A career in site management is challenging, wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary, with a wide range of positions available both at home and overseas. As a site manager, you will be responsible for ensuring that a construction project is completed to the required environmental and safety standards, to deadline and within a specific budget. Let’s take a look at what a site manager actually does, what other people you will work it and where your career as a site manager can take you.
What does Site Management cover?
A site manager is responsible for supervising operations at every level on a construction site, ensuring that all aspects of the project are working harmoniously and that the requisite progress is being made. A job as a site manager means having strategic direction on complex projects, often on a very large scale.
In your job as a site manager on a construction project or civil engineering site, a quantity surveyor will generally, as an example, be responsible for:
- Hiring and managing necessary staff and contractors for the project
- Managing the supervision of the site on a daily basis, including monitoring progress, ensuring quality and investigating any problems
- Managing budgets and ensuring they are kept to
- Advocate consistently for the highest health and safety standards, including site inspections to ensure that instructions are being followed
- Report and communicate clearly to management, clients and other stakeholders about the progress of the project and any issues.
Responsibilities
On a construction project a site manager would be expected to be in particularly regular contact with those in the following roles, but would be expected to communicate regularly with all aspects of the site:
- Quantity Surveyor
- Architect
- Estimator
- CAD Technician
- Structural Engineer
- Civil Engineer
- Foreperson
- Contracts Manager
- QA/QC Engineer
- Building Services Engineer
- Purchaser
- Health & Safety Manager
- Documents Controller
Professional qualifications
In most cases, a career as a site manager requires a relevant third level degree in an area such as construction management, civil engineering, building management, project management, surveying and building studies. Working in this area commonly requires certification with the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), which offers a wide range of programmes and CPD courses.
How your career can develop
Following graduation, certification, and registration with the CIOB you can complete a graduate professional development programme with the CIOB which will provide you with the best start in the industry. A career as a site manager will see your career develop in scale quickly. In your job as a site manager you can specialise in particular types of projects, and increase your capability in terms of the scale of the projects as you progress.
Some of the opportunities include:
- Residential site management
- Commercial site development and management
- Industrial site management
- Environmental management
- Infrastructure projects
There are many more career opportunities available for site managers, and it is advised to continue to upskill and build your professional network in order to expand your career opportunities.