Commercial Estimator, Doors & Gates

Ultimate Staffing; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Signing bonus $10,000

Relocation package

Health Insurance

3% 401k match

Job summary

Ultimate Staffing is seeking an Estimator to join its team in San Diego, CA. This role involves reading bid packages, performing takeoffs, pricing commercial door systems, and writing precise scopes to avoid disputes later.

You will negotiate vendor buyouts and walk jobs with GCs and facility managers, ensuring a clean handoff to Project Management. The position offers a $10,000 signing bonus or relocation package and a direct-hire opportunity with room to build an estimating department as the

Qualifications

• 5+ years of commercial estimating experience.
• Experience in overhead/automatic door projects (rolling steel, fire doors, etc.).
• Fluency reading commercial plans and specs; ability to resolve conflicts.
• Vendor and manufacturer relationships with buyout experience.
• Proficient with estimating software, spreadsheets, and digital takeoff.

Responsibilities

• Read bid packages and identify scope gaps.
• Perform takeoffs and price commercial packages.
• Write scopes with inclusions/exclusions clearly.
• Quote vendors, negotiate buyouts, protect numbers.
• Walk jobs with GC/owners and hand off to PM.

Skills

Commercial estimating

Plans & specs reading

Vendor relations

Estimating software

Negotiation / buyout

Tools

Spreadsheets

Digital takeoff software

Estimating software

Job description

Hours: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm

Plus: $10,000 signing bonus or relocation package

Direct Hire

A leading provider of commercial overhead and automatic doors is seeking an Estimator to join its team. This is an exciting opportunity to join a strong company that is rapidly expanding its commercial division.

Job Duties:

• Read the bid package. Plans, specifications, addenda, requests for information. Find every opening in our scope and every trap that is not in it.
• Perform takeoffs and price complete commercial packages: sectional overhead doors, rolling steel and coiling doors, fire-rated rolling and swinging doors, smoke doors, counter shutters, security shutters, high-speed doors, loading dock equipment, automatic pedestrian doors, storefront systems, vehicle and pedestrian gates, gate operators, and the UL 325 safety devices tied to them.
• Write scopes that hold up. Inclusions, exclusions, clarifications, and work-by-others written clearly enough that nobody argues about them nine months later.
• Quote vendors, negotiate buyout, and protect the number from the day it goes out to the day the job closes.
• Walk jobs with General Contractors, builders, and facility managers, and be the person they trust on the call.
• Hand the job to Project Management cleanly, then watch the actual cost against your estimate and feed what you learn back into the next bid.

Help build the department:

• A real estimating process - intake, qualification, go/no-go, bid calendar, follow-up. Written down, repeatable, not living in one person's head.
• A pricing and labor-hour database that gets more accurate every quarter instead of starting over on every bid.
• A bid-versus-actual feedback loop so estimating learns from the field.
• Eventually, the estimators who come after you. This is a seat with room above it.

You will have leadership that wants the process built and will get out of your way while you build it. You will not be fighting for permission.

Qualifications:

• 5 or more years (10 or more preferred) of commercial estimating experience - minimum, non-negotiable.
• A track record you can walk us through in the overhead door and automatic door space. Rolling steel, fire doors, dock equipment, operators, gates, automatic pedestrian entrances. If you have spent your career estimating a different trade, this is not the post for you, and we will both know it in five minutes.
• Fluency reading commercial plans and specifications, and the judgment to know when the drawings and the specification disagree.
• Vendor and manufacturer relationships, and the confidence to work a buyout.
• Comfort with estimating software, spreadsheets, and digital takeoff. We are actively modernizing our systems and we want your opinion on what we adopt.
• Someone who genuinely likes this work. The people who are great at estimating tend to be the ones who find it satisfying rather than tedious. That is the person we want.

Preferred, but not required:

• Prior experience standing up or rebuilding an estimating department; familiarity with NFPA 80 fire-door requirements, UL 325, and ASTM F2200; public-works or prevailing-wage bidding.
• Sign on or Relocation Bonus - $10,000
• Health Insurance
• 3% match retirement plan
• Group dental and vision insurance election options
• The chance to be instrumental in building the department
• Relocating to sunny San Diego

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, age, ancestry, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, or military or veteran status. We consider all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with state and local laws, including the California Fair Chance Act, City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, and San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.