About the role

As Pre-Construction Manager you own the front end of the business: the tenders we chase, the risk we take on, the margins we price, and the quality of what we hand to our delivery teams. You'll work directly with our senior leadership team and be a key voice in bid/no-bid decisions across the national pipeline.

Key responsibilities

- Lead tender analysis from first principles — reviewing subcontract terms, specifications, geotech and program documents in detail, not just the drawings and BOQ

- Identify and rank commercial and contractual risk: time bars, latent conditions, liquidated damages, security terms, onerous flow-down provisions

- Prepare accurate, defensible estimates and lead pricing strategy across concurrent tenders

- Draft departures, clarifications and qualifications that genuinely shift risk — and negotiate them through post-tender discussions

- Make and defend bid/no-bid recommendations, including walking away from work that doesn't stack up

- Run structured handovers to project delivery, transferring pricing logic, risk registers and claims opportunities — not just a contract sum

- Track estimate-vs-actual performance and feed delivery data back into our rates and assumptions

- Build and maintain relationships with estimators and commercial managers at major head contractors

- Manage pipeline as a portfolio: capacity, geography, client mix and margin — not one tender at a time

About you

- Proven pre-construction, estimating or senior contracts experience within Australian construction — subcontracting or trade package experience highly regarded

- Forensic attention to tender documentation, with demonstrated ability to identify contractual risk (time bars, scope gaps, site conditions, onerous terms)





- Strong working knowledge of Australian construction contracts and the commercial realities of subcontracting to Tier 1 and Tier 2 builders

- First-principles estimating capability with a track record of pricing accuracy

- Confidence to deliver honest advice to senior leadership — including recommending against tenders the business wants to win

- Ability to lead estimators and coordinate input across operations, delivery and finance

- Calm, organised and decisive under tender deadline pressure

- Desirable: Engineering, quantity surveying or construction management qualifications

- Desirable: Experience with fencing, barriers, civil trade packages or linear infrastructure projects

- Desirable: Established relationships within the Tier 1/Tier 2 contractor market

About us

SWI Fencing is a national security fencing subcontractor delivering high-security and infrastructure fencing packages for Tier 1 and Tier 2 head contractors across Australia. From our Sydney head office and offices in five cities, we work on some of the country's most significant infrastructure, transport, defence and utilities projects. We've grown from a two-state operation into a genuinely national business — and our pre-construction function is central to how we win the right work, on the right terms.

Benefits

- A senior seat in a growing national business, working directly with the leadership team

- Real authority over the front end — your judgment shapes what we bid and how we bid it

- Market-competitive salary package plus participation in our employee incentive scheme

- Sydney head office base with national scope and travel as required
- A business that backs commercial discipline: we would rather win less work on better terms than chase revenue at any cost

📌 Pre-Construction Manager (Darwin)
🏢 SWI Fencing
📍 Darwin