livewire
Director of Operations
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Westmont, Illinois, United States
- Work setup
- Onsite
- Seniority
- Not specified
- Employment
- Contract
- Experience
- 10+ years
- Category
- Not specified
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 10+ years of progressive construction leadership experience, including direct oversight of complex self-perform projects.
- Proven experience managing project financials at a portfolio level, including WIP, earned revenue, forecasted margin, under/over billing, and cost-to-complete analysis.
- Strong labor-management background with demonstrated proficiency in union labor environments and productivity analysis.
- Demonstrated experience in contract review and administration, change-order management, claims awareness, and project risk management.
- Track record of building, standardizing, or refining operational processes within a growing construction organization.
- Experience directly managing, developing, and holding accountable Project Managers and project-management staff.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to present project and portfolio performance to executive leadership.
- Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, or a related field preferred; equivalent progressive experience will be considered.
Nice to have
- Direct self-perform experience in concrete and/or fencing scopes, rather than general contracting oversight alone.
- Experience scaling an operation through a significant revenue-growth period, such as $50M to $100M+.
- Experience with Procore, Foundation, Sage 300 CRE, or comparable construction financial and project-management platforms.
- Experience with certified payroll, prevailing wage, and Davis-Bacon compliance.
- Demonstrated experience using operational and financial KPIs to improve project profitability and labor productivity.
Full description
Job Description: Director of Operations (Self-Perform)
Position Summary
This is a senior operating leadership role with direct accountability for the performance and profitability of the self-perform project portfolio and the team that delivers it. The Director of Operations establishes and enforces consistent preconstruction, project controls, reporting, contract administration, labor-productivity, and closeout practices; identifies risk early; and drives corrective action. The successful individual combines deep construction financial fluency with strong people leadership, sound judgment, field credibility, and a continuous-improvement mindset.
Key Responsibilities
Preconstruction, Planning & Project Startup
- Lead preconstruction planning for concrete and fencing self-perform work, ensuring estimates, scope, means and methods, labor plans, schedules, equipment needs, and material logistics are stress-tested before mobilization.
- Partner with estimating and business development to review contracts and bid assumptions before award, identifying scope gaps, exclusions, risk exposure, unfavorable terms, and execution constraints.
- Establish project execution plans and clear handoff protocols between estimating, operations, project management, field leadership, accounting, and safety.
- Participate in project kickoff and turnover meetings and confirm that budgets, cost codes, procurement plans, schedules, submittals, and reporting requirements are established before work begins.
Project Execution, Process Discipline & Accountability
- Own the operational playbook for self-perform delivery, including standards for scheduling, forecasting, reporting, change management, documentation, quality, and closeout, and hold the PM team accountable to consistent execution.
- Conduct regular portfolio reviews, project health reviews, and jobsite visits to confirm that project plans, financial forecasts, schedules, and field execution remain aligned.
- Identify operational bottlenecks and process gaps and lead practical improvements that increase consistency, speed, accountability, and scalability.
- Establish and monitor project-level KPIs and leading indicators; require timely recovery plans when performance deviates from expectations.
- Coordinate across field leadership, estimating, accounting, safety, procurement, and executive leadership to resolve issues that affect cost, schedule, labor, customer commitments, or project risk.
Financial Management, WIP & Profitability
- Own monthly financial outcomes for the self-perform portfolio; reviewing earned revenue, cost-to-complete, forecasted margin, committed costs, and under/overbilling positions with the Controller and taking immediate corrective action as necessary.