Early Preconstruction Manager

IPS-Integrated Project Services • Emeryville, CA

2d

About The Position

At IPS, the Early Preconstruction Manager leads activities before physical construction begins, ensuring projects are fully scoped, accurately budgeted, properly scheduled, legally permitted, and operationally ready. The role aligns stakeholders, mitigates risk, and supports decision-making from project initiation through contract execution and construction readiness, including handing off project information to the execution team. The position may be based at any of IPS’s U.S. offices listed in the posting and involves 50% travel or travel as required by the assigned project. Extended assignments at client sites and overnight travel may be necessary.

The manager leads project initiation and governance, design coordination, estimate development, cost control, schedule development, risk management, permitting, procurement planning, and construction readiness. This includes coordinating cross-functional teams and client stakeholders; developing and maintaining plans, logs, budgets, schedules, and reports; supporting design and estimating decisions; and preparing teams and sites for construction. The role requires collaboration with design, construction, CQV, procurement, estimating, controls, accounting, trade partners, equipment vendors, and clients.

The role involves working indoors and outdoors, visiting construction sites, completing site safety training, and following site safety rules. Employees must adhere to strict cleanroom gowning protocol. This is a safety-sensitive position involving field work at client sites in construction, process, packaging, manufacturing, research, or other non-administrative areas. Reliable transportation and the ability to commute and travel routinely are required.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, or a related discipline, or five years of experience in a related field.
• At least five years of experience in project delivery related to preconstruction activities.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with design, construction, CQV, and client teams.
• Ability to develop and generate schedules using Microsoft Project and/or Oracle P6.
• Ability to stand, sit, and walk for prolonged periods; stoop, kneel, crouch, and crawl as required; lift and move objects weighing up to 20 pounds; and climb ladders as necessary.
• Ability to work in indoor and outdoor environments with varying working conditions and adhere to strict cleanroom gowning protocol.
• Ability to complete site safety training and follow construction-site safety rules.
• Access to reliable transportation and ability to travel and commute on a daily or routine basis.
• Ability to travel 50% or as required by the assigned project; extended client-site assignments and overnight travel may occur.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate project kickoff meetings and establish project communications, roles, escalation paths, governance, approval workflows, and decision-making hierarchy.
• Set up project management tools and document control systems; train project teams.
• Develop the initial risk register, stakeholder map, preconstruction execution plan, and construction execution plan; oversee preconstruction activities supporting project startup.
• Participate in design milestone reviews; track design comments and resolutions; conduct constructability reviews and follow up on open items.
• Facilitate value engineering workshops, maintain logs, coordinate cost impact estimates, and review design updates and issue resolution.
• Validate evolving designs against budgets and schedules; prepare alignment and impact reports and present construction-related updates to teams and clients.
• Coordinate construction logistics planning, including project phasing, equipment move-in paths, staging areas, and safe construction; lead target value delivery efforts on applicable projects.
• Challenge material selections and other design aspects for potential cost savings, and support selling the construction phase on design-only projects.
• Request estimates and coordinate with design and estimating teams to develop progressively detailed estimates, including assumptions, allowances, contingencies, escalation, and market pricing validation.
• Develop construction management staffing plans and general requirements estimates aligned with project schedules and logistics plans.
• Participate in client estimate presentations, review estimates and basis-of-estimate documents before publication, support estimate follow-ups and client approvals, and provide as-bought cost benchmarking feedback.
• Work with the Cost Manager to support budget development and updates through construction kickoff; establish change management processes with relevant stakeholders.
• Coordinate with Controls and Accounting on PNR/BRRs and cost coding, and work with the Cost Manager on commitment and spend plans, analysis, and reporting through handover to construction cost control.
• Lead schedule development with the scheduler, establishing a baseline master schedule covering design, permitting, procurement, construction, commissioning, qualification, and validation; author the schedule narrative.
• Facilitate interactive planning sessions with project participants, identify long-lead items, integrate procurement timelines and vendor coordination plans, and ensure alignment with IPS and client WBS requirements.
• Develop and generate schedules using Microsoft Project and/or Oracle P6.
• Facilitate risk workshops, maintain the risk register and dashboards, assign risk owners and mitigation strategies, integrate risk-based contingencies into budgets and schedules, and monitor and communicate external risks.
• Develop permit lists and jurisdictional requirements summaries; create permitting matrices and integrate them into the master schedule; coordinate with authorities having jurisdiction and maintain related records.
• Ensure permitting and other project information is fully turned over to the execution team as soon as possible.
• Define procurement strategies in line with delivery method, risk profile, and schedule; work with Procurement to develop the Project Procurement Plan and prequalify subcontractors and vendors.
• Convert estimate line items into bid package budgets; develop scopes of work, schedule-of-values breakdowns, drawing and specification lists, and other bid package details.
• Coordinate procurement activities, including RFQs/RFPs, pre-bid meetings, RFI/addendum logs, bid leveling, and subcontract and purchase order awards; ensure the buyout schedule supports the construction schedule.
• Lead construction execution planning; develop site logistics and mobilization plans, including temporary utilities and laydown areas.
• Ensure site-specific safety plans and emergency response procedures are developed, reviewed, and approved; lead the preconstruction conference with trades.
• Supervise project personnel to ensure adherence to SOPs for RFIs, submittals, change orders, and other project management tasks.
• Use the Construction Mobilization Readiness Checklist to coordinate prerequisites for starting construction.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager