Pre-Construction & Permitting Coordinator

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TYPE OF WORK

Full Time

SALARY

$1,500-$2,000

HOURS PER WEEK

40

DATE UPDATED

Oct 3, 2026

JOB OVERVIEW

Pre-Construction & Permitting Coordinator

Full-Time | Remote | Philippines | U.S. Eastern Time Hours

About Character Companies

Character Companies is a fast-growing residential homebuilding and real estate development company based in Northern Virginia, USA.

We build new homes throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and are looking for an exceptional Pre-Construction & Permitting Coordinator to join our team remotely.

You will work directly with our Pre-Construction Manager and help manage permitting, utilities, consultants, and pre-construction activities across a growing portfolio of residential construction projects.

This is not a general Virtual Assistant position.

This is a project coordination role for someone who is organized, persistent, proactive, comfortable on the phone, and operates with a strong sense of urgency.

Your primary objective will be to help us reduce the amount of time it takes to get our homes permitted and ready for construction.

Our Core Values

Our culture is extremely important to us. Everyone at Character Companies is expected to live our three core values:

FAIL FORWARD
We move quickly, take ownership, learn from mistakes, and continuously improve.

FIGURE IT OUT
We are resourceful. When we encounter a problem, we don't simply report it - we work to find the solution.

FUEL THE VIBE
We bring positive energy, communicate well, support our teammates, and make the people around us better.

These aren't just words on a wall. They influence how we hire, work, evaluate performance, and grow our team.

Your Mission

Drive down our pre-construction and permitting cycle time.

We don't want someone who simply tracks how long things are taking.

We want someone who helps make them take less time.

That requires urgency, organization, persistence, excellent follow-up, and strong communication.

If a permit isn't moving, find out why.

If a reviewer hasn't responded, follow up.

If an engineer owes us a revision, call them.

If a utility application is sitting in a queue, determine what is needed to move it forward.

If you can't solve something yourself, identify the problem clearly and escalate it to our Pre-Construction Manager.

Nothing should sit because nobody followed up.

What You'll Own

Permitting & Government Coordination

Track building, demolition, grading, trade, right-of-way, and other permits across multiple residential projects.

Monitor government permitting portals daily.

Prepare and submit permit applications and supporting documentation.

Track review deadlines, comments, corrections, resubmissions, and approvals.

Call and email government reviewers to obtain updates and resolve outstanding items.

Coordinate responses between architects, engineers, surveyors, consultants, and our internal team.

Schedule inspections and track corrections through completion.

Maintain accurate documentation of submissions, conversations, approvals, and outstanding requirements.

Utility Coordination

Initiate and track electric, gas, water, sewer, and telecommunications applications.

Communicate directly with U.S. utility companies.

Follow up regarding utility designs, work orders, inspections, meter installations, and service activation.

Track required payments, documents, easements, load information, and approvals.

Identify stalled utility requests and proactively work to get them moving.

Pre-Construction Coordination

Maintain our master pre-construction schedule and tracker across all active projects.

Track architects, engineers, surveys, civil plans, permits, utilities, and other pre-construction deliverables.

Follow up with outside consultants on upcoming and overdue deliverables.

Maintain organized project records and correspondence.

Maintain a database of government reviewers, inspectors, utility representatives, engineers, and consultants.

Identify potential delays before they affect the project schedule.

Provide our Pre-Construction Manager with clear updates on projects requiring his attention.

Phone Communication Is a Major Part of This Position

You must be comfortable picking up the phone.

You will regularly call:

Government permitting departments

Permit reviewers

Utility companies

Architects

Engineers

Surveyors

Consultants

Vendors

Excellent spoken English is therefore extremely important.

We're looking for someone who can confidently and professionally have a conversation, ask good questions, obtain clear answers, and respectfully push for the next action.

If you strongly prefer communicating only through email or messaging, this position will not be a good fit.

Who We're Looking For

You should be:

Extremely organized and detail-oriented

Highly responsive with a strong sense of urgency

Persistent without being unprofessional

Proactive and resourceful

An excellent English speaker

A strong written communicator

Confident making outbound phone calls

Comfortable managing many projects and deadlines simultaneously

Comfortable learning unfamiliar processes

Comfortable asking questions when something doesn't make sense

Able to identify problems and propose solutions

Comfortable holding outside consultants accountable to deadlines

Able to determine when an issue needs to be escalated

We especially value people who naturally think:

"What can I do to move this forward today?"

Preferred Experience

Experience in any of the following is highly valuable:

U.S. residential construction

Homebuilding

Construction project coordination

Permitting

Architecture or engineering

Utility coordination

Real estate development

Construction administration

Working remotely for a U.S.-based construction company

Previous U.S. permitting experience is preferred but not required for an exceptional candidate who learns quickly and demonstrates strong ownership.

Technology

You should be highly comfortable using technology and learning new software.

Our team uses platforms including:

JobTread

CompanyCam

Google Workspace

Microsoft Office

Government permitting portals

Utility provider portals

Cloud-based project management systems

How We Will Measure Success

This is an outcomes-driven position.

We will measure things including:

Permit cycle time

Days from submission to approval

Speed of responses to review comments

Outstanding permit items

Utility application and activation timelines

Consultant turnaround times

Accuracy of project tracking

Number of issues proactively identified and resolved

Ultimately, your performance comes down to one question:

Are our projects moving through pre-construction faster and more predictably because you're here?

Schedule

This is a full-time remote position based in the Philippines.

You must be willing to work primarily during U.S. Eastern Time business hours because you will communicate directly with U.S. government agencies, utility companies, consultants, and our internal team.

Compensation

Competitive compensation based on experience and qualifications.

We are looking for a long-term team member with the opportunity to take on greater responsibility as Character Companies continues to grow.

How to Apply

Please submit your resume and a short cover letter answering the questions below.

Generic or AI-generated cover letters that do not specifically answer these questions will not be considered.

1. Driving Down Permit Cycle Time

Your primary responsibility is to help Character Companies reduce the amount of time it takes to move a new home through permitting and into construction.

If you were given responsibility for 20 residential projects in various stages of permitting, what specific actions and systems would you implement to drive our average permitting cycle time down?

Be specific. We want to understand how you think.

2. Sense of Urgency

Tell us about a previous situation where something was delayed or wasn't moving quickly enough.

What did you personally do to move it forward?

3. Phone Communication

This position requires frequent outbound calls to U.S. government agencies, utility companies, engineers, architects, and consultants.

Describe your experience making professional outbound phone calls in English. Are you comfortable calling someone repeatedly when necessary to obtain an answer or move something forward?

4. Organization

Imagine you're responsible for tracking 20 projects, 40+ permit applications, multiple utility applications, and several outside consultants.

How would you organize your work so that nothing gets missed?

5. Figure It Out

You call a government permitting department about an application that hasn't moved in two weeks. The person tells you:

"It's still under review. Someone will contact you when it's ready."

What would you do next?

6. Relevant Experience

Tell us about any experience you have with:

Construction

Permitting

Project coordination

Utilities

Architecture/engineering

Real estate development

U.S.-based companies

Please include your expected monthly salary in PHP and confirm that you are available to work full-time during U.S. Eastern Time business hours.

SKILL REQUIREMENT
Construction And Engineering Construction Project Manager
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