Mechanical Preconstruction Engineer - New College Grad

About Us

Clayco is a full-service, turnkey real estate development, master planning, architecture, engineering, and construction firm that safely delivers clients across North America the highest quality solutions on time, on budget, and above and beyond expectations. With $7.6 billion in revenue for 2024, Clayco specializes in the "art and science of building," providing fast track, efficient solutions for industrial, commercial, institutional, and residential related building projects.

The Role We Want You For

As a Mechanical Preconstruction Engineer, you will drive the bidding process for construction projects by crafting precise conceptual and hard dollar estimates, developing proposals, and managing subcontractor bids. You will ensure the accuracy and completeness of all project documents, perform quantity take-offs, conduct constructability reviews, and implement value engineering analyses. Your contributions will be crucial in shaping departmental strategies and fostering continuous improvement.

The Specifics of the Role

Review and interpret project documents to determine job-specific material, equipment, and labor requirements for scope development.

Assist in preparing written scopes of work for subcontracts and suppliers and coordinating mechanical scopes with the work of other trades (e.g., civil, structural, architectural, electrical, etc.).

Participate in pre-proposal design coordination meetings to support the development of pricing documents for conceptual estimates.

Perform quantity survey of plumbing systems and components using digitized software, and apply industry standard labor rates (e.g., MCAA, PHCC, etc.) to support the development of accurate cost estimates.

Manage the solicitation process for subcontractor bids, establish relationships with subcontractors, and maintain a comprehensive master list of subcontractors/vendors.

Evaluate vendor and subcontractor for conformance with proposal requirements; level scopes and identify low cost/ best value responses while capturing assumptions, rationale, inclusions, exclusions, etc. Assist in the preparation of estimates used for bidding and budgeting purposes (including self-performed work); participate in internal estimate review process and assist with final recap of estimate for presentation to senior management.

Support project management tasks, including budgeting, schedule development, interim design review, change order pricing, procurement, value engineering, and vendor selection based on proposal development.

Coordinate with project teams to evaluate productivity for historical data and schedule/cost forecasting purposes.

Perform quantity survey of completed designs and/ or past projects to support historical cost data collection and analysis.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering or other Engineering discipline, Construction Management Architecture, or related.

Estimating, Preconstruction, or Project Engineer internship experience or related internship preferred.

Any estimating experience in commercial construction, with a strong track record in project bidding and management desirable.

Understanding of building construction, materials, systems, and market conditions.

Proficiency in estimating and quantity takeoff software; experience with specific software, such as Trimble Auto Bid, or OST, is a plus!

Skilled in Microsoft Office Suite.

Strong conceptual abilities with a knack for working with limited information, and proven technical skills in mathematical calculations.

Demonstrated knowledge of construction principles, practices, and technology.

Previous experience on a successful project management team.

Ability to walk a job site, climb ladders, and scale multi-floor scaffolding.

Ability to lift objects of at least 50 lbs.

Some Things You Should Know

Our clients and projects are nationwide – Travel will be required.

No other builder can offer the collaborative design-build approach that Clayco does.

We work on creative, complex, award-winning, high-profile jobs.

The pace is fast!

Why Clayco?

2024 Best Places to Work – Crain’s Chicago Business, St. Louis Business Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, and Phoenix Business Journal.

2024 ENR Midwest – Midwest Contractor (#1).

2024 ENR Top 100 Design-Build Firms – Design-Build Contractor (Top 5).

2024 ENR Top 100 Green Contractors – Green Contractor (Top 5).

Benefits

Discretionary Annual Bonus: Subject to company and individual performance.

Comprehensive Benefits Package Including: Medical, dental and vision plans, 401k, generous PTO and paid company holidays, employee assistance program, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, disability coverage, learning & development programs and more!

Compensation

The salary range for this position considers a wide range of factors in making compensation decisions including but not limited to: Education, qualifications, skills, training, experience, certifications, internal equity, and location. Compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.