Estimator Jobs in San Diego, CA

Commercial Estimator — Overhead Doors, Automatic Doors & Gates ($10,000 Relocation or Signing Bonus)

You already know how to estimate a commercial overhead and automatic door package. This is about what you
could build with that.

Radford Doors & Gates has been in business since 1945 — 80 years, family-owned, San
Diego. Our residential business is mature and steady. Our commercial division is the
opposite: young, growing fast, winning real work, and running on the estimating
instincts of people who are very good but who are doing it on top of three other jobs.

That is the honest version. We are successful and we are underbuilt. We do not need
someone to hold a seat. We need the estimator who walks in, sees what is missing, and
builds it.

WHAT YOU WOULD OWN

You are the commercial estimating function. Not a piece of it — the function.

- 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.

WHAT YOU WOULD BUILD

This is the part that makes the job worth relocating for.

- 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.
- Standard scope language, standard exclusions, standard proposal structure.
- 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.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

- Five or more years (Ten 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.

Bonus, 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.

OUR VALUES — AND WE MEAN THEM

We hire and we keep people against four things:

- Positive attitude. A can-do approach that works past every challenge.
- Great work ethic. Pride in the craft and the desire to be the best at it.
- Great with customers. Genuine care about the other person's outcome.
- Do the right thing. Solve the problem others ignore. Choose the right course, not the
easy one.

An estimator who is technically excellent and difficult to work with is not a fit here.
We would rather wait for the right one.

WHAT WE OFFER

- Compensation: Range of $60,000 to $100,000 base salary + 5% commission on gross margin revenue DOE
- $10,000 signing or relocation bonus — your call. Move here on it, or take it as cash
and start. We are hiring the right person from anywhere in the country.
- Health insurance, 3% match retirement plan, group dental and vision insurance election options
- A company that has been here 80 years and intends to be here 80 more.
- The chance to build a department instead of inheriting one.
- Relocate to sunny San Diego. If you have been waiting for a reason, this is a decent one.

HOW TO APPLY

Send your resume and a short note — a few sentences is plenty — telling us about one
commercial door or gate package you estimated that you are proud of, and why. We read
those.

Radford Overhead Doors, Inc. dba Radford Doors & Gates · San Diego, California ·
California State License Board License No. 1050726 · Accredited Door Dealer,
International Door Association.

Radford Doors & Gates is an equal opportunity employer.

Pay: $60,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Relocation assistance
• Vision insurance

People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply

Experience:

• commercial estimating: 5 years (Required)

Work Location: In person