Preconstruction Manager

What You'll Do

The Data Center Planning & Construction team at CoreWeave is responsible for delivering a rapidly growing portfolio of data centers and critical infrastructure projects that power our AI cloud platform.

We own the full project lifecycle—from site due diligence and design through construction, commissioning, and turnover—while partnering closely with Finance, Operations, and Executive Leadership to scale our footprint responsibly.

The Preconstruction Manager will be the owner-side preconstruction lead supporting the lead Project Manager responsible for overall project delivery. This role focuses on planning, budgeting, procurement strategy, and technical coordination during the preconstruction phase of complex data center and infrastructure projects.

You will partner closely with Development, Design, Construction, Finance, Procurement, and external consultants to advance scope definition, commercial readiness, and decision-making, while ensuring the Project Management team has the information needed to lead the project through execution.

About the Role

As a Preconstruction Manager, you will own and scale the preconstruction lifecycle from early concept through GMP, IFC, and commercial milestones. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, you will translate design and commercial ambiguity into structured, executable strategies. You will not just manage processes - you will build the frameworks, tools, and technical benchmarks that allow CoreWeave to build data center infrastructure at rapid speed while maintaining bulletproof fiscal and operational control.

In this role, you will:

1. Preconstruction Leadership & Strategic Alignment

• Own Day-to-Day Preconstruction: Drive planning from concept through construction readiness, including budget development, master schedule alignment, packaging strategy, and milestone planning.
• Architect Execution Frameworks: Establish decision logs, standardized workstreams, and executive reporting systems to ensure predictable execution across multiple parallel projects.
• Cross-Functional Orchestration: Serve as the primary owner-side anchor across internal engineering, procurement, and leadership teams, as well as external partners, ensuring complete alignment on scope and priorities.

2. Cost Engineering & Advanced Commercial Analysis

• Predictive Financial Modeling: Develop and maintain conceptual estimates, detailed cost plans, and scenario-based financial models as designs evolve from napkin math to IFC.
• Proactive Risk & Gap Analysis: Identify cost drivers, escalation exposure, supply chain risks, and budget gaps early; engineer aggressive mitigation strategies before they impact field execution.
• Executive Capital Reporting: Author and present capital planning data, approval packages, and leadership reviews backed by clear, data-driven narratives on budget, scope, and risk.

3. Design Integration & Value Engineering

• Constructability & Optimization: Lead deep-dive reviews of drawings and specifications with architects, engineers, and contractors to ensure constructability, logical sequencing, and alignment with CoreWeave's technical standards.
• Strategic Value Engineering: Drive aggressive value engineering exercises and scope optimization that reduce cost and lead times without compromising performance, reliability, or safety.

4. Procurement & Commercial Strategy

• Market-Facing Strategy: Shape procurement and bid packaging strategies, leading complex bid leveling and the selection of critical contractors and vendors.
• Supply Chain Safeguarding: Formulate long-lead equipment procurement plans and material tracking mechanisms to lock in critical-path project milestones.
• Commercial Advisory: Partner with legal and procurement stakeholders on contract structures, commercial terms, and buyout approaches optimized for volatile market conditions.

5. Schedule, Phasing & Risk Mitigation

• Critical Path Management: Oversee master preconstruction schedules, phase plans, and logic-tied milestones to guarantee projects enter the field completely de-risked.
• Constraint Resolution: Actively manage and resolve macro constraints, including permitting, utility power allocations, and long-lead delivery conflicts before they impact start dates.

6. Partner & Vendor Accountability

• Direction & Accountability: Manage external estimators, schedulers, and preconstruction consultants, ensuring their deliverables are rigorous, timely, and highly actionable.
• Relationship Navigation: Build high-trust, high-leverage relationships across external partners to unblock technical gridlocks and keep critical decisions moving forward.

7. Process Innovation & Scaling

• Build the Playbook: Standardize preconstruction workflows, tools, templates, and benchmarking databases that elevate the entire function and scale across CoreWeave's hyper-growth portfolio.
• Continuous Feedback Loops: Capture lessons learned and actual-vs-estimated cost/schedule data to constantly refine future planning accuracy and speed.

Who You Are

• Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Architecture, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7–12+ years of experience in preconstruction, estimating, project management, design management, or related disciplines.
• Strong understanding of commercial construction means, methods, sequencing, and owner-side project delivery.
• Experience with budgeting, estimating, procurement, and contract strategy on complex capital projects.
• Ability to interpret construction drawings, specifications, and technical documentation with a critical eye toward scope completeness and risk.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to align teams across design, construction, finance, and leadership.
• A high level of ownership, judgment, and comfort operating in fast-moving environments with incomplete information and shifting priorities.

Preferred

• Experience with data centers, mission-critical facilities, or other large-scale infrastructure projects.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent projects or portfolios in an owner-side, developer, or similarly complex delivery environment.
• Familiarity with tools such as Procore, Bluebeam, CostX, Primavera P6, or similar platforms.
• Professional certifications such as PMP, LEED, or equivalent credentials.

Wondering if you're a good fit?

We believe in investing in our people and value candidates who bring unique backgrounds — even if you don't check every box. Qualities that tend to be successful in this role include:

• You are the person on every team who knows exactly where things stand — and who gets slightly uncomfortable when they don't.
• You hold people accountable without being a bottleneck. You know when to follow up, when to escalate, and when to help unblock rather than just flag.
• You build systems because you hate doing the same manual work twice. Your trackers are ones that other people actually use.
• You read a messy program plan and immediately start seeing the sequencing gaps, the missing dependencies, and the risks that no one has named yet.
• You thrive in a fast-moving, high-growth environment where the pace is high, the stakes are real, and the work actually matters.

Why CoreWeave? At CoreWeave, we work hard, have fun, and move fast. We're in an exciting stage of hyper-growth that you will not want to miss. We're not afraid of a little chaos, and we're constantly learning.

Our team cares deeply about how we build our product and how we work together, which is represented through our core values:

• Be Curious at Your Core
• Act Like an Owner
• Empower Employees
• Deliver Best-in-Class Client Experiences
• Achieve More Together

We support and encourage an entrepreneurial outlook and independent thinking. We foster an environment that encourages collaboration and enables the development of innovative solutions to complex problems. As we get set for takeoff, the organization's growth opportunities are constantly expanding. You will be surrounded by some of the best talent in the industry, who will want to learn from you, too. Come join us!

The base salary range for this position is $157,000 to $210,000. The starting salary will be determined by job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the market location. We strive for both market alignment and internal equity when determining compensation. In addition to base salary, our total rewards package includes a discretionary bonus, equity awards, and a comprehensive benefits program.