Role Overview
The Director of Building is a key member of CO Adaptive’s management team, working at the same leadership level as other Directors and reporting directly to the Principals. This role carries high-level accountability for construction operations across both the Architecture and Build entities, ensuring quality, efficiency, profitability, and alignment with CO Adaptive’s mission and values.

While the Project Manager serves as the primary client contact during construction, the Director of Building ensures client satisfaction remains central to all decisions. They attend client meetings, support PMs on critical communication, and take accountability for difficult conversations such as budget or schedule impacts. Acting as both mentor and leader, they help refine client-facing communication while setting the tone for construction excellence across teams.

This is a pivotal role for an experienced construction leader who thrives in a design-build environment, understands the complexity of managing diverse projects concurrently, and can integrate construction strategy into the earliest stages of design.

Core Responsibilities

Client + Stakeholder Management

• Support Project Managers in maintaining client satisfaction through proactive communication, transparency, and resolution of challenges related to budget or schedule.
• Attend client meetings and mentor PMs on effective client communication, ensuring trust, professionalism, and alignment with CO Adaptive’s standards.

Staffing + Scheduling

• Oversee and forecast staffing, trade partner sequencing, and cross-project scheduling for all active work, optimizing for quality, efficiency, and profitability.
• Coordinate with Project Managers and the Director of Architecture to ensure alignment across disciplines.
• Establish robust scheduling protocols, including milestones, submittal schedules, scope look-aheads, and material ordering, providing guidance for PMs to maintain schedule adherence.

Procurement + Vendor Management

• Oversee bidding, negotiation, and procurement processes for trade partners and materials, ensuring alignment with budgets, schedules, and project strategy.
• Provide strategic oversight and management of material procurement across all active projects.
• Establish standards for forecasting, specification, and purchasing to ensure cost-effectiveness, schedule alignment, and adherence to CO Adaptive’s sustainability goals.
• Cultivate strong trade partner and vendor relationships, set clear expectations, and monitor performance across all projects.

 Construction Standards + Quality Oversight

• Uphold CO Adaptive’s construction standards and ensure consistency across projects.
• Develop and maintain CO Adaptive guidelines for construction and carpentry techniques, protocols, and procedures in Confluence, ensuring documentation evolves with field insights and team feedback.
• Partner with the Director of Architecture and Integration Lead to review site quality, address persistent issues, and document best practices for ongoing improvement.
• Partner closely with Lead Carpenters to integrate construction knowledge early in design and ensure smooth handoff into construction execution.

Project Financial Oversight

• Oversee project financial tracking and support Project Managers with weekly updates, change orders, and site-driven adjustments.
• Take accountability for addressing discrepancies or challenging situations with the team  or client, escalating to Principals as needed.

 Mentorship + Team Development

• Mentor Project Managers and Build team members, ensuring compliance with OSHA certifications and continuing education.
• Lead monthly Build staff meetings to align the team and share best practices.

Issue Anticipation + Problem Solving

• Anticipate issues, address client concerns early, and track persistent issues in Confluence for COA Best Practices.
• Support project teams in developing practical, high-quality solutions across all active projects.

Project Closeout

• Oversee project closeout, including punchlist tracking and warranty documentation.
• Ensure all items are completed, recorded, and communicated clearly to clients.

Process-Specific Responsibilities

Schematic Design

• Review and support project feasibility, systems, schedules, and pricing estimates.
• Align with Principals on project fit for Build delivery.

Design Development

• Review assemblies, products, schedules, and pricing for potential Build delivery.
• Identify bidding strategies and prepare bid packages where appropriate.
• Delegate methodologies for baseline estimate setup by Project Managers for take-offs, and review in-house construction scopes for best practices, accuracy, scope gaps, sequencing, and general requirements for staging and setup. Delegate detailed estimates such as millwork to the appropriate Leads.

Construction Documentation

• Advise on trade partner relationships, material procurement, schedules, and QA/QC for Build projects.
• Integrate the appropriate Lead Carpenter early into design to incorporate their perspective into construction planning.

Construction Management

• Assume coordination and oversight of Build duties post-handoff from the Director of Architecture.
• Ensure alignment with project goals and standards.
• Ensure on-site conformance with building codes, fire protection, and safety regulations, coordinating with Project Managers to address any compliance issues promptly.

Success in this Role Requires

• 7–10 years of progressive construction management experience, ideally within a design-build firm or a highly collaborative architectural/construction environment.
• OSHA 30 certification (or willingness to complete within 3 months).
• A degree in construction management, engineering, architecture, or a related field (or equivalent proven experience).
• A proven track record of successfully managing multiple complex projects simultaneously while maintaining high quality, efficiency, and profitability.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to guide and inspire diverse teams, foster an inclusive and respectful workplace, and promote productive collaboration between construction and design.
• A strategic mindset that balances the big picture with meticulous attention to detail, ensuring decisions are informed by multiple perspectives.
• Hands-on construction experience and a strong understanding of labor, tools, and trade workflows. While the Director of Building does not perform labor, this background ensures effective oversight of carpentry teams, and site operations.
• An approach to leadership that reflects CO Adaptive’s values:
  - Taking responsibility for results, learning from mistakes, and following through.
  - Valuing time and efficiency while continuously improving processes.
  - Believing that collaboration—across disciplines, backgrounds, and perspectives—leads
    to better outcomes, internally and externally.
  - Questioning the status quo to improve the industry and reduce environmental impact.
  - Appreciating the process, not just the product, and maintaining a long-term view on
    building performance.

Reporting + Collaboration

Reports to: Principals
Collaborates closely with: Director of Architecture, Practice Manager, Project Managers, Integration Lead
Delegates to: PMs, PDs, Lead Carpenters
Keeps informed: Principals (key decisions), Director of Architecture (design coordination), Practice Manager (resourcing)

About CO Adaptive Architecture

The Practice CO Adaptive is a design-build practice specializing in high performance renovations of existing buildings. Our organization is made up of two divisions: CO Adaptive Architecture focuses on the design and documentation of our projects, and is celebrating its 14 year anniversary. Its sister company CO Adaptive Building, operates as a construction manager and woods trade partner for many of our projects, and is now approaching its fourth year in business. Within an industry preoccupied with the finished image of architecture, we seek to turn focus to the means of making and maintaining buildings. Our work aims to reduce operational energy while also minimizing embodied energy. We tackle this challenge by working with existing buildings, retrofitting them for resilience and durability using healthy, equitably sourced, local and renewable materials. We believe that design and building should be a collaborative practice that works to solve today’s biggest challenges. Throughout the practice, our culture is guided by five core values: We each take agency. We value our time and strive for higher efficiency. We believe collaboration always takes us further. We question t...he status quo. We find beauty in the process. CO Adaptive is a woman-owned business enterprise and is currently seeking B Corp certification.

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