Lead Estimator / Document Control Specialist

Build your Career with an Industry Leader

JSI creates custom fixtures, displays and food equipment for the nation's premier grocery, retail and restaurant brands. With over 40 years of experience in metal, millwork and refrigeration displays, EMI Industries is a trusted partner in creating a unique customer experience.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, LSI Industries (NASDAQ: LYTS) specializes in the creation of advanced lighting, graphics, and display solutions across strategic vertical markets. The company's American-made products, which include lighting, print graphics, digital graphics, refrigerated and custom displays, aim to help businesses stand out in a competitive market. With a workforce of approximately 2,000 employees and 19 facilities throughout North America, LSI provides top-quality solutions for its clients. LSI's management team is focused on continued profitable growth.

Position summary

JSI is seeking a Lead Estimator / Document Control Specialist to lead our estimating team and own the processes and documentation that keep our bids accurate and repeatable. This is a hybrid leadership role: you will guide estimators, set bid strategy, and step in to estimate when deadlines demand it.

You will also modernize how we bid. That means bringing AI tools into the estimating workflow, building cost benchmarks from our historical data, and keeping our SOPs current across Engineering, CRM and ERP systems.

Key responsibilities

Estimating leadership

• Lead the estimating team, setting priorities and workload across active bids.
• Recruit, onboard and train new estimators on JSI methods, tools and standards.
• Review estimates for accuracy, completeness and scope alignment before submission.
• Prepare estimates and cost analyses directly when volume or complexity requires it.
• Create bills of materials (BOMs) for products to be manufactured, built from drawings and specs, as the basis for material costs and pricing.

Bid strategy and AI integration

• Develop go/no-go criteria and bid strategy for each opportunity.
• Identify, pilot and roll out AI tools for takeoffs, spec review and cost estimating.
• Set guidelines for how AI output is checked and used within the team.

Data and benchmarking

• Build and maintain cost benchmarks from historical bids and completed projects.
• Track win rates, estimate-to-actual variance and other key bid metrics.
• Use benchmark data to sharpen pricing and flag outlier estimates.

Process and document control

• Own document control for bid packages, drawings, specs, addenda and revisions.
• Release approved BOMs into the ERP system and control BOM revisions as designs change.
• Write, update and enforce SOPs across Engineering, CRM and ERP systems.
• Partner with Engineering, Sales and Operations to keep data consistent across systems.
• Ensure version control so every team works from the current set of documents.

Qualifications

• Experience: 3-5 years of hands-on construction or engineering estimating, combined with document control workflow experience.
• Leadership: Experience training, mentoring or leading estimators is strongly preferred.
• Technical literacy: Advanced ability to read, interpret and cross-reference blueprints, shop drawings, BIM models and complex spec books.
• Systems: Working knowledge of estimating software, CRM and ERP platforms; comfort adopting new AI and data tools.
• Analysis: Strong spreadsheet and data skills for cost analysis and benchmarking.

Attributes for success

• Sharp attention to detail; catches scope gaps and conflicting documents before they become costly.
• Methodical organization across many bids, revisions and systems at once.
• Thrives under tight, fixed bid deadlines without sacrificing accuracy.
• Clear communicator and patient teacher who raises the skill level of the team.
• Curious about new tools and eager to improve how the team works.