Director of Capital Projects

Riverdale Country School is a Pre-K through grade 12 independent school in New York City committed to empowering lifelong learners by developing minds, building character, and creating community in order to change our world for the good. Riverdale seeks to reflect that belonging is the foundational core of community building in how we work collaboratively and support the school’s mission and empowers all community members to thrive in mind, character, and community. Riverdale enrolls about 1,300 students who collectively reside in 117 different zip codes.

We seek to employ people who engage in all aspects of work with a student-centered approach, an open mind, passion, and a willingness to support the greater community.

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Director of Capital Projects to plan, lead and manage capital projects on behalf of Riverdale Country School. Current and future capital projects include, but are not limited to, the following:

New science facility (design in progress; $50M budget)

New performing arts facility

Miscellaneous capital projects to support school needs

Master planning for both the Hill and River Campus and execution of recommendations

The Director will be responsible for helping ensure that these projects are delivered on schedule, within budget, and consistent with the institution’s goals, design requirements, quality standards, and operational needs.

Prior experience managing sizeable capital projects is required. The successful candidate must be highly organized, detail-oriented, comfortable working with multiple stakeholders, and capable of managing complex communication among institutional leadership, board members, owner’s representative, consultants, vendors, and contractors.

This role requires both technical construction knowledge and the judgment to operate in a highly visible environment with senior institutional leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Serve as the steward for the institution’s goals around program, priorities, standards, and expectation setting.

Oversee day-to-day project coordination on behalf of the institution.

Monitor project schedule, budget, quality, procurement, and construction progress.

Coordinate regularly with the Head of School, Facilities Committee of the Board of Trustees, Director of Facilities, Development team, owner’s representative, design teams, consultants, and contractors.

Prepare and manage regular project updates for leadership and relevant committees, including presentations to the Facilities and Finance Committees.

Participate, often expected to lead, in project meetings, site walks, committee updates, and leadership briefings as needed.

Work with the owner’s representative and consultants to identify and resolve project issues promptly.

Track key project milestones, open issues, approvals, risks, and required decisions.

Work alongside the project team to review project schedules, change orders, payment applications, meeting minutes, and other project documentation associated and required for capital projects.

Assist in managing overall exposure and project risks, including cost escalation, delays, scope changes, permitting issues, logistics, and campus or operational impacts.

Gather relevant information to help ensure that decisions are made in a timely manner and that responsibilities are clearly assigned, understanding when to escalate to senior institutional leadership.

Support communication between construction professionals and non-technical stakeholders, focusing on instruction critical requirements such as cleanliness, security, disruption, and other.

Serve as the primary facility transition liaison for the school teams to help ensure the project is delivered in a manner that minimizes disruption to school operations.

Maintain clear records of decisions, approvals, commitments, and action items.

Understand stakeholder needs and priorities, and lead RFP and evaluation processes to select architects, engineers, and other consultants.

Plan the process for permitting, community board engagement, approvals, and zoning requirements.

Work with the owner’s representative to select design team partners, and develop and manage bid processes to select the Construction Manager and relevant subcontractors.

Continually support value engineering and cost reduction measures throughout preconstruction and design.

Required Qualifications

Prior experience managing or overseeing sizeable capital projects, preferably projects of similar scale and complexity.

Experience with capital projects of approximately $50 million or larger strongly preferred, both new construction and renovation.

Strong understanding of construction project management, project accounting, budgeting, scheduling, procurement, change orders, project closeout, and other workstreams required for capital projects.

Ability to coordinate effectively with owner’s representatives, architects, engineers, consultants, general contractors, and institutional leadership.

Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Ability to prepare clear, concise project updates for senior leadership and board-level stakeholders.

Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.

Ability to identify risks early and help drive solutions.

Experience working in a school, nonprofit, institutional, cultural, campus, or mission-driven environment preferred.

Ability to balance capital project priorities with the operational needs of an active institution.