Talk with a Project Administrator on a construction site and you’ll get plenty of answers about his or her duties.
PAs are the ones who submit payrolls, complete audits of payments to subcontractors, work with contracts, order supplies, get things fixed in the job trailer or office, pick up food for meetings, process invoices. The list goes on and on.
“Project Administrators are a very important part of the team,” said Sundt Project Executive Kent Bosworth, who is working on the Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building in Phoenix. “They touch every aspect of a project from bonds and insurance to subcontractor agreements and pay applications. They are the eyes and ears of the project financials. They are integral to a successful project.”
Judy Andler has worked on her juggling skills as a PA for a little more than five years.
“You need to be flexible in everything,” said Judy, who’s working on our Ina/I-10 project. “You just never know what might present itself to you on the way in the door and you’re going to have to figure out if it can wait while you get something else done or if you have to do it immediately.”
Ana Cruz, one of Judy’s co-workers, has been in the role for 20 years, long enough to know a PA’s most important attributes.
“Top organizational skills, highly self-motivated, able to prioritize work, work under pressure well, multi-task and love people,” said Ana, who’s working on our Thousand Trails project. “Oh, let me not leave out common sense.”
Kinsey Van Haveren has been on the job for a year and a half and is working at our Santan Vista Water Treatment Plant Expansion. She started on the front desk at our Tempe office before becoming an administrative assistant dealing with contracts for our Concrete Division and Industrial and Transportation groups.
She worked her way to her current position and started learning on the job. Many days, she’s a Project Manager’s right-hand person, keeping everything running smoothly.
“I work with our Project Managers on a daily basis making sure we are all on the same page regarding contracts, invoices and meetings,” she said. “I also work with superintendents frequently regarding craft transferring to or from our job and with our engineers on material they’re expecting to be delivered.”
Kinsey and her fellow PAs check their egos at the trailer door when they arrive at work early each day.
“It’s imperative to have a strong sense of ownership in our role and be a team player,” she said. “It isn’t one person who makes a job successful – it’s a joint effort with both craft and administrative employees. If it weren’t for our craft, there wouldn’t be a need for any of us.”
It’s the varied nature of their work that keeps Project Administrators enthusiastic about their jobs.
“Every day is new and exciting,” Ana said. “To be part of projects like Cordes Junction, to meet the famous Architect Paolo Soleri and sit with him while he signed drawings for our project … those are the moments that make it all worth it.”
For more information about a career with Sundt, please visit https://www.sundt.com/careers.