I’m back! I have returned from my month long hiatus and will upload more consistently. Thank you for tuning in and I hope you enjoy this post about what role each person plays on a construction project team.
Project Engineer (entry level role to senior level)
What this role entails is doing the majority of the paperwork for a project. This includes submittals, RFI’s, Labor reports, daily diaries, and other necessary items to ensure the project runs smoothly. As a PE, you have to know the project documents like the back of your hand. The subcontractors and superintendent rely on your knowledge of plans to make sure they are doing the job right. You spend half your time in the jobsite trailer making sure the paperwork side of the job is moving well, and the other half you are out on the field. As a PE, you make sure the work is being done correctly as well and with quality. The whole team relies on you to do scheduling, tracking labor/material, and ensure any errors on site are corrected/resolved. You also maintain a lot of logs and excel sheets as documentation.
I am currently in the Project Engineer role and do the above work and then some.
Assistant Project Manager/Project Manager
A project manager’s role is to pursue work, find projects, and bid them. When the manager is awarded the project, they are responsible for putting together contracts for the owner, subcontractors, and other third parties involved in the completion of the project. They also manage the budget by choosing from different subcontractors, negotiating scopes of work, and budgeting workforce. They also maintain owner/client relationships by providing job updates and billing. There are other aspects to a manager’s role such as cost control, scheduling, document control, and direct report management since they are usually the team lead.
Superintendent
The superintendent is usually the highest on the jobsite totem pole as everyone reports to him including the GC team, subcontractors, and 3rd party consultants. The superintendent ensures the jobsite and subcontractors are conforming to OSHA safety standards. They also drive the execution and completion of the work in a timely manner. Usually a superintendent is someone with a background in a trade such as carpentry, iron work, or finish work therefore they will be enforcing subcontractors to deliver quality work. The superintendent does not necessarily deal with the budget since the manager takes care of this portion, however, they do budget labor, site equipment, and any other aspect of a job that would affect the overall profitability.
There are other roles that not every company has such as a project coordinator, project accountant, Virtual Design engineer, etc. If this post is successful then I will most definitely explore these other roles and go beyond the above breakdown.
-E J
