Full Job Description
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Construction Program & Portfolio Execution
• Own end-to-end execution of assigned construction and facilities project portfolios across Firefly campuses, from project approval and scope development through design, procurement, construction, commissioning, turnover, and closeout.
• Establish and maintain a consistent construction project delivery methodology, including project phases, stage gates, required deliverables, documentation, and handoff criteria, appropriately scaled to project size and complexity.
• Lead multiple concurrent construction projects, balancing resources, priorities, schedule, risk, funding, and operational requirements across campuses.
• Develop and maintain integrated construction plans that sequence work around active manufacturing, production, testing, and engineering operations to minimize disruption to mission-critical activities.
• Partner closely with Facilities, Production, Test, Engineering, EHS, Security, IT, Finance, and other internal stakeholders to define project requirements, manage operational impacts, and ensure organizational readiness.
• Serve as the primary owner's representative for major construction projects, ensuring projects are delivered safely, on schedule, within budget, and in accordance with approved scope and quality requirements.
• Establish project execution strategies appropriate to delivery method, including design-bid-build, design-build, construction manager, general contractor, and specialty trade execution.
Estimating, Scheduling & Cost Control
• Develop and validate construction estimates from conceptual/ROM through definitive estimates, including quantity takeoffs, labor and material assumptions, contingency, escalation, and appropriate allowances.
• Lead development of project budgets, schedules, cash flow forecasts, and execution plans in support of capital approval and annual planning processes.
• Build, baseline, and maintain integrated project schedules using Microsoft Project or equivalent scheduling tools, including critical path analysis, resource loading, milestone tracking, and schedule recovery planning.
• Develop and manage project spend plans and cash flow forecasts; track commitments, actual expenditures, forecast at completion, contingency, and variance to approved budget.
• Provide estimating, schedule, risk, and constructability input for CapEx approval packages, governance reviews, and funding decisions.
• Partner with Finance to appropriately classify project scope as capital or expense and ensure compliance with capitalization policies, thresholds, construction-in-progress accounting, and asset placed-in-service requirements.
• Administer formal change management processes, including evaluation, pricing, documentation, negotiation, approval, and tracking of change orders and potential changes.
• Identify cost and schedule trends early and develop corrective action plans to protect project commitments.
Construction Risk, Safety & Governance
• Establish and maintain project risk registers covering cost, schedule, safety, technical, operational, permitting, procurement, and construction risks.
• Quantify risk exposure and develop mitigation and contingency strategies with clear ownership and trigger conditions.
• Proactively escalate material risks, issues, and decisions with recommended courses of action and quantified cost, schedule, safety, and operational impacts.
• Ensure projects comply with applicable building codes, permitting requirements, authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) approvals, life safety requirements, environmental requirements, and Firefly standards.
• Partner with EHS to ensure contractors implement site-specific safety plans and comply with applicable requirements, including hot work, LOTO, confined space, excavation, and other high-risk construction activities.
• Establish and enforce construction quality expectations, inspection requirements, punch-list management, commissioning readiness, and final turnover criteria.
• Prepare and present project status, financial performance, schedule performance, risk, and decision requests to the Director of Facilities and executive leadership.
Contractor, Vendor & Contract Management
• Lead contractor and vendor selection activities, including development of scopes of work, RFPs, bid walks, bid leveling, technical evaluations, and recommendation of award.
• Manage general contractors, construction managers, design-build partners, architects, engineers, and specialty trades to ensure compliance with contracted scope, schedule, cost, safety, and quality requirements.
• Administer construction contracts and purchase orders within approved authority and in coordination with Supply Chain, Finance, and Legal as appropriate.
• Review contractor pay applications, validate percent complete, confirm installed quantities, and manage retention, lien releases, and supporting documentation.
• Negotiate and manage change orders, claims, schedule impacts, and contractor performance issues.
• Develop and maintain a qualified contractor and specialty-trade network to support current and future construction requirements across Firefly campuses.
Reporting & Performance Management
• Provide recurring construction program reporting to the Director of Facilities and executive leadership covering project cost, schedule, risk, safety, quality, and operational readiness.
• Maintain consistent project financial reporting, including approved budget, commitments, actuals, forecast at completion, variance to budget, and remaining contingency.
• Track schedule performance against approved baseline schedules and clearly identify schedule variance and critical-path impacts.
• Present exceptions, trends, and recommended actions rather than raw project status, clearly communicating what is off plan, why it is off plan, the business impact, and the corrective action required.
• Maintain a centralized portfolio view of active construction projects, providing current visibility into scope, budget, schedule, risk, and project status.
• Ensure project financial information reconciles with Finance's system of record and resolve discrepancies prior to reporting.
• Prepare executive-level and governance-level reporting packages supporting capital requests, funding decisions, project reviews, and portfolio prioritization.
• Provide immediate notification of material cost, schedule, safety, quality, or operational impacts between formal reporting cycles.
• Conduct project closeout reviews and capture lessons learned to continuously improve Firefly's construction delivery processes.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
• Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Architecture, or a related technical discipline. Equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience will be considered.
• 10+ years of progressive experience managing construction programs, capital projects, or major facilities projects, including demonstrated ownership of projects exceeding $5M.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent construction projects and/or a complex capital project portfolio.
• Experience delivering projects within an active manufacturing, industrial, aerospace, semiconductor, or similarly complex operational environment • required.
• Demonstrated experience serving as an owner's representative and managing general contractors, construction managers, design professionals, and specialty contractors.
• Proven expertise in construction estimating, including scope development, quantity takeoffs, bid leveling, contingency, escalation, and cost validation.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Project or equivalent scheduling software, including schedule baselining, critical path analysis, resource loading, and multi-project portfolio management.
• Demonstrated experience managing project budgets, spend plans, cash flow forecasts, commitments, actuals, and cost-to-complete analysis.
• Experience with formal construction risk management, including risk registers, probability/impact assessments, mitigation planning, and contingency management.
• Demonstrated experience managing contracts, change orders, claims, contractor performance, and commercial issues.
• Working knowledge of building codes, permitting, AHJ requirements, life safety systems, and construction regulatory requirements.
• Experience coordinating MEP systems, commissioning, construction turnover, and operational readiness.
• Demonstrated experience producing project and portfolio reporting for senior and executive leadership, including cost, schedule, risk, and variance analysis.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders, resolve complex project issues, and communicate effectively with executive leadership.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
• Experience in the space, aerospace, defense, semiconductor, advanced manufacturing, or other highly regulated industrial environments.
• PMP certification, PE license, CCM certification, or other relevant professional certification.
• Experience delivering high-bay manufacturing facilities, cleanrooms, test facilities, test stands, hazardous systems, propellant facilities, or other technically complex infrastructure.
• Experience with pre-engineered metal building (PEMB) delivery and greenfield site development.
• Experience with complex mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP), controls, utilities, and industrial systems.
• Experience leading commissioning, startup, turnover, and operational readiness activities.
• Experience managing design-build and other alternative project delivery methods.
• Experience managing construction projects across multiple geographic locations.
• Familiarity with CMMS, CAFM, IWMS, project controls, or capital project management systems.
• Working knowledge of capital accounting practices, including capitalization thresholds, construction-in-progress (CIP), and asset placed-in-service timing.
• Experience establishing construction standards, processes, project controls, and governance frameworks within a rapidly scaling organization.