What Heavy Civil construction roles does Amundson Group recruit for?

We place every level of role in Heavy Civil construction: superintendents, project managers, estimators, chief estimators, foremen, general foremen, field engineers, project engineers, schedulers, surveyors, QC managers, and executive-level positions including VPs, Operations Directors, and Chief Estimators.

Which U.S. markets does Amundson Group cover for Heavy Civil construction?

We recruit nationally in Heavy Civil with deep Sun Belt focus including Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville, Phoenix, Denver, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami. Our team specializes by role and territory, so a Heavy Civil search goes to a recruiter already inside that specific market.

How fast can Amundson Group fill a Heavy Civil construction role?

Our average time from brief to first qualified candidate is 7 hours. Field-level roles typically close in 2-4 weeks, mid-level roles in 3-6 weeks, and senior / executive roles in 6-10 weeks. Heavy Civil is one of our core specialties, so we maintain an active candidate bench.

Does Amundson Group offer retained search for Heavy Civil leadership roles?

Yes. Our locked-in / retained search is backed by 1,200+ placements and check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days after every start. For senior Heavy Civil roles (Chief Estimator, VP Operations, Preconstruction Director, Operations Manager), retained search is typically the right path.

What makes Amundson Group different from other Heavy Civil recruiters?

Three differentiators: (1) we recruit exclusively in construction, our team is inside the industry all day, every day; (2) we specialize by role and geography, so every search is handled by a specialist; (3) we back our retained work with 1,200+ placements across 47 states, 190+ of them in the last 12 months. Veteran-owned, Inc. 5000 2024 and 2025.

What are current Heavy Civil construction salaries?

See our 2026 Construction Salary Guide and sector-specific salary reports. Salary ranges vary significantly by market, experience level, and employer size, our research team publishes updated benchmarks every quarter.

Heavy Civil Construction HeadHunters

Building America Takes the Right Crew

Your Partner in Heavy Civil Hiring

From bid-day to ribbon-cut, our heavy civil headhunters keep your projects fully staffed.

We cut through the noise to deliver people who know how to get the job done – no fluff, no delays.

Heavy Work: What Is Heavy Civil Construction? The Half of the Industry You Drive On (5:54). Watch on YouTube.

1,200+ Placements Made

More than 1,200 construction placements, 190+ of them in the last 12 months.

90,000+ Professionals in Network

A construction network 90,000 deep, worked by 15 hours of sourcing coverage every weekday.

250+ Companies Served

Contractors in 47 states come back seat after seat.

4.9 on Google

93 reviews from clients and placed candidates.

Inc. 5000 Company

Proud to be named in the Inc. 5000 list for 2024 and 2025.

7 DAYS

from intake to a vetted shortlist on your desk

7 Hours

Average time to resume

24 HRS

To a full intake call with your named recruiter

30/60/90

Day check-ins after every placement starts

About Us

Heavy civil is our home turf

Amundson Group is a veteran owned construction recruiting firm headquartered in Houston. Heavy civil is where we live: bridges, highways, dams and the crews that build them. One named recruiter runs your search, sourcing starts the night you send the role, and we stay on it with check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days after the start date.

Speed you can plan around

Average 7 hours from job intake to first qualified resume.

Heavy civil only, not generalists

Construction only. Heavy civil, site development, paving, bridges and underground utilities.

A bench you cannot post your way into

A network of 90,000+ construction professionals and more than 1,200 placements.

4.9 on Google, 93 reviews

Heavy Civil Construction Headhunters

We place Heavy Civil Construction Pros across a Range of Roles including:

Aerial drone shot of a construction site construction

Project Controls

Track budgets, schedules, and resources so projects hit targets without surprises.

Fleet Services

Keep equipment moving, maintained, and cost‑effective so projects stay on schedule and on budget.

foremen

Keep crews moving, quality high, and the job site running smoothly every day.

Project MANAGEMENT team

Keep schedules tight, budgets intact, and crews firing on all cylinders.

Superintendents

Run the field, own the safety plan, and hit the milestones – every time.

Estimators

Nail the numbers so you win profitable work and protect your margins.

Survey Team

Lay out the groundwork with precision to keep every phase of construction on point.

Hse

Lead safety on site, protect crews, and make sure every job finishes without incident.

Field team

Solve technical challenges in real time to keep progress (and grade) on target.

Heavy Civil Construction Recruiting Resources

Guides and Market Data

Salary Data

Where We Recruit

Video transcript

What Is Heavy Civil Construction? The Half of the Industry You Drive On. Heavy Work, by Amundson Group. 5:54. Watch on YouTube.

0:00 The half you drive on
0:23 What counts as heavy civil
1:15 It starts in the dirt
2:12 How a job runs
3:04 The people who run it
4:24 Why it is hard
5:14 What it pays in 2026
5:39 Close

Say construction, and most people picture a building. There is another half. You drive on it. You drink from it. It carries the trains and the power.

That half is heavy civil. Bridges. Highways. Dams. Rail and tunnels. Water and wastewater. Marine. And the earthwork under all of it.

This is what it is. How a job runs. And who runs it.

Heavy civil is not a building outdoors. The methods are different. The contracts are different. The risk is different. And the people are different.

Here is a quick rule. If the work moves earth, it is heavy civil. If it builds infrastructure, it is heavy civil. If it readies a site and utilities, it is heavy civil.

Take a highway. Paving is spec sensitive. Weather driven. Priced by the unit. Foremen live by density and tolerance.

Take a treatment plant. Long cycle. Technical. Built for a city, under public rules.

Three words get mixed up. Sitework. Site development. Heavy civil. Sitework readies a raw parcel. Site development adds the roads, pads and paving. Heavy civil includes all that, plus highways, bridges and plants.

Every heavy civil job starts in the dirt. Earthwork is moving, shaping, placing and compacting soil and rock.

It runs in an order. Survey and layout. Clearing and grubbing. Strip the topsoil. Mass excavation, cut and fill, to design grade. Then utilities, drainage and erosion control.

The tools are excavators, graders, dozers and compactors. The operators read grade sheets. They run GPS and machine control.

Earthwork is almost always the critical path. Nothing above grade moves until the ground is ready. A delay here delays every trade behind it.

How long does it take? It depends on soil, size and drainage. A big data center site can take three to six months. Or longer.

A small site runs a team of eight to twelve. A large industrial project runs thirty or more.

Now the job itself. Most heavy civil work is public. It is won by hard bid. Or design build. Or a method called CMGC.

State DOTs let highway and bridge work in cycles. Bids follow DOT specs. Public rules. Federal wage rules.

Before any of that, someone prices it. Estimators pull the survey, soil report, plans and haul distance. They figure cut and fill, materials, equipment, labor and contingency.

The tools have names. HeavyBid for the bid. Primavera for the schedule. Bluebeam for the plans.

Then the job runs from bid to final closeout. A bridge goes foundation, then deck, then railing. Jobs run from ten million to two hundred million dollars. And up.

Work this big takes a bench. Here is who sits on it.

The superintendent runs the field. Owns the safety plan. Hits the milestones. Reads plans. Manages subs. Keeps production moving.

The foreman keeps crews moving and quality high, every day. On paving, that means density, smoothness and schedule, all at once.

The estimator nails the numbers. Wins work at a margin that holds. On paving, they think per square yard.

The project manager holds schedule and budget. Change orders. Owner relationships. On DOT work, public bidding and federal wage rules.

The project engineer is the pipeline for future PMs. Submittals. RFIs. Cost tracking. Quantity tracking. Field coordination.

Behind them, a deeper bench. Project controls track budgets, schedules and resources. Survey lays out the groundwork. Fleet keeps the iron moving and maintained. Safety leads protect the crew.

Quality control checks the work against state agency specs. Operators run the iron. Mechanics keep it alive. Grade checkers and utility locators round out the crew.

Here is the catch. These skills do not transfer. A building superintendent cannot run a grading spread. A paving foreman is not an earthwork foreman. The pool is small and the fit is specific.

The work is high hazard. Contractors want more than certificates. They want a culture of zero incidents.

The numbers say the same thing. This year, ninety two percent of contractors struggle to fill seats. Superintendents are the hardest seat. Then estimators. Then project managers.

And the demand keeps coming. Construction needs three hundred forty nine thousand new workers this year. Data center spending hit fifty eight billion dollars by May. Texas committed over one hundred billion to roads this decade. All of it draws on the same crews and field leaders.

So what does it pay? Take Houston, spring 2026. A superintendent, one hundred ten to one hundred sixty thousand base. Plus a truck, and per diem on the road.

A PM, one hundred twenty to one hundred seventy five thousand. Plus bonus. An estimator, one hundred ten to one hundred sixty five. A project engineer, seventy five to one hundred five, and climbing.

That is heavy civil. The half you drive on. Built by people most of us never see. Heavy Work, by Amundson Group.