Director of Estimating Services
Quick Overview
My client is a national property restoration franchise network with more than 300 locations across the US and Canada. They are hiring a Director of Estimating Services to run their in-house remote estimating service as a business. The product, the process, the technology, the customers and the number. The service writes a significant share of the network's estimate volume and doubled last year. Most of the network's work still gets estimated somewhere else, and the ceiling is a long way up. Direct report to the SVP of US Operations. Two team managers and a dozen estimators already in place.
THE WHO
A national network of independently owned restoration offices, part of a larger publicly traded organization, operating with a private-company feel. The business restores homes and commercial properties after water, fire, storm and other disasters, which means showing up for people on the worst day they have had in years. The network produces roughly a billion dollars a year in work, and every one of those jobs starts with an estimate. Most of those estimates are still written office by office, by estimators who are the hardest people in the building to hire, keep and cover when they take a week off.
THE WHAT
You own the estimating service. A remote team that takes field documentation from the network's offices and turns it into carrier-ready Xactimate and Symbility estimates. Today it writes a meaningful share of the network's volume. Your job is to make it the obvious choice. Rebuild how offices submit work and what they have to send. Pick and implement the technology that turns a scope and a set of photos into a draft estimate before a human touches it. Drive revision count and turnaround time to the point where the service is the fastest and most accurate option an office has. Then get in front of franchise owners and sell it, because every one of them can say no.
THE WHY
The demand is already there. Three hundred offices that need estimates written every day, and some that have leaned all the way in and retired their own estimating desks because this service covered it. The service doubled last year before it had an intake standard, a technology roadmap or anyone selling it. What it does with all three is the reason this seat exists. This is not a build from scratch. The team is in place, the managers are in place, the brand is on the door, and you will be partnering with the company's AI architect and senior technology leader. What is missing is the person who owns the whole thing and treats it like a business with customers instead of a department with a queue.
THE WHERE
Remote, anywhere in the US or Canada, within reach of a major airport. Travel is about one week a month to franchise offices, company meetings and industry events. The final interview is in person.
The Role
This is a general manager's seat with an estimator's trade underneath it. The service is optional. Offices can use it, write in-house, or buy from an outside vendor. So the job is not to run a queue of estimators. It is to run a service line that has to earn its customers, and to be measured on whether it does. The work splits three ways. First, the product. An intake standard the field actually follows, a workflow that turns documentation into an approved estimate inside a day, and the technology to get there. Second, the sell. Franchise owners decide for themselves, so you win them one office at a time and from the stage at network meetings. Third, the number. Revenue, adoption and service quality, with pricing in your hands. You report to the SVP of US Operations, who recently took this service on, has a clear read on where it goes next, and wants the person who builds it to own it rather than wait on him. The company has an AI architect and a senior technology leader on staff. They are your partners on the build. You are not expected to write code. You are expected to know what exists in the industry, vet it, pick it, and drive it into the workflow. Two team managers run the day-to-day with a dozen estimators between them. They are in place and ready. You are the leader over the whole thing.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the estimating service as a business. Revenue, adoption, service quality and pricing
- Rebuild the intake standard for how offices submit work, including required documentation, scope, photos and measurements, and hold the network to it
- Redesign the workflow from field capture to approved estimate, with a target of 24 hours and three revisions or fewer
- Evaluate, select and implement estimating and documentation technology, including capture-to-estimate automation, alongside the company's AI architect and technology leadership
- Sell the service to franchise owners and their teams, in person, at network meetings and one office at a time, and keep selling it after they say yes
- Set and report the numbers that matter. Cycle time, revision rate, accuracy, adoption by office and share of network volume
- Lead, coach and develop two team managers and a dozen estimators, and grow the team as volume grows
- Own carrier program compliance and estimating standards across the service
- Build the monthly reporting that lets leadership see whether the service is winning
Requirements
Must Haves
- Has led an estimating operation, not just written estimates. Eight or more estimators under you, or an estimating service with its own revenue and customers who could leave
- Deep insurance restoration estimating. Xactimate fluency is required. Symbility (Cotality) is a strong plus
- Has implemented estimating or documentation technology and can put a number on what it did to turnaround or accuracy
- Has built the process. Intake standards, required-inputs checklists, QA loops. Can name revision rate and cycle time before and after
- Has sold a service or program to people who could say no, such as franchise owners, branch managers and contractor customers
- Has owned a budget or P&L for a service line, or run one as if you did
- Comfortable in front of a room of owners, and in a one-on-one with an office that has chosen to estimate in-house
- Lives in the US or Canada near a major airport, and can travel about one week a month
Preferred
- Leadership at a third-party or outsourced remote estimating service
- Corporate experience inside a franchise system, where adoption is earned rather than mandated
- Carrier direct repair program and managed repair fluency. Carrier-side experience is welcome if you came from the contractor side first
- Experience working alongside technology or AI teams on workflow automation
- Experience scaling a US-based delivery model without offshoring the work
- IICRC certifications (WRT, ASD, FSRT) and Xactimate certification levels
Compensation
Total cash at target is $196,000. The bonus is tied to the numbers the role controls. Revenue growth, network adoption and service quality. It is built so the person who actually moves the number gets paid for it.
Benefits & Perks
- •A service line to run as a business, with a built-in network of 300-plus offices as the customer base
- •A team of a dozen estimators and two managers already in place
- •An AI architect and a senior technology leader as partners on the build
- •A brand owners already trust, instead of a vendor's logo
- •A bonus built on exactly what you control, paid quarterly
- •Remote, US or Canada, about one week a month on the road
- •Part of a larger publicly traded organization, with a private-company operating feel
- •A company that shows up at the worst moments people have, and treats that as the point
About Flowstate
Flowstate Search is executive recruiting for construction, restoration, and property services. Founded by an operator, not a recruiter. We show up like it matters, because it does.
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