Director, Project Management in Farmingdale, New York at elite | studio e

About elite | studio e
elite | studio e is a family-owned design/build firm specializing in foodservice and hospitality environments. Our integrated team delivers interior and foodservice design, project coordination, foodservice equipment, custom fabrication including millwork, and construction project management.
We build corporate cafés, commercial kitchens, hospitality venues, and dining spaces for clients across the United States. We are approximately 45 people, based in Farmingdale, New York.

The Position
We are hiring a Director of Project Management to lead a team of five Project Managers and Senior Project Managers who deliver complex foodservice and hospitality construction projects nationwide. This includes overseeing the purchasing and installation of commercial kitchen equipment, custom fabrication including millwork, and if the project requires managing a GC contract.

Four things define success in this position.

Consistency. Every Elite client should receive the same caliber of communication, documentation, responsiveness, and site presence, regardless of which Project Manager is assigned. Part of that standard is non-negotiable: when Elite work is underway on a site, Elite is on that site. Whatever the size of the scope, someone from our team is present to see that the work is executed properly.

Forward visibility. The Director knows what is coming across the portfolio, including schedule risk, submittal status, open issues, staffing and coverage gaps, and financial exposure, well before any of it reaches a client. Problems are identified, resolved, and communicated ahead of escalation.

Proactive communication. Clients should never have to wonder where something stands. If an issue is open, an update reaches them before they think to ask for one. This is how we work, and it is one of the clearest reasons clients stay with us. The Director is responsible for holding the entire team to it.

Systems that hold. Expectations become documented processes with clear ownership, deadlines, verification, and follow-through. The Director builds practical systems people actually use, then makes sure they continue working without repeated reminders from leadership.

We do not expect you to arrive knowing foodservice equipment. We do expect you to learn it with our help. This is a technical business with real nuance in equipment, utilities, fabrication, factory relationships, and startup.
More important than what you already know is what you do when you do not know. Problems will land on you that sit outside your technical experience. We expect you to take the escalation, keep ownership of it, and go get the answer from the people who have it, whether that is our internal experts, our manufacturers' representatives, our vendor partners, or the factory. Pulling in expertise is exactly right. Handing off the problem is not.

What You Will Own
• Lead, coach, evaluate, and develop a team of Project Managers and Senior Project Managers.
• Define and enforce the Elite standard for schedules, submittals, finish approvals, change orders, documentation, quality control, financial management, and closeout, along with how and how often clients are updated on open issues.
• Maintain portfolio-level visibility across all active projects, including schedule health, open risks, client concerns, staffing needs, and financial performance.
• Ensure every significant project issue has a named owner, a resolution strategy, a deadline, an escalation path, and verified closure. Closure means the client is satisfied, not that a response was sent.
• Ensure Elite has a presence on site whenever our work is underway, on every project regardless of size.
• Build a team that owns its decisions. Project Managers should resolve issues with sound judgment and keep our business development and project leaders informed for client awareness, rather than routing decisions to them for direction.
• Manage assignments, workload, travel, backup coverage, leave planning, and staffing needs before capacity becomes a constraint.
• Travel with Project Managers, observe them in meaningful client and field situations, and convert what you see into specific coaching and documented development plans.
• Set clear expectations, give honest feedback, address performance directly while treating people with respect, and recommend hiring, promotions, compensation changes, and corrective action through Elite's leadership structure.
• Partner closely with our design, project coordination, business development, and accounting teams, along with vendors, subcontractors, factories, general contractors, and our clients' IT, marketing, and culinary groups.
• Step personally into material project or client issues when leadership is required, including covering a project directly when circumstances call for it, while continuing to lead the department.
• Build a department and management system capable of supporting Elite's continued growth.

What Success Looks Like
• Clients experience the same professionalism, urgency, and follow-through on every Elite project, no matter who is assigned.
• Risks are identified and resolved before they reach the jobsite, with clear ownership and verified closure.
• Issues are driven to genuine resolution and confirmed client satisfaction, not answered once and considered handled.
• Technical escalations are owned within the department and resolved by pulling in the right expertise, rather than redirected elsewhere.
• Project Managers own their decisions and keep business development and project leaders informed, rather than relying on them to direct the work.
• Every Project Manager has a documented development plan and demonstrates observable growth.
• Avoidable change orders, rework, incorrect orders, quality issues, delays, and expedited travel costs decline measurably.
• Standards continue to hold without repeated reminders from leadership, and leadership has reliable portfolio visibility without managing routine project matters.
• The department has the capacity, systems, and skills to absorb growth without relying on individual heroics.

Work Location and Travel
This is an office-based leadership position in Farmingdale, New York.
You will be on jobsites regularly: observing and coaching Project Managers in the field, attending client meetings that matter, getting ahead of projects carrying real risk, and covering a site directly when the team needs it. You will largely set that schedule yourself. We are looking for someone with the judgment to know when a jobsite needs them and when the department does.

Working at Elite
We are proudly family-owned and people-first. That shows up in specific ways.
We help each other. "Not my job" is not part of how we work. People step in with coverage, teaching, technical help, and support when a colleague is in a difficult spot.
We take our commitments seriously and we enjoy working together.
We are transparent with each other and we lead with compassion.
Anyone at any level can bring an idea forward or respectfully challenge how something is done. Good thinking is not restricted by title.
We have a long history of developing people from within, and we look for leaders who grow others.
We extend flexibility and trust when people have personal needs, and our team steps up when a client commitment or deadline requires it. That exchange runs in both directions.