Production Estimator

Avondale Homes is one of Queensland’s most respected custom home builders, delivering exceptional acreage and knock down rebuild homes across South East Queensland.

We're after a Production Estimator to cost our investment homes – the volume side of the business, where the work moves quickly and accuracy is everything. You'll be hands-on from day one, running your own jobs end to end rather than doing take-off scraps for someone else.

This is a role for someone a few years into their estimating career who wants to be properly good at it. You'll sit inside a small estimating team with 14 years of Avondale cost history, supplier pricing and trade relationships behind you – so you're not guessing, you're learning from real numbers on real builds.

 What You'll Actually Do

•     Own your jobs. Prepare Bills of Quantities and Purchase Orders for our investment home range – start to finish, your name on them.

•     Read the plans properly. Work through architectural, engineering and survey drawings and make sure every element is picked up and costed.

•     Keep the pricing sharp. Chase quotes, compare trades and suppliers, and keep our cost libraries and supplier database current.

•     Solve it, don't escalate it. When a product is discontinued or a trade can't hit the date, find the alternative and price it – fast.

•     Price variations. Cost changes during construction accurately and turn them around quickly so site isn't waiting on you.

•     Talk to everyone. Site supervisors, customer service, design – you'll deal directly with all of them, not through three layers of management.

•     Make it better. If you spot a smarter way to run a take-off or a template that's costing us time, say so. We'll actually change it.

 What You'll Need

•     Some grounding in residential construction – that might be 3+ years in estimating, a trade or carpentry background, a construction management or QS qualification, or time on the tools or on site. We care more about whether you can read a set of plans and think in numbers than about your years.

•     Genuine attention to detail. In estimating, a missed line item is real money.

•     Speed with it. Production estimating runs to a tempo – you need to be accurate and quick, not accurate and slow.

•     Confidence on the phone with trades and suppliers, and the nerve to negotiate.

•     Solid Microsoft Office skills. Databuild experience is a bonus, not a requirement – we'll get you across it.

•     A willingness to learn the compliance side – QBCC and NCC requirements are part of the job, and we'll teach you what you don't know.

•     Someone who backs themselves, asks questions, and doesn't need chasing.

 Why Avondale

•     Small team, real influence. There are no layers here. You'll have direct access to the General Manager, your ideas get heard, and good suggestions get implemented in weeks – not filed in a process review.

•     Your work is visible. You'll see the homes you priced get built, and you'll know exactly how close you got. That feedback loop is how estimators get good, and most large builders don't give it to you.

•     Real scope, quickly. You're running whole jobs, not fragments of someone else's. That's a much faster path to Senior Estimator than waiting your turn in a big estimating department.

•     A builder that's still here after 14 years. Family-run, no external investors, a reputation across South East Queensland we've protected the hard way. Stability without the corporate.

•     Straight talk on money. Salary is negotiated on experience. Tell us what you're after in your application and we'll have an honest conversation about it early – not after three rounds of interviews.

 How to Apply

Send us your CV and a few lines about why estimating interests you. No formal cover letter, no addressing selection criteria one by one – we'd rather hear how you think.