Construction & Engineering Recruiters — Estimators and Superintendents
Hired against a schedule that does not move, from a pool that is mid-project. Clover Search Group is an owner-led direct hire recruiting firm in Lodi, California.
Book a Hiring ConsultationClover Search Group is an owner-led direct hire recruiting firm in Lodi, California, and construction is one of the six practice areas we run — listed as Construction & Infrastructure on our employers page. We place preconstruction, project management, field leadership and the design and engineering seats alongside them, for builders, specialty contractors, developers and A&E firms across the Central Valley and the Sacramento region. Brooklyn and Aidan Kearney own the firm and run the searches themselves.
Whether you call us construction recruiters, headhunters or an executive search firm for a preconstruction seat, the service is one thing — direct hire recruiting, with the estimator or the superintendent on your payroll rather than ours.
Construction hiring has one feature nothing else in our practice list shares: the candidate is mid-project. A superintendent three quarters of the way through a build is not going to walk, and a project manager with a close-out in front of him will finish it. That is not reluctance, it is the reason you want him. It also means construction searches are timed rather than rushed, and we say so at intake instead of pretending otherwise in week five.
The construction roles we recruit.
Grouped by level, across commercial, industrial, agricultural and public-works work — coolers, packing sheds and process buildings as often as offices and schools.
Leadership. The seats that own a division, a backlog or a bid strategy.
Manager. The layer that carries a project or a portfolio of them from award to close-out.
Professional and design. The technical seats a builder or an A&E firm hires alongside the field.
Three kinds of employer hire from this desk out here, and they want different people. General contractors and design-build firms need project managers and superintendents who can hold a schedule and a subcontractor list at the same time. Specialty and industrial contractors — mechanical, electrical, refrigeration, process piping — need estimators who can price work most generalists will not touch. And architecture and engineering firms need licensed design staff and project architects, usually to service public work that has already been awarded.
The screening question that matters most is not years of experience. It is what kind of jobs, at what contract value, in what delivery method. Somebody who has run hard-bid public work is not automatically the right hire for a negotiated design-build client, and the other way round. We ask for the project list, and then we call the people on it.
Where the building is.
Sacramento. Public works is the engine here, and it changes the hire: state and municipal projects come with prevailing wage, documentation and a bid process that rewards people who have lived inside it. It is also where most of the region’s architecture and engineering firms sit, which is why design and A&E seats concentrate in this market more than anywhere else we cover.
Stockton. Warehouses, distribution facilities and the industrial shell work that comes with a logistics corridor, plus civic and education projects across San Joaquin County. Tilt-up and industrial experience is the currency, and candidates here are within commuting distance of Bay Area contractors paying Bay Area rates, which is the single biggest pressure on an offer.
Modesto. Process and agricultural construction — plant expansions, cold storage, packing and processing buildings for the food companies that anchor Stanislaus County. It is a specialised corner of the trade and the people who are good at it tend to stay in it, which makes the pool small and worth knowing personally.
Construction is the practice that travels furthest across our footprint. See every market we cover for the rest of it.
A search runs like a road you know.
Four stops between the first call and a signed offer — no black box, no surprises. The long version, with the road art, is on the employers page.
Intake
For a construction seat we want the project list, the delivery method, the backlog and an honest answer about who the new hire will report to on site. We come to you before we start — the jobsite, if you will have us there. Recruiting begins when the engagement letter is signed. Not before.
Sourcing
Owner-led outreach across the corridors, not job-board scraping. Phone first — inboxes are noise, and a call gets a real conversation. The people worth hiring usually aren’t looking. They still pick up.
The shortlist
A handful of vetted, genuinely interested candidates — days, not weeks. A phone screen, then a video or in-person interview. Reference checks run by Aidan personally.
The placement
We stay in it through the offer, the move and the first 90 days. Every hire is guaranteed for 90 days, and we check in with both sides after the start date to make sure it is actually working.
What these seats pay. No numbers here — an estimator range without its market and its project type is a number that argues for the wrong offer. The 2026 Central Valley Salary Guide carries BLS-sourced ranges across five areas, and the Construction & Infrastructure tables are the ones to read first. The full fee and engagement picture is on the employers page.
Questions about construction searches.
What does a construction search cost?
Most construction searches run contingent: one fee, owed only when the estimator or the superintendent starts, with a 90-day replacement guarantee behind them. No retainer, no upfront commitment, no tiered price sheet. Retained and exclusive engagements are structured differently, with part of the fee paid up front. We quote the number on the first call.
Contingent or retained for a preconstruction or operations leader?
Project managers, estimators and superintendents run contingent. A chief estimator, a director of preconstruction or the person who is going to run a division is usually retained or exclusive — those are small pools, the good ones are mid-project, and the search only works if it is worked deliberately rather than posted and hoped over.
How long does a construction search take?
We do not publish an average. What governs it here is the project calendar: a superintendent will not leave a job half-built and a PM will usually finish a close-out first, so timing a search to the end of a phase beats pushing against it. We will tell you at intake which of those you are up against.
What happens if the hire does not work out?
Every hire is guaranteed for 90 days. If it comes apart inside that window, we run the search again. We also check in with both sides after the start date, because on a jobsite the mismatch usually shows up as friction with the supers or the subs long before anyone calls it a hiring problem.
Do you do executive search for construction leadership?
Yes. Chief estimator, director of preconstruction, director of construction and division manager work runs as retained or exclusive executive search, with part of the fee paid up front and a defined shortlist date. Project managers, estimators and superintendents run contingent. All of it is direct hire — permanent staff on your payroll.
Not looking? Let’s talk anyway.
If you are running work in the Valley you are probably on a jobsite at seven and not thinking about your next move. That is exactly who we call, and we will call after hours rather than during the pour. No cost to candidates, ever, the conversation is confidential, and nothing goes to a competitor of your current employer without your say-so. More for candidates →
We call. You hire.
Ready to make your next hire?
Fifteen minutes on the phone — the seat, the project, and whether we’re the right fit. No pitch deck.
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