Construction Superintendent
We place this role between $85,000 and $145,000 a year at mid experience, before overtime, bonus and on-call.
What the job actually is.
Owns the site: schedule, subcontractor sequencing, inspections, safety and the coordination between trades. The superintendent runs the job rather than a crew, and the schedule is the deliverable.
What this role pays.
That band is mid experience, built from our own engagement history. Experience and region move it - the salary calculator applies both.
The federal occupation this role reports under is First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers (SOC 47-1011), May 2025. Nationally it reports a median of $79,920 , with the middle of the market between $53,280 and $128,260. BLS counts this job inside that occupation rather than publishing it separately, so the figures cover a slightly wider group than this exact title.
Where it pays most.
First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers across the metros we cover, May 2025. BLS publishes a median for 100 of them and withholds the rest, where the local sample was too small to be reliable.
| Metro | Median | Employed there |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose | $129,700 | 4,770 |
| Seattle | $121,130 | 11,040 |
| San Francisco | $120,810 | 9,810 |
| Portland | $112,480 | 5,880 |
| Chicago | $111,260 | 13,420 |
| New York | $103,990 | 28,220 |
| Minneapolis | $103,290 | 8,310 |
| Boston | $99,890 | 13,110 |
| McAllen | $60,370 | 800 |
| Little Rock | $61,060 | 1,720 |
| Huntsville | $62,650 | 1,330 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. The last three rows are the lowest-paying metros in the same set. Headcount is metro-wide across every industry, not this trade alone.
Construction Superintendent vs Construction Foreman.
The superintendent owns the site rather than a crew: sequence, subcontractor coordination, inspections and the schedule are the job, and the foreman under them owns the work itself. It is the harder of the two to fill, and our own desk shows it - the closed-search list on this page is longer than the one on the foreman page. The usual failure is hiring a strong foreman into the seat and finding they still run a crew rather than a job. BLS files both as first-line supervisors of construction trades, so the federal figures below cannot tell them apart.
Construction Foreman: what it pays and what the search takes
Credentials that move an offer.
- OSHA 30
Licensing is a state question, not a national one. The Commercial Construction hiring page carries the state-by-state position, and every market page names the authority for that state.
What separates a strong candidate.
Everyone who applies for this seat will claim the experience. These are the things that distinguish the people who have it, and the questions that find out.
What to look for
- Talks in sequence and constraint rather than trades and tasks
- Has run inspections and closeout, not just the productive middle of a job
- Can describe recovering a slipped schedule with specifics
Questions that find out
- You are three weeks behind at the halfway point. Walk me through the recovery plan. A strong answer Finds the critical path before adding bodies, because overtime on non-critical work buys nothing. Separates what was lost to their own production from what was lost to design, weather or owner decisions, since the second kind is a time extension conversation and the first is theirs to fix. Puts up a plan with named activities, resequencing, added crews or shifts, and a cost against each, then tells the project manager and the owner what recovery costs rather than quietly absorbing it.
- How do you run a subcontractor who is under-manning your job for a better one elsewhere? A strong answer Establishes the fact first, in writing, by tracking manpower against what they committed to, day by day, so the conversation is about a record rather than an impression. Goes to the sub's management rather than arguing with their foreman, who cannot fix it. Knows what the subcontract allows - notice, supplementing the crew, backcharging - and uses the sequence rather than jumping to the end. Keeps the relationship intact if they can, because the replacement is usually slower and dearer.
- What does your closeout process look like, and when does it start? A strong answer Starts it at buyout, not at substantial completion: the closeout requirements go into each subcontract and the submittal log at the beginning, so warranties, as-builts, O and M manuals, attic stock and training are collected as the work finishes rather than chased from subs who have left. Tracks it as a log with names and dates. Says what they hold retention against, and why final payment sliding is almost always a document problem rather than a work problem.
- How do you run a weekly coordination meeting that subs actually turn up to? A strong answer Keeps it short, starts on time, and makes it about the next three weeks rather than a recital of last week. Goes around the trades asking what each needs from the others and by when, writes the commitments down with names against them, and reads last week's commitments back at the start. Subs attend when decisions get made there and when their problems get solved there. The wrong answer is a meeting where the superintendent talks and the subs wait.
- A sub is behind and says they are waiting on you. How do you establish what is true? A strong answer Goes to the record rather than the argument: daily reports, the RFI log with dates, the submittal log, photographs, and the look-ahead the sub agreed to. Checks whether the thing they say they are waiting on is actually on the critical path for their next activity or an excuse that happens to be true but irrelevant. Answers the legitimate part fast and in writing, and puts the rest back to them with a date. Does not concede it in a corridor conversation.
- What do you do in your first two weeks on a job you have just inherited? A strong answer Walks it with the outgoing superintendent if there is one, then walks it alone with the drawings. Reads the schedule against what is actually built, checks the RFI and submittal logs for what is open and what is long-lead, and finds out which subs are behind and which are owed money. Meets each sub's foreman individually before changing anything. Resists announcing a new way of doing things in week one, and finds the two problems that will bite in month two.
- An inspector fails something you believe is compliant. What happens next? A strong answer Asks which code section, in writing, and reads it before arguing. Treats the inspector as somebody to be persuaded with the code and the approved drawings rather than defeated. Goes to the engineer of record or the design team for a written interpretation if it is genuinely a judgement call, and escalates to the plans examiner or the building official only after that. Fixes it if the inspector is right, and says they have been wrong before.
- What does your punch process look like, and when does it start? A strong answer Punches as areas finish rather than as the job finishes, with their own walk before the architect's, so the official list is short. Distinguishes punch - defects and incomplete work in finished areas - from closeout documents and from commissioning, and runs them as three separate tracks. Assigns items to subs with dates in a system everybody can see, and re-walks rather than taking a sub's word that an item is done.
- How do you build a three-week look-ahead that the subs actually use? A strong answer Builds it in the coordination meeting with the subs rather than issuing it to them, at an activity size small enough to be real - days, not weeks - and ties each line to a constraint: material on site, prior trade complete, inspection passed, access available. Publishes what is at risk rather than showing everything on track, and measures how much of last week's plan actually happened. A look-ahead nobody is measured against becomes wallpaper by week three.
- What is your process for a safety incident on your site? A strong answer Care for the person first, then secure the scene, then notify - their own management, the general contractor or owner as the contract requires, and the authorities when the injury or the event crosses the reporting threshold. Preserves the scene and the equipment for the investigation instead of cleaning up, collects statements the same day while memory is fresh, and looks for the system cause rather than the person to blame. Knows what their company has to record and report.
- A sub's foreman and your assistant superintendent cannot work together. What do you do? A strong answer Deals with it rather than letting the job route around it, which is what usually happens. Talks to each separately to find out whether it is a personality clash or one of them is not doing the job, because the fix differs. Sets the expectation with both together, in the same room, with specifics rather than a plea to get along. Will ask the sub to change their foreman, or move their own person, and knows that doing nothing costs the schedule within a month.
- What is your approach to weather delays and documenting them? A strong answer Records the weather daily whether or not it stopped work, from a source they can cite rather than memory, and records what specifically could not be worked and which crews stood down. Knows what the contract treats as unusually severe and what is already built into the schedule as normal, and gives notice within the contractual window rather than raising it at the end. Protects the work before the weather arrives, which is where most weather cost actually comes from.
- How do you manage site logistics on a tight urban job? A strong answer Plans the site like a scope: gate and crane locations, laydown, the hoist or lift schedule, deliveries by appointment with a window, and who owns the pavement and the lane closure permits. Writes a logistics plan and updates it by phase rather than once at mobilisation. Thinks about the neighbours, the pedestrian route and the noise hours before the first complaint. Knows that on a tight site the schedule is set by delivery and vertical transport, not by crew size.
- What do you do when a design conflict stops work in the field? A strong answer Documents the conflict with photographs and dimensions, writes the RFI the same day with a proposed solution rather than only a question, and says what it is holding and by when they need the answer. Moves the crew to other work while it is open. Tracks the RFI's age and escalates on the date they said they needed it, not a week after. Does not have the field invent a fix and bury it, and says why that costs more later.
- How do you run turnover and commissioning at the end of a job? A strong answer Treats commissioning as a scope with its own schedule, starting with the controls and the equipment startups well before substantial completion rather than in the last fortnight. Knows the sequence - installation checks, startup, functional performance testing, then the owner's training - and that each one has to pass before the next is worth attempting. Gets the owner's people into the training while the trades are still on site, and hands over a package rather than a pile.
- How do you handle an owner representative who directs your crews? A strong answer Is courteous and firm: takes the request, does not act on it, and routes it through the project manager so that anything with cost or time becomes a change rather than a favour. Explains why once, early, rather than letting it build into a confrontation. Documents the direction in writing the same day. Knows that work performed on a verbal from the owner's side is work performed for free, and has seen it happen.
The mistake this seat invites
Hiring a strong foreman into the seat and finding they still run a crew rather than a job. It is the single most common failure in this role.
Where the role goes next
Superintendents progress to general superintendent or project executive, and some move into operations. Candidates ask this in the first conversation, and an employer who cannot answer it loses the people who had other options.
Interview kit for this role
- All interview questions for this role in the question bank.
- Printable interview scorecard built from these questions and signals.
- The Commercial Construction hiring kit - every role in the trade, with credentials and offer risks.
- Offer calculator starting from this role's pay band.
What the search actually takes.
Across 13 closed commercial construction searches in 2026 year to date, our median was 14 days from first contact with the candidate to hire. That is not a time-to-fill benchmark - our clock starts when we reach the candidate, not when the requisition opened. The full distribution is in the Hiring Index.
Searches we have closed in this seat
6 of them were for this exact seat rather than the trade in general. Each is written up in full on our placements page: what the opening was, what made it hard, and what the person we placed brought.
- Construction Superintendent - Tacoma, WA - 17 days from first contact to hire.
- Commercial Superintendent - Issaquah, WA - 14 days from first contact to hire.
- Site Superintendent - Portland, OR - 14 days from first contact to hire.
- Senior Superintendent - Coral Gables, FL - 12 days from first contact to hire.
- Superintendent - Gainesville, FL - 6 days from first contact to hire.
- Superintendent - Erie, PA
What we have open in Commercial Construction right now.
13 live commercial construction searches on our board as of November 12, 2026. These are roles contractors have asked us to fill, not a sample set.
- Construction Superintendent - Des Plaines, Illinois
- Quality Control Manager / Site Safety and Health Officer - Des Plaines, Illinois
- Site Safety and Health Officer - Des Plaines, Illinois
- Traveling Construction Superintendent - Saxonburg, Pennsylvania
- Estimator (Premistar) - Frankfort, Illinois
Keep reading.
- 2026 Commercial Construction Salary Guide - the full benchmark by role.
- Commercial Construction recruiting - how we run this trade.
- Salary calculator - the band by experience and region.
- Commercial Construction hiring in Houston - one market in detail.
- Hiring Index - how long our searches actually take.
Other Commercial Construction roles we recruit
All 56 roles we recruit - every trade, every seat.
