Pre-Construction Manager

Talent Right; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Talent Right partners with a national security fencing contractor to recruit an experienced Pre-Contracts Manager. You will direct estimating, engineering and bid resources, challenge returns, and ensure proposals align with what the business can deliver on time and margin.

This office-based role involves coordinating a skilled team across tender strategy, procurement, and handover to delivery, with site involvement and no line authority over specialists.

Qualifications

• Senior pre-construction or delivery background.
• Strong buildability and programme logic experience.
• Commercially sharp with margin and risk sign-off responsibility.
• Understanding back-to-back subcontract exposure.
• Experience leading value engineering and coordinating suppliers/consultants.
• Ability to direct estimating, engineering and bid resources without line authority.
• Civil/construction background; Tier 1 to Tier 2 breadth is valuable.

Responsibilities

• Review tender strategy and project methodology.
• Assess programme, procurement and delivery risks.
• Identify long-lead items and supply chain constraints.
• Review commercial and operational exposure.
• Direct estimating, engineering and bid resources, and coordinate internal tender review.
• Prepare proposals for client submission.
• Validate buildability and delivery sequencing against the methodology standard.
• Ensure the programme can be achieved or improved.
• Lead value engineering and coordinate with Engineering and Drafting Manager.
• Coordinate technical inputs and clarifications with consultants and suppliers.
• Complete a thorough WBS review; sign off margin and risk within authority.
• Engage Commercial Manager on subcontract terms; align supplier terms with head contract.
• Recommend procurement sequencing and supplier commitments; review with Contracts Administrator.
• Engage Senior PM to allocate the delivery team; finalise procurement strategy and key path items.
• Transfer programme, procurement, technical solution and project risks to delivery team.

Skills

Senior pre-construction

Buildability

Programme logic

Margin sign-off

Value engineering

Lead without authority

Civil/construction background

Subcontract management

Job description

Talent Right is partnering with a national security fencing contractor to recruit an experienced Pre-Contracts Manager. This is not an estimating role, and it is not a bid writing role. Price, submission, and the technical solution are produced by the estimating, engineering, and drafting functions. You direct them, test what comes back, and carry the outcome.

Put plainly, the job is to make sure the business only commits to work it can actually build, on a programme it can hit, at a margin that holds.

About The Client: Our client is a national security fencing contractor with offices in most Australian states. They install rather than manufacture, and they have deliberately moved away from the smaller local work that used to fill the calendar.

The focus now is on large, technically demanding, high-security projects: data centres, correctional facilities, airports and major infrastructure. The work involves crash-rated systems, delayed entry systems and specifications most of the competition can't cater for, which is precisely why they win it. Project values are upwards of $3+million.

The business has recently restructured from state-based operations into national functions, with heads of pre-construction, delivery, and client relations in place, the Pre-construction function as a stand-alone role is being built out now statewide.

About The Role

Reporting to the Head of Pre-Construction, you direct the estimating, engineering, and bid resources assigned to each tender, challenge what comes back where it needs challenging, and carry the outcome. You do that without line authority over any of them, so influence matters as much as technical judgement.

The technical complexity here is real, and so is the pace. This is a team that has been moving quickly for a long time, and the role will suit someone who wants to be in the detail of projects rather than overseeing from a distance.

This is an office-based role with site involvement. Working from home is not how the team operates, and it would not give you what you need to learn this business properly.

Key Responsibilities

• Review tender strategy and project methodology
• Assess programme, procurement and delivery risks
• Identify long-lead items and supply chain constraints
• Review commercial and operational exposure
• Direct the estimating, engineering and bid resources, and coordinate the internal tender review
• Prepare proposals for client submission

Buildability, value and sign-off

• Validate buildability and delivery sequencing against the methodology standard
• Make sure the programme can be achieved or improved
• Lead value engineering and workshop alternate designs with the Engineering and Drafting Manager
• Coordinate technical inputs and clarifications, and engage consultants and suppliers on alternate systems
• Complete a thorough WBS review
• Sign off margin and risk within delegated authority, escalating beyond it

Commercial alignment

• Engage the Commercial Manager on subcontract terms, qualifications, inclusions and exclusions
• Ensure supplier and subcontractor terms sit back-to-back with head contract conditions
• Recommend procurement sequencing and supplier commitments
• Continue subcontract reviews with the Contracts Administrator

Handover to Delivery

• Engage the Senior PM to allocate the delivery team
• Provide recommendations on key suppliers and subcontractors
• Finalise procurement strategy and critical path items
• Transfer programme, procurement, technical solution and project risks cleanly to the delivery team

The Ideal Candidate

• Senior pre-construction, estimating or delivery background
• Strong on buildability, programme logic and methodology
• Commercially sharp, and comfortable owning margin and risk sign-off
• Understands back-to-back subcontract exposure
• Able to lead value engineering and bring suppliers and consultants to the table
• Able to direct estimating, engineering and bid resource without line authority over it
• Disciplined at handover into Delivery

A civil or construction background is the baseline, and detailed civil works experience counts for more than bulk earthworks. If you are coming from a Tier 1 contractor and want the breadth, visibility, and ownership that a Tier 2 gives you, this is worth a conversation.

Why This Role?

• Multi-million-dollar, high-security projects that most of the market will not touch
• A newly structured national pre-construction function you will help shape
• Delegated authority over margin and risk, with a direct line to the Head of Pre-Construction
• Offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Darwin, with flexibility on location for the right person
• Short-term incentive scheme on top of base, tied to sales and invoicing performance
• Vehicle or vehicle allowance included in the package
• A long-tenured team with deep technical knowledge of a specialised market