Vice President of Preconstruction & Business Development
Job Description
TEEL Construction, Inc. seeks an executive leader to integrate preconstruction strategy with business development and market growth in a single, accountable front end.
Responsibilities
- Unify Estimating, Business Development, Marketing, Advisory Services, and Procurement into one cohesive strategy that drives profitable growth
- Lead through functional leaders by establishing standards and accountability across the preconstruction organization
- Ensure the Company pursues the right work using Go/No-Go discipline, accurate estimating, effective procurement planning, and strong transitions to Operations
- Serve as an executive-level point of contact for clients, architects, trade partners, suppliers, and internal teams
- Partner with the President & CEO, Vice President of Construction, Controller, and the Leadership Team on company-wide strategy and planning
- Develop leaders and build organizational capacity, including strengthening long-term relationships and improving the systems that support growth
- Direct and integrate the “5 Preconstruction functions” as a unified effort to produce the right backlog, protect profitability, and strengthen TEEL’s market position
- Build and continuously improve preconstruction capacity, including leadership structure, staffing, workload planning, performance standards, professional development, and succession planning
- Establish and continuously improve department processes, policies, KPIs, and procedures aligned with company standards and best practices
- Translate company objectives into measurable department priorities and hold functional leaders accountable for execution
- Own the documented division of accountability with the Vice President of Construction covering procurement and buyout, preconstruction-to-operations handoff, change-order pricing, and executive review thresholds; reconfirm at least quarterly
- Maintain a preconstruction growth strategy aligned with target clients, market sectors, geographic priorities, Core Principles, and long-term financial objectives
- Own, maintain, and execute the Go-to-Market Strategy Plan and the defined sales process; update both at least annually
- Develop revenue, backlog, margin, pipeline, and capacity goals with the Leadership Team and translate them into preconstruction priorities
- Coordinate interdepartmental processes so pursuit strategy, estimating, procurement, staffing, and project delivery are aligned before commitments
- Resolve competing priorities with other department heads and escalate material risk as necessary
- Establish and sponsor operating procedures that improve speed, consistency, accountability, and decision quality across preconstruction
- Run data-driven reviews using historical project costs, estimate-to-actual results, square-foot benchmarks, market intelligence, hit-rate data, and pipeline analytics
- Identify and evaluate growth and market-entry opportunities consistent with TEEL’s strategy, capabilities, and risk tolerance
- Provide executive support for major strategic client pursuits, interviews, negotiations, and relationship development
- Provide strategic direction to the Business Development leader and ensure pursuit alignment with target clients, sectors, and go-to-market strategy
- Ensure early client conversations reflect realistic budgets, schedules, procurement conditions, and delivery risks
- Participate in material preconstruction, fee, and contract negotiations and set clear executive review thresholds
- Guide pricing, fee, and pursuit strategies by market sector, client type, delivery method, and competitive environment
- Maintain current market intelligence across clients, competitors, delivery methods, technologies, materials, labor, and procurement conditions
- Represent TEEL in selected industry and community organizations to strengthen relationships, market intelligence, and company visibility
- Ensure Business Development and Marketing operate from a shared strategy, target-account plan, and consistent market positioning
- Maintain executive oversight and accountability for Marketing, including measurable objectives, performance reviews, obstacle removal, coaching, CRM adoption, reporting discipline, and planning cadence
- Ensure estimating leadership provides people, systems, standards, market intelligence, and resources to perform at a high level; intervene directly on select strategic or high-risk pursuits
- Lead estimate-to-actual feedback loops and disciplined win/loss reviews to improve estimating standards and historical cost data
- Oversee procurement in partnership with Operations using a written definition of which procurement decisions and personnel sit with preconstruction vs. operations
- Ensure early procurement planning, long-lead identification, trade partner coverage, buyout strategy, and escalation of material cost or availability risk
- Capture and institutionalize buyout and procurement expertise through documented standards, tools, and training to reduce dependency on a small group of individuals
- Provide executive oversight of Advisory Services to deliver owner-side preconstruction and construction-management advisory support, including constructability reviews, value engineering, scheduling input, and risk assessment
- Oversee the Advisory-to-GC conversion funnel and feeder referral program with clear written standards for pursuing construction contracts when advising the owner
- Develop and manage the annual budget for Estimating, Business Development, Marketing, Advisory Services, and Procurement, including staffing, technology, outside resources, and strategic investments
- Monitor overhead and performance against agreed KPIs to improve productivity, resource allocation, pipeline quality, profitability, and return on preconstruction investment
- Partner with the Leadership Team on annual planning, forecasting, company analytics, and initiatives impacting the full preconstruction function and project delivery
Requirements
- 10+ years of progressive commercial construction and/or preconstruction experience
- At least 5 years leading people, teams, or functional departments
- Proven ability leading estimating and pursuit strategy, with enough technical depth to challenge budgets, pricing, risk, procurement, schedule, and constructability without being the primary estimator
- Experience leading across multiple preconstruction functions, or strong experience partnering with Business Development, Marketing, Advisory/Owner Services, Procurement, and Operations (strongly preferred)
- Bachelor’s degree preferred in Construction Management, Engineering, Business, or related field (equivalent experience considered)
- Demonstrated ability to build leaders, create accountability, operate effectively at the executive level, and integrate departmental strategy with growth, profitability, and delivery capacity
Objective & Metrics for Success
- Lead the 5 preconstruction functions as a unified strategic effort producing the right backlog, protecting profitability, strengthening market position, and demonstrating TEEL Core Principles
- Backlog and weighted pipeline quality and sufficiency relative to company revenue, capacity, and strategic goals
- Go/No-Go discipline, pursuit conversion, and resource allocation to strategically aligned opportunities
- Estimate quality, accuracy, timeliness, fee and margin outcomes, and estimate-to-actual performance
- Quality of preconstruction-to-operations handoffs, early procurement planning, and identification of project risk before award
- Performance, development, retention, accountability, and succession readiness of preconstruction leaders and team members
- Strength of strategic client, design partner, trade partner, and market relationships, including repeat business and cross-functional collaboration
- Specific annual targets set with the President & CEO and reviewed quarterly against the company scorecard (including backlog/weighted pipeline dollars, hit rate, estimate-to-actual variance, gross margin at buyout, new clients added, and Advisory Services contribution to GC backlog)
Working Conditions
- Onsite in Fairfax, VA
- Semi-frequent field visits: 10-20% field and 80-90% office, or as needed
- Travel across TEEL’s Mid-Atlantic and Northeast footprint and to satellite and target growth markets, including Tampa, Florida
- Field visits occur on active construction sites and require personal protective equipment
- Valid driver’s license and ability to travel independently required
Compensation
- USD 175,000 - 250,000 per year