Assistant Director, Construction

Job Description Overview General Motors Construction is responsible for planning, designing, and executing more than $2B in facility capital projects annually across manufacturing and non-manufacturing facilities. The Assistant Director, Construction is accountable for safe, predictable, and high-quality execution across this complex North American portfolio. The role leads through Construction Group Managers and Project Managers across concurrent projects, with accountability for portfolio priorities and execution performance. The role owns delivery from design/build contract award through mobilization, field execution, commissioning, turnover, closeout, and warranty. Partnering closely with the Director of Planning, Design, and Engineering and other functional leaders, the Assistant Director converts approved scope and technical direction into successful construction outcomes while balancing Safety, Cost, Schedule, Quality, business continuity, and long-term value. Note : We are hiring for two Assistant Director, Construction positions that together oversee the North American construction portfolio. One position will have responsibility for Manufacturing and CCA/Distribution construction projects; the other will have responsibility for Non-Manufacturing, Canada, and Mexico construction projects. Key Responsibilities Set execution strategy and operating direction • Set the construction strategy, priorities, governance, and operating model for the assigned portfolio in alignment with General Motors’ facility investment priorities. • Lead Construction Group Managers and Project Managers across concurrent projects, with clear operating rhythms, decision rights, and resource plans. • Balance portfolio priorities and intervene when project performance, organizational capacity, or business needs require leadership action. • Hold portfolio leaders accountable for approved commitments, performance, and timely escalation. • Advise senior leaders on capital priorities, delivery strategies, organizational capacity, enterprise trade-offs, and operational risk. Lead construction delivery and project controls • Oversee design/build contractor delivery from procurement and contract award through construction, commissioning, turnover, closeout, and warranty. • Ensure contractors maintain compliant plans for execution, schedule, cost, safety, quality, risk, and commissioning. • Direct contractor performance, changes, claims, contingency, supplier coordination, operational interfaces, and recovery actions. • Ensure consistent application of project controls for scope, funding, procurement, contracting, change, risk, document control, invoicing, reporting, and closeout. • Maintain accurate project records, performance dashboards, governance reviews, audit readiness, corrective actions, and transparent reporting. Drive Safety, Cost, Schedule, and Quality outcomes • Enforce General Motors safety requirements, site plans, regulatory compliance, leading and lagging indicators, incident response, and corrective actions. • Control budgets, commitments, forecasts, contingency, payments, changes, claims, and variances; provide clear explanations and recovery recommendations. • Maintain baseline schedules, critical-path visibility, milestones, look-ahead plans, long-lead tracking, and recovery plans. • Enforce quality plans, inspections, testing, nonconformance resolution, punch-list closure, commissioning readiness, and turnover quality. • Identify and mitigate risks related to safety, cost, schedule, quality, permitting, constructability, operations, compliance, and business continuity. Manage commercial risk and stakeholder partnerships • Serve as a senior construction partner to business leaders, facility operations, Finance, Purch