
Ensure Superintendents are effectively managing Foremen and field crews and are proactively addressing productivity, staffing, and performance issues.
Serve as the senior field operations resource for major project challenges that cannot be resolved at the Superintendent or Foreman level.
Maintain an accurate understanding of manpower requirements across all active projects.
Coordinate with Superintendents and Project Managers to determine appropriate staffing levels based on project schedules, remaining scope, estimated labor hours, and field conditions.
Allocate and reallocate manpower between projects as necessary to maximize productivity and avoid unnecessary labor costs.
Prevent projects from becoming overmanned while also ensuring critical projects have sufficient manpower to meet contractual schedules.
Anticipate upcoming manpower needs and reductions so staffing decisions can be made proactively rather than reactively.
Monitor actual field labor hours against the original estimated and budgeted labor hours for each project.
Require regular reporting of hours used, hours remaining, percentage of work completed, and anticipated manpower needs.
Identify projects that are consuming labor hours faster than the percentage of work being completed.
Investigate the causes of labor overruns and develop corrective action plans with the appropriate Superintendent and Project Manager.
Hold field leadership accountable for managing projects within established labor budgets while recognizing and separating legitimate additional work from base-contract performance.
Provide executive management with early warning when a project is trending toward a labor overrun.
Ensure that field changes and work outside the original contract scope are identified immediately.
Train and hold Superintendents and Foremen accountable for recognizing potential change-order work before or as the work occurs.
Coordinate with Project Management to ensure field changes are properly documented with photographs, daily reports, labor hours, material usage, correspondence, and other supporting documentation.
Ensure additional work is not absorbed into the base contract without proper review and authorization.
Maintain communication between Field Operations and Project Management so potential change orders do not fall through the cracks.
Act as the primary senior field resource for troubleshooting significant installation, coordination, scheduling, manpower, and productivity issues.
Visit projects experiencing major operational problems and work directly with Superintendents, Foremen, Project Managers, General Contractors, and other stakeholders as appropriate to develop solutions.
Identify the root cause of recurring field problems and implement corrective processes to prevent similar issues on future projects.
Assist with resolving conflicts involving drawings, coordination, fabrication, installation sequencing, access, and other conditions affecting field productivity.
Participate in project turnover and preconstruction meetings to understand the estimated labor hours, project assumptions, schedule, scope, and major risks before field installation begins.
Ensure the Superintendent responsible for each project understands the labor budget and manpower plan.
Establish manpower and labor-hour expectations at the beginning of each major project and monitor performance throughout construction.
Coordinate with Project Management, Fabrication, CAD/BIM, and other departments to ensure field crews receive the information and materials necessary to remain productive.