SBR Jobs recruits leadership for owner’s representative firms, program and construction management consultancies and owner side capital programs across California: project managers, senior project managers, program managers, directors, principals and regional leaders who run work for school districts, community colleges, universities, hospital systems, public agencies, developers and corporate owners. Specialized direct-hire recruiting for construction management, project managers to presidents, since 1997. Sacramento based, statewide reach.
Owner’s rep hiring in 2026: billable seats that had to be filled yesterday
Owner’s representative and program management firms sell people. A program award, whether it is a school bond program, a hospital campus, a transit extension or a corporate campus, comes with named seats and start dates, and every empty seat is unbilled revenue and an owner who notices. The people who can run those seats, with public works, DSA, HCAI, prevailing wage or capital program experience, are already billable at a competitor or already working for the owner.
The owner side has its own version of the problem. A university, a district or a hospital system standing up or rebuilding an in-house construction team needs directors and project managers who know the owner’s process and can manage the CM firm, the architect and the general contractor without being outflanked by any of them. Those people are rare, and they rarely answer postings.
Where we recruit for owner’s rep and program management firms
Sacramento and Northern California
State and county agencies, school and community college districts, universities and hospital systems with active bond and capital programs. Our home market. See our Sacramento and Central Valley page.
San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley
Transit and airport programs, hospital seismic work, higher education, life science and corporate campuses. See our Bay Area page.
Central Valley
School bond programs, water and wastewater, healthcare and high-speed rail program management from Stockton to Fresno and Bakersfield.
Southern California
Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego school bond programs, transit, ports, healthcare and higher education. See our Southern California page.
Every owner’s rep and program management role we place
Billable consulting seats and owner side seats, middle management to executive.
- Project Manager
- Senior Project Manager
- Program Manager
- Construction Manager
- Owner’s Representative
- Project Director
- Director of Program Management
- Regional Manager
- Principal and Vice President
- Preconstruction and Estimating Lead
- Scheduler and Project Controls Manager
- Cost Manager
- Director of Facilities and Capital Projects
- Chief Facilities Officer
Who we recruit for
Owner’s representative and PM/CM firms
Regional and national consultancies staffing California programs, from a four person office that just won its first bond program to a national practice adding a Sacramento or Bay Area team.
Program management practices inside engineering and design firms
PM/CM groups inside civil, architecture and engineering firms that need construction people, not designers, to run owner programs.
Public agencies and institutions
School districts, community college districts, universities, counties, transit and water agencies hiring directors, program managers and project managers in house.
Hospital systems and healthcare owners
Capital projects teams running HCAI work, seismic programs and clinic expansions.
Developers and corporate owners
Owner side construction managers and project directors for companies that build and hold what they build. See our developer and multifamily page.
What owner’s rep and program managers earn in 2026
Consulting firms compete on base, bonus and the quality of the program; public owners compete on pensions, stability and schedule; developers compete on upside. Candidates weigh the whole package plus the commute, and the best ones have more than one offer. Firms that benchmark against last year’s billing rates lose program managers to the owner side and to the data center and transit programs paying a premium. We benchmark every search against the live offers we are seeing. See current ranges by role in the 2026 California construction salary guide and next year’s outlook in the 2027 salary guide.
How an SBR owner’s rep search runs
Intake with the hiring leader
Which program, which owner, which delivery method, and which approvals the seat has to carry: DSA, HCAI, public works, bond reporting. We push back when the title, the scope and the pay do not line up with the market.Market map
Every firm holding a program in that region, the owner side staff who are ready to move to the consulting side, and the consultants who want to go in house. Plus the GC project managers who have the temperament to switch sides.Confidential outreach
Direct, discreet conversations with employed, billable program and project managers who are not looking and never apply to postings. Nobody hears that a firm is backfilling a seat on an active program.Screened short list
Candidates vetted on the programs they actually ran, owner references and culture fit before you see them. Usually three to five people, not a stack of resumes.Weekly reporting
Who is in process, who declined and why, and what the market is telling us about the seat and the pay.Offer, counteroffer and start
We manage the close, prepare the candidate for the counteroffer they will get, and stay involved through onboarding onto the program.
Why owner’s rep and program management firms work with SBR
Construction only, since 1997
We have recruited California construction since 1997 and nothing else. We know the difference between a project manager who has run a buyout and one who has managed a CM at risk contract for a district, and we know which one your program needs.
Both sides of the table
We place general contractor, owner’s rep and owner side leaders, so we can tell which GC project manager will succeed on the owner side and which owner’s rep is ready to run a region.
Direct hire only
Permanent placement, never temp, contract or staffing. Every search is run for a seat you intend to keep filled through the program and beyond.
Confidential by default
Backfills on active programs and quiet expansions stay quiet. Nobody learns a seat is open until the right person is sitting in it.
For candidates
If you are a project manager, program manager or director on the owner’s rep, PM/CM or owner side anywhere in California, we are glad to have a confidential conversation about what is open and what the market is paying, at no cost to you. Start with our confidential construction jobs page or send your resume through Find Jobs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the best owner’s representative recruiters in California?
SBR Jobs (Silicon Beach Recruiter) recruits project managers, senior project managers, program managers, directors, principals and regional leaders for owner’s representative firms, program and construction management consultancies and institutional owners across California. Direct hire only, project managers to presidents, California construction since 1997.
Do you recruit project managers for owner’s rep and program management firms?
Yes. Billable project managers, senior project managers, construction managers and program managers with public works, K-12 and community college, healthcare, higher education, transit, water and corporate capital program experience, plus the project controls, scheduling and cost management seats that support them.
Can you recruit owner side construction directors for a school district, university or hospital system?
Yes. We recruit for public agencies, districts, universities, hospital systems and corporate owners building or rebuilding an in-house construction and facilities team, as well as for the firms that serve them. Public hiring timelines run longer, so we build the candidate pipeline in parallel with the approval process.
Do your candidates have CM at risk, lease-leaseback and public works experience?
That is what we screen for. DSA and HCAI submittals and inspections, prevailing wage and certified payroll, CM at risk and CM multi-prime, lease-leaseback, design-build and progressive design-build, bond program reporting to boards and the public. We verify it against the actual programs a candidate has run, not the resume summary.
What is the difference between a construction manager at a general contractor and an owner’s representative?
A GC construction manager or project manager builds the job: buyout, subcontractors, schedule and cost on the contractor’s side of the table. An owner’s representative protects the owner: scope, budget, procurement, the design team, the contractor and the board. The skills overlap but the instincts differ, and we place both, so we know which background fits which seat.
How do we start a search with SBR?
Call 424-352-6241 or use Start a search on this site. Tell us the program, the owner, the delivery method and the start date. We will tell you plainly what the California market looks like for that seat before you commit to anything.
Open program seat?
Tell us the program, the owner, the delivery method and the start date. We will tell you plainly what the market looks like for that seat.
Call 424-352-6241 Start a searchSBR Jobs · Silicon Beach Recruiter · 2100 21st Street, Sacramento, CA 95818 · 424-352-6241
