Concrete and masonry project manager job description
A concrete and masonry project manager takes each sold driveway, patio, foundation or wall from signed contract to final walk. They get colors and patterns signed, line up permits, inspections, materials and pour dates, and keep homeowners and builders posted so the crew can keep working.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, structure and exterior contractors · BLS, May 2025
Annual pay: 10th percentile $61,290, middle half $78,100 to $129,840, 90th percentile $171,100. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Reports to
Production Manager
Department
Operations
Schedule
Weekdays, early starts on pour days · Weekdays on sites and in the office, with pre-dawn starts on hot pour days and some Saturday pours in busy months
You'll manage concrete and masonry jobs from signed contract to final walk-through. You confirm the customer's finish and color choices, get permits and inspections, line up excavation and utility locates, order ready-mix, pumps and masonry materials, and book pours with the Operations Manager around the weather. Customers and builders hear from you, not the crew, about changes and dates.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Review each sold job with the Sales Representative: layout, thickness, reinforcement, finish, color and any engineered drawings.
Confirm customer selections like stamp pattern, color, sealer, brick or stone, and mortar color in writing before ordering.
Pull permits and book footing, pre-pour or wall inspections where your jurisdiction requires them.
Line up utility locates, excavation, base and forms, and confirm the subgrade is compacted before the pour.
Order ready-mix, pump trucks and masonry materials, and set pour dates with the Operations Manager around weather and cure times.
Price change orders for added area, rock removal, extra steel or design changes, and get them signed first.
Close out with a punch walk, curing and sealing instructions for the customer, and final payment.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Check the forecast for rain and temperature, and move pours or plan blankets and protection with the Field Supervisor.
Visit forming and masonry jobs to check layout, grades, steel and control joint spacing before the inspector comes.
Call customers about pour day: access, cars off the driveway, and when they can walk or drive on new concrete.
Confirm ready-mix and pump orders with the supplier for the next day.
Check mortar and brick matches on repair and addition work with the Lead Mason / Concrete Finisher.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Pours completed on the scheduled day: [your target].
Warranty claims for cracking, scaling or finish: [your target].
Concrete waste and short loads: [your target].
Profit on flatwork and masonry jobs against the estimate: [your target].
Customer review score after the final walk-through: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[3+] years running residential or light commercial concrete or masonry jobs, in the field or the office.
Knows forming, reinforcement, placing, finishing and curing, and how hot and cold weather change each one.
Can read site plans and foundation or wall drawings and check quantities.
Understands how permits and inspections for footings, foundations and retaining walls work in your area.
Tracks yards poured, crew hours and job costs in [your project management software].
6. Preferred Experience
ACI Concrete Field Testing Technician Grade I or ACI Concrete Flatwork Finisher certification.
Masonry background with brick, block and natural stone.
Experience with decorative concrete: stamped, colored and exposed aggregate.
Experience on commercial jobs with special inspections and concrete testing.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk uneven job sites, step over forms and rebar, and stand in sun, heat and cold.
Move form boards, rebar and tools up to [50] pounds when checking a job.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Job sites across [your service area] most days, with office time for orders and paperwork.
Regular hours: [6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday], with pre-dawn starts on hot-weather pour days.
Weather drives the schedule, with busy seasons and some Saturday pours.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new project manager gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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What a concrete project manager settles before pour day
Once concrete is placed, most mistakes are expensive to undo. So this job is mostly about settling questions early: what the customer picked, when the crew may start, where the washout goes and who looks after the test cylinders.
Colors and patterns signed before anything is ordered
Stamped and colored work is where a homeowner's memory and the finished slab most often disagree. Before ordering, the project manager gets a signed sheet with the stamp pattern, base and release colors, the sealer and its gloss, and any brick, stone or mortar color. Show colors on a sample board or an earlier job, not on a phone, and note that the finished slab may not match a chip exactly. Any change after that becomes a signed change order.
Early starts meet local work hours
Hot-weather pours often start before dawn, but towns set construction hours. Denver, for example, exempts construction noise from its noise ordinance only from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Work outside those hours needs a variance, which the city says can take up to two to three months. The project manager checks each town's hours before promising an early or a Saturday pour. Source: City and County of Denver (example): Contractors, construction hours and noise.
Washout goes where the permit says
Under EPA's construction stormwater permit, sites that disturb an acre or more, counting the whole subdivision plan, need coverage, and subcontractors generally aren't the ones who hold it. The builder's permit still governs your washout. Where EPA issues it, wash water from tools and chutes goes into a leak-proof container or lined pit sized so rain can't overflow it, never into drains, ditches or the ground. Most states issue their own permit, so read theirs. The project manager tells the crew and the plant where each builder's washout is. Source: EPA: 2022 Construction General Permit, as modified (Parts 1.1, 1.3 and 2.3.4).
Test cylinders need a safe spot
When a commercial job's specs follow ACI 301, NRMCA notes, the contractor provides space and power on site for the first curing of the test cylinders. Cylinders should sit at 60 to 80 degrees, stay put for at least 8 hours after final set, and reach the lab within 48 hours. A low break from cylinders left in the sun or knocked over costs days of argument. The project manager picks the spot before the pour. Source: NRMCA Concrete in Practice 34: Making cylinders in the field.
How much concrete and masonry project managers make
The closest BLS group for concrete and masonry project managers is construction managers. Construction managers who work for foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors earned a median of $100,690 a year ($48.41 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $114,990 median for construction managers in all industries. About 24,550 of the 380,360 construction managers in that survey work for structure and exterior contractors.
This blueprint leaves pay open. A salary plus a bonus built on two of its KPIs, profit against the estimate and warranty claims, rewards jobs that are both priced right and built right.
Structure and exterior contractors
$100,690$100,690 median Middle half $78,100–$129,840 10th–90th $61,290–$171,100
All industries
$114,990$114,990 median Middle half $88,550–$151,640 10th–90th $69,690–$189,440
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k$175k$200k$225k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Structure and exterior contractors
$61,290
$78,100
$100,690
$129,840
$171,100
All industries
$69,690
$88,550
$114,990
$151,640
$189,440
BLS doesn’t publish pay for concrete and masonry contractors on their own. These figures cover foundation, structure and building exterior contractors, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has run driveways, patios, foundations or walls for homeowners and builders, from the selection meeting to the punch walk
Gets selections and changes signed before anything is ordered, every time
Checks yards, steel and block counts against the drawings
Takes a pour off the calendar early when the site, the permit or the customer isn't ready
Spots a job drifting over its estimate from yards, crew hours and pump time before it closes
Teach these on the job
Your towns' permit, inspection and work-hour rules
Where each builder wants washout and deliveries
Your stamp, color and sealer lines
Your project management and photo apps
Testing and special inspection steps on commercial jobs
Project managers run jobs from the project management software the template asks about, with a photo app, the plants' order desks and a tablet holding plans and signed selection sheets. On site they carry a laser level and a measuring wheel to check grades and quantities before the inspector comes.
Concrete and masonry project manager interview questions
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Private lines
The 811 marks are in, but the homeowner mentions sprinkler lines and a buried wire to a garage light where the new driveway goes. What do you do?
A strong answer: Knows 811 doesn't mark private lines, has them found by a private locator or the owner, marks them, plans hand digging near them, and writes any relocation up as a change order.
Behavioral · Job profit review
Tell me about a job where profit came in below estimate. What did you find and change?
A strong answer: Names the cause, such as waste, extra hours or unbilled changes, and a specific change made.
Count pours, claims and profit for each project manager, and judge each against the work they carry. A list of builder lots and a list of decorative patios won't post the same numbers.
Pours completed on the scheduled day
Pours placed on the date set with the operations manager, out of all scheduled. Tag each miss: site not ready, permit or inspection, customer change, or weather.
Warranty claims for cracking, scaling or finish
First-year claims on this manager's jobs against jobs closed, sorted by cause. The general manager decides what is covered; the project manager finds which step before the pour would have prevented it.
Concrete waste and short loads
From the plant tickets, count yards sent back or dumped, and pours that needed a small extra truck to finish. Look for the cause in the takeoff or in forms set off the plan.
Profit on flatwork and masonry jobs against the estimate
Each closed job's margin against its estimate, with labor, concrete, pump and change orders shown apart, reviewed with the estimator within a week of the final walk.
Customer review score after the final walk-through
Homeowner and builder scores gathered after the punch walk, read beside that job's change orders and schedule slips.
Career path
Lead masonLearns forming, finishing and how long each kind of pour really takes.
Project managerCarries jobs from signed contract through selections, permits, pours and the final walk.
Production managerOversees every project manager, plus the forms, machines and mixes behind each job.
What does ACI's field testing certification cover?
The template lists ACI's Concrete Field Testing Technician, Grade I, as a plus. Under ACI's policy, it takes passing a written test plus a practical one, with no education or experience required first. The practical part covers sampling fresh concrete, temperature, slump, density, air content by two methods and making test cylinders. It lasts five years, and renewal means passing both tests again. A project manager who holds it knows when a tester on a commercial job is doing it right.
How much does a concrete and masonry project manager make?
Construction managers who work for foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors earned a median of $100,690 a year ($48.41 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $78,100 and $129,840 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
How do we match an old brick wall on an addition?
Start before the job is sold, since the old brick may no longer be made. Set a small sample panel beside the old wall and have the homeowner approve the brick, the mortar color and the joint finish on it. A loose brick and a color chip rarely show how the wall will look. If nothing new matches, check salvage yards, or plan the addition so new brick meets old at a corner rather than in the middle of a wall.
What should a project manager do when the dig finds soft ground?
Stop before any base or forms go in. Soft or wet spots, buried debris and old roots under a driveway or footing turn into sunken slabs and cracks later. The project manager looks at it with the field supervisor, takes photos, and prices digging it out and replacing it with compacted base as a change order, signed before the crew goes on. On a footing with an engineer's drawing, call the engineer, since the fix may not be yours to choose.
Should the project manager be at every pour?
No, but at the ones that matter most: the first pour for a new builder, decorative work in a new color, retaining walls, and any pour with an inspector or tester on site. The lead and the field supervisor handle the rest. The project manager's real pour-day work happens the day before. That's when access, selections and the order get settled, so nobody calls them from the street.
