Heavy Civil Superintendent

Position Summary

Lewis & Tibbitts is seeking an experienced Heavy Civil Superintendent with a proven background managing self-perform underground utility, grading, asphalt paving, site concrete, and structural concrete operations. This is a field leadership position for someone who can plan the work, build realistic production schedules, coordinate crews and equipment, and drive projects safely and profitably from mobilization through closeout.

The right candidate must understand how the work is physically built—not simply coordinate subcontractors. The Superintendent will work closely with Project Managers, Estimating, foremen, owners, general contractors, inspectors, and utility agencies to turn the estimate and contract documents into an executable field plan.

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California

Company: Lewis & Tibbitts, Inc.

Employment Type: Full-time

Pay: $180,000-$220,000

Apply through LinkedIn– contact careers@digLT.com for any inquiries.

Required Core Experience

• Heavy civil and public works construction in an active Superintendent or General Foreman role.
• Self-perform installation of wet utilities, including water, sanitary sewer, and storm drain systems.
• Experience with joint trench or dry utility infrastructure is strongly preferred.
• Mass and fine grading, excavation, subgrade preparation, aggregate base placement, and compaction.
• Asphalt paving operations, including removals, subgrade and base preparation, paving, patching, tie-ins, and restoration.
• Site concrete operations, including curb and gutter, sidewalks, valley gutters, ADA ramps, driveways, mow curbs, equipment pads, and other concrete hardscape.
• Structural concrete operations, including foundations, footings, grade beams, walls, slabs, equipment pads, utility structures, vaults, and other cast-in-place concrete.
• Concrete layout, excavation, subgrade preparation, formwork, reinforcing steel, embeds, anchor bolts, placement, finishing, curing, testing, and stripping.
• Trenching, shoring, dewatering, utility crossings, traffic control, and work in congested public rights-of-way.
• Development of crew plans, equipment plans, production goals, short-interval schedules, and two- to six-week look-ahead schedules.
• Ability to read plans, specifications, geotechnical reports, utility profiles, and survey information.
• Demonstrated responsibility for field production, labor and equipment costs, quality, safety, and schedule performance.

Key Responsibilities

1. Review the estimate, plans, specifications, geotechnical information, contract scope, and project schedule before mobilization.
2. Develop the field execution plan, including work sequence, crew composition, equipment needs, material releases, traffic control, access, trucking, disposal, and subcontractor coordination.
3. Establish measurable daily and weekly production targets for each crew and communicate those targets to foremen.
4. Prepare and maintain realistic short-interval and look-ahead schedules based on normal working hours before recommending overtime or additional resources.
5. Lead daily field operations for underground utilities, grading, paving, site concrete, structural concrete, demolition, and restoration work.
6. Coordinate with Project Managers to identify RFIs, changed conditions, design conflicts, quantity growth, schedule impacts, and potential change-order work before the cost is lost.
7. Verify that daily reports accurately document crew size, labor hours, equipment hours, installed quantities, delays, changed conditions, visitors, inspections, and extra work.
8. Compare actual production against the estimate and promptly report material variances to Project Management and Estimating.
9. Coordinate concrete work with underground utilities, earthwork, paving, buildings, equipment, and other trades to prevent conflicts and rework.
10. Develop concrete pour plans covering layout, formwork, reinforcing steel, embeds, access, pumps, crew size, placement sequence, finishing, testing, curing, and weather protection.
11. Verify dimensions, elevations, slopes, reinforcing steel, embeds, anchor bolts, blockouts, and penetrations before concrete placement.
12. Coordinate survey, utility locating, potholing, inspections, concrete testing, compaction testing, and agency requirements.
13. Maintain jobsite safety, trench and excavation compliance, formwork and reinforcing safety, quality control, housekeeping, and environmental requirements.
14. Conduct foreman planning meetings and hold field leaders accountable for safety, production, documentation, and workmanship.
15. Support project handoff and closeout, including punch-list completion, record information, restoration, and lessons learned.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of heavy civil construction experience, including at least 5 years leading field operations as a Superintendent or General Foreman.
• Documented experience delivering underground utility, grading, paving, site concrete, and structural concrete scopes on projects of comparable size and complexity.
• Strong knowledge of trench safety, shoring systems, soil conditions, compaction requirements, utility testing, and public right-of-way work.
• Strong working knowledge of concrete formwork, reinforcing steel, embed coordination, placement methods, concrete testing, finishing, curing, and dimensional quality control.
• Ability to build production-driven work plans and understand labor, equipment, material, trucking, and subcontractor cost impacts.
• Working knowledge of California public works, prevailing-wage, union, and agency inspection environments.
• Strong communication and leadership skills with the ability to coordinate multiple crews and stakeholders.
• Valid driver’s license and ability to travel to projects throughout the Bay Area.

Preferred Qualifications

• OSHA 30 certification.
• Competent Person training for excavation and trenching.
• Experience with HCSS HeavyJob or similar field production and cost-reporting software.
• Experience working with Caltrans, municipalities, water districts, utility owners, and general contractors.
• Experience with concrete pump stations, utility vaults, retaining walls, equipment foundations, and other civil structures.
• Experience mentoring foremen and helping build standardized crews, production rates, and field procedures.

What Success Looks Like

The successful Superintendent will:

• Plan work before crews arrive and keep labor, equipment, materials, and access aligned.
• Consistently achieve safe, realistic production targets.
• Produce accurate field reports that management can use to measure job profitability.
• Identify changed conditions and extra-work opportunities early enough to preserve entitlement and recover cost.
• Reduce rework through constructability review, sequencing, layout, testing, and quality control.
• Strengthen communication between Operations, Project Management, and Estimating.
• Develop foremen and create repeatable field systems for underground, grading, paving, site concrete, and structural concrete operations.

Candidate Screening Priorities

Candidates should be able to provide specific project examples showing:

• Utility types, pipe sizes, depths, trench conditions, and quantities installed.
• Grading quantities, equipment spreads, soil conditions, and compaction methods.
• Paving tonnage, access constraints, base preparation, and restoration requirements.
• Site concrete quantities, crew sizes, forming and finishing methods, placement rates, and ADA or drainage-control requirements.
• Structural concrete quantities, forming systems, reinforcing complexity, pour sizes, pump requirements, placement rates, and quality-control procedures.
• Typical crew sizes, daily production rates, schedules, and project values.
• A changed condition or missed-scope issue they identified, documented, and helped convert into an approved change order.
• How they verify foreman daily reports and compare actual production to the estimate.

Ideal candidate profile: A hands-on heavy civil field leader who has progressed through the trades or foreman ranks, understands production and cost, and can lead self-perform crews across underground utilities, grading, paving, site concrete, and structural concrete.