POSITION SUMMARYThe Senior Superintendent - Earthwork & Grading is a critical field leadership position and is foundational to our projects' success and safety. The Senior Superintendent will oversee field construction for complex civil projects with significant earthwork, mass grading, subgrade, excavation, underground utility, and site-development scopes. This leader will provide direction to field foremen, manage McCarthy self-perform and trade-partner work, and ensure the safe, timely, and quality completion of construction activities. The Senior Superintendent will work closely with the Senior Project Manager and project leadership to plan, coordinate, and deliver the work.
RESPONSIBILITIES- Be the Project Safety Leader
- Create and maintain a safe work environment and culture.
- Ensure all aspects of safety are adhered to in performing the work.
- Take ownership and responsibility for addressing safety issues and incidents.
- Lead safety planning, daily huddles, inspections, excavation controls, dust control, and corrective actions.
- Lead Execution of Earthwork, Subgrade, and Underground Utility Work
- Take ownership of and responsibility for planning and executing assigned activities; prepare and maintain three-week schedules for those activities.
- Monitor production rates and consistently communicate the plan to craft workers to support successful project execution.
- Coordinate with third-party inspectors for testing and inspection of responsible activities.
- Schedule and order materials for assigned scopes, including borrow material, aggregates, base, and precast structures.
- Coordinate work sequencing with civil trades, survey, testing, project management, and trade partners to meet milestones and minimize interference.
- Apply Technical Expertise and Execute Self-Perform Work
- Maintain a strong understanding of earthwork, subgrade, and underground utility activities.
- Assist with the work-plan process, including equipment plans and crew sizing needed to achieve required production rates.
- Apply thorough knowledge of earthwork, subgrade, and underground utility means, methods, and typical specifications.
- Plan and coordinate equipment fleets, including dozers, excavators, scrapers, graders, compactors, loaders, water trucks, haul units, and survey or machine-control support.
- Work with the Project Superintendent or Project Manager to recruit, hire, and develop the craft labor workforce.
- Assist Project Engineers and Foremen with production quantities, labor task coding, and material-yield tracking.
- Ensure equipment is maintained through inspection processes and required preventive maintenance.
- Maintain a Thorough Understanding of Contract Documents
- Understand and apply project plans, specifications, geotechnical reports, grading plans, contract documents, and owner requirements.
- Identify constraints, constructability issues, quantity risks, and field conflicts early; develop practical solutions with project leadership.
- Develop, communicate, monitor, and update the earthwork plan as needed to progress efficiently and maximize equipment and crew utilization.
- Develop and maintain project logistics plans, including site access, haul routes, laydown areas, equipment staging, material movement, and traffic control.
- Ensure all earthwork and related activities are accurately documented throughout project execution.
- Maintain daily reports, manpower and equipment logs, quantity and production tracking, delivery records, photos, inspections, and as-built information.
- Support Overall Project Delivery
- Assist Estimating and Preconstruction with bidding opportunities, constructability reviews, means and methods, production assumptions, equipment and crew plans, and logistics.
- Review earthwork GMP assumptions with the Preconstruction team; develop work plans that support accurate, competitive estimates and executable field operations.
- Assist the Project Manager and project leadership with development of the Chart of Accounts, labor and equipment budgets, production units, and cost-control plans.
- Assist in developing and maintaining detailed CPM schedules, short-term schedules, phasing plans, and recovery plans.
- Assist in developing detailed scopes of work for subcontractors and major purchase orders; coordinate work boundaries and interfaces among civil trades.
- Review material and equipment budgets, negotiate purchase orders and rental rates, and manage utilization.
- Monitor project costs, quantities, production, equipment utilization, and labor efficiency; identify improvement opportunities and communicate risks and recovery plans.
- Lead quality processes, including inspection planning, compaction and testing coordination, survey verification, and correction of deficient work.
- Chair weekly subcontractor coordination meetings and lead daily coordination with foremen and project partners.
- Establish and maintain productive relationships with owners, design teams, subcontractors, inspectors, and community stakeholders.
- Assist Project Engineers with shop drawings, submittals, RFIs, and procurement processes.
- Lead, mentor, and develop superintendents, assistant superintendents, general foremen, foremen, and craft personnel; foster a developmental mindset and hold field leaders accountable for best practices and follow-through.
- Support regional Earthwork Operations objectives by sharing lessons learned, quality incidents, and effective work practices across project teams.
- Partner with Project Directors and regional leadership on staffing needs, recruiting, training, and development of earthwork craft and field-management talent.
- Understand McCarthy's core values and demonstrate them in all interactions with internal and external stakeholders.
QUALIFICATIONS- 15+ years of commercial construction, heavy civil, or site-development experience required, including significant earthwork and grading responsibility.
- Extensive, direct experience leading mass grading, excavation, cut/fill balancing, earthmoving fleets, subgrade preparation, and underground utility operations.
- Self-perform experience is strongly desired.
- Previous experience directing and coordinating multiple trades, crews, equipment spreads, subcontractors, and field interfaces.
- Strong knowledge of construction principles and practices, including civil drawings, specifications, grading plans, compaction requirements, soil conditions, survey/layout, and site logistics.
- Previous experience working with a Project Management team through successful project completion.
- Demonstrated ability to lead a safety-first culture, manage schedule and cost performance, and resolve field issues proactively.
- Effective written and verbal communication skills with craft personnel, project teams, designers, owners, agencies, and inspectors.
- OSHA 30-hour certification and applicable excavation competent-person training are preferred.
- Ability to work full-time at project sites and adapt to project demands, including extended hours when required.
