Production Estimator - Custom Exhibits and Scenic Fabrication

Factory NYC•New York, NY

32d•Onsite

About The Position

The Factory NYC is a custom fabrication and production company in Brooklyn that builds and installs physical things for clients, including museum exhibits, brand activations, luxury retail environments, public art, architectural millwork, and unique one-off pieces. The company is hiring a Production Estimator to be responsible for determining the cost of building projects. This role involves costing labor, materials, machine time, vendors, installation, strike, and risk, forming the basis for the company's pricing. The Production Estimator will also assess the feasibility of projects based on design, timeline, and company capacity, identifying and escalating risks early. The work is varied, often involving projects that have not been built in the exact same form before, requiring reasoning about fabrication processes rather than relying on standard unit prices. The position reports to the Director of Production and works alongside the lead estimator to learn company methods and cost history. This is a full estimator role, not a junior position, with assigned bids being the responsibility of the individual.

Requirements

Seven or more years of estimating experience in custom fabrication, scenic production, construction, or a comparable build environment.
Real knowledge of fabrication across multiple trades, including carpentry, metalwork, finishing, assembly, and the machine side of CNC and digital fabrication.
Ability to read drawings, models, and specifications, translate them into a buildable method, and identify unresolved design elements before pricing.
Judgment regarding capacity, department workload, and lead times, with the willingness to identify and communicate schedule risks.
Experience costing materials and vendor scope, and holding vendors to their quoted prices.
Comfort working within a production and quoting system, including AI tooling in the estimating workflow, rather than solely using desktop spreadsheets.
Strong organizational skills to manage multiple bids with different deadlines.
Clear communication skills to collaborate with account management, project management, drafting, the shop floor, and vendors.

Nice To Haves

Estimating experience across mixed trades within a single shop, rather than deep expertise in only one trade.
Experience working on a shop floor.
Experience building or maintaining an estimating library and reconciling it against completed jobs.
Experience estimating installation and strike, including site conditions, access, and crew size.
Ability to read and mark up drawing packages in AutoCAD, Rhino, SketchUp, or comparable software.
Awareness of CNC and additive manufacturing sufficient to estimate machine time separately from surrounding labor.

Responsibilities

Review drawings, specifications, and scope, and request clarification for undefined elements.
Break down project scope into buildable components and determine labor costs per trade with justification for each number.
Determine the build approach, including sequencing, material selection, fabrication methods, and the use of vendors or subcontractors.
Cost materials, machine time, vendor scope, logistics, installation, and strike.
Assess labor hours against shop capacity and escalate potential bottlenecks and schedule risks to the Director of Production.
Discuss the build approach with department managers for larger jobs to ensure feasibility before committing to a price.
Cost change orders with the same rigor as original estimates and meet required deadlines.
Hand over estimates to production and review them to ensure the shop understands the intended build.
Build and maintain the estimating library and records of actual job costs, updating them with production results.
Reconcile estimated costs against actual costs for all priced jobs, analyze variances, and use findings to improve future estimates.