Executive Search for Construction · Preconstruction, Cost & Commercial, PM/CM
Confidential search
for the people who
price and deliver work.
Confidential executive search for construction: preconstruction managers, chief estimators, cost and commercial leads, project and construction managers. For US contractors and construction consultancies. A deliberately small firm. The people who take your brief are the people who run your search, and nobody is handed to an account manager.
Who runs confidential executive search for US contractors?
Selah Talent Partners. A deliberately small firm, working preconstruction and estimating, project and construction management, and cost and commercial management for commercial building and heavy civil contractors across the United States, plus residential, multifamily and industrial construction. Roles that cannot be posted publicly are the normal case here, not the exception.
Why Selah
Ask us the difference between
a takeoff and a buyout.
Every firm bidding for this work says it specializes in construction. Almost none of them can show it. Selah works only in construction leadership search, and you can test that in the first ten minutes of a call rather than in a deck.
That test matters because of what contractors themselves report. It is not that the people do not exist. In the AGC of America and NCCER 2025 Workforce Survey of 1,342 firms, the top reason given for trouble filling positions was that available candidates are not qualified, cited by 57% of contractors; the second, at 48%, was new hires failing to show up or quitting shortly after starting. Those are screening and fit problems, and they are solved by someone who can tell a preconstruction manager from a takeoff technician on the phone.
The other firms calling you run a different model. The large agency desk is built on a daily call quota, and a desk built on a quota has to replace the people working it. That is why your account manager changed three times in two years, and why the last person who called could not tell you what a GMP conversion involves. Ask the firm pitching you how long your named contact has held the account. It is a fair question and the answer is usually short.
Some of these searches cannot be posted at all. Replacing a project executive who is still in the seat, or building the preconstruction bench for work you have not announced, is a conversation that damages the client and the candidate if it happens in public. Every search here runs on the assumption of confidentiality, and every placement carries a 120-day replacement guarantee.
Where We Work
Specific roles. Specific firms.
Not "construction professionals."
Qualification here is sector-agnostic: commercial building, heavy civil, industrial, healthcare, education, residential and multifamily. What is not agnostic is the discipline. These are the firm types and the seats we actually work on.
General Contractor
Project Manager · Senior PM · Project Executive
Privately held GCs running six to ten concurrent projects, where a vacant PM seat costs schedule and margin this month rather than next quarter. The brief is usually a resignation, or a project award that has outrun the bench.
CM-at-Risk Firm
Construction Manager · Operations Manager · Project Director
Construction managers carrying the schedule and the number at once. We look for people who have actually held a GMP, run the buyout and defended the contingency, not people who sat next to someone who did.
Preconstruction Group
Preconstruction Manager · Chief Estimator · Director of Preconstruction
A core discipline of the firm, and the hardest seat to screen for from outside it. The recurring failure is a takeoff technician presented as an estimator; the difference shows up in conceptual estimating, scope gap analysis, and how someone talks about a bid day that went wrong.
Cost Consultancy & PQS
Cost Manager · Cost Consultant · Associate Director
Cost consultancies and quantity surveying practices are clients in their own right, not merely a place to source from. Estimating, cost planning, change control, and reporting to an owner rather than to a builder.
Owner's Rep & PM/CM
Owner's Representative · Project Controls Lead · Senior PM
Firms that sell construction expertise rather than build. The hire has to hold a room containing the owner, the design team and the contractor, which is a different job from running the trades.
Family-Owned Builder
Operations Manager · Commercial Manager · Succession Hire
Second and third-generation contractors who know every employee's name, hire slowly, and keep people for twenty years. They are not buying a placement, they are buying someone who will still be there in a decade.
Sectors
Three disciplines. One standard
of qualified shortlist.
Preconstruction & Cost
Preconstruction managers, chief estimators, estimating managers, senior estimators, cost managers and commercial managers. Conceptual estimating through buyout, on GMP and lump sum work.
Project & Construction Management
Project managers, senior project managers, project executives, construction managers, operations managers and project directors, on commercial building, heavy civil, residential, multifamily and industrial work.
Construction Consultancy
Cost consultants, associate directors of cost management, owner's representatives, quantity surveyors and project controls leads, placed into consultancies and owner's-rep practices.
Engagement Models
Two paths. One standard of excellence.
Contingency Search
For a contractor or consultancy making a single, consequential hire: the chief estimator, the project executive, the person who carries the number. 25% of first-year cash compensation, payable only when a Selah-sourced candidate starts. No retainer, no minimum fee, and a 120-day replacement guarantee.
- Shortlist targeted at day 21
- One mandate at a time
- 120-day replacement guarantee
- No long-term commitment
Engaged and Retained Search
For a mandate that deserves exclusivity: the hire you cannot post and cannot afford to lose. Engaged Search is 22% of first-year cash compensation with a $2,000 upfront fee credited against it. Retained Search is 20% with a $15,000 minimum, billed in thirds. The more you commit upfront, the lower the percentage; model it against your own numbers.
- Exclusive mandate
- Upfront commitment or milestone billing
- 120-day replacement guarantee
- Same people on every search
Our Counsel
The people who take your brief
run your search.
You will deal with the same people on the first call, the shortlist, the offer, and the search after that. Nobody is handed to an account manager, and nobody is passed to whoever is left after the quarterly churn.
Our approachDiscretion
Confidentiality is presumed from the first message, because the best searches cannot be posted.
Permanence
The same people on your account in five years. Structurally, not as a promise.
Fluency
Delivery method, contract type, and scope talked about in your own vocabulary.
How We Work
Three steps. No surprises.
01
Intake
A 45 to 60 minute conversation about delivery method, project type, team structure, and why the last person left.
02
Market Read
On a short call: how deep the field is for that role in that metro, and whether the compensation will reach it. Spoken, no names, and free.
03
Shortlist
Three to five people screened in a real technical conversation, targeted at day 21, then offer management.
Ready to begin?
Fill the seat before it costs you the schedule.
Send the role. You get a reply within one US business day, and a read of the market before you owe anything.