Estimator

About AIIM

AIIM supports clients in driving business growth through recurring marketing communications encompassing print, direct mail, email, and text messaging. By collaborating on solutions tailored to client strategic goals, AIIM utilizes print, data, and integrated marketing tactics to create highly effective campaigns that enhance customer relationships and deliver measurable financial returns.

Position Overview

As an Estimator at AIIM, you will be pivotal in designing client solutions, securing new business, and optimizing communication production and delivery. This role requires a blend of deep production expertise with curiosity and a mindset oriented towards technology, data, and innovative solutions. You will collaborate closely with Sales, Client Success, Production, Purchasing, and clients to comprehend objectives and determine the most efficient methods for AIIM to deliver value.

Key Responsibilities

• Engage early in opportunities, not merely when quotes are requested.
• Collaborate with Sales and Client Success to understand client goals and co-design optimal solutions.
• Establish yourself as a reliable advisor to clients by identifying smarter, more effective production and delivery methods.
• Challenge existing specifications and historical methods if superior alternatives exist.
• Suggest alternative materials, formats, quantities, production techniques, finishing, fulfillment, or workflows to enhance client outcomes.
• Participate in client meetings, RFPs, presentations, and significant business opportunities to leverage expertise for AIIM's advantage.
• Consider AIIM’s full capabilities rather than defaulting to traditional or siloed production approaches.
• Prepare precise, timely, competitive, and profitable estimates covering digital print, direct mail, large format, finishing, fulfillment, and integrated communications.
• Possess strong expertise specifically in large format estimating while expanding knowledge across AIIM's broader service platform.
• Determine the best production solutions considering quality, timelines, capacity, cost, scalability, and client needs.
• Analyze materials, labor, equipment, finishing, outsourcing, freight, installation, and other production necessities.
• Identify methods to simplify processes, reduce touchpoints, eliminate waste, and increase repeatability.
• Assess outsourced production options when they offer superior value to AIIM and clients.
• Become a proficient user and advocate for AIIM’s new ERP platform.
• Assist in building standardized estimating, costing, production rates, material costs, and routing practices that support scalable and data-driven operations.
• Utilize estimate-to-actual data to refine costing and production decision-making.
• Advance AIIM’s transition from spreadsheet and isolated estimating methods to a unified, systemized approach.
• Explore automation, data, and technology opportunities to enhance estimating accuracy, speed, and scalability.
• Critically evaluate current processes and contribute innovative ideas to improve estimating and production workflows.
• Ensure seamless integration of estimates from opportunity through order entry, production, and final costing stages.
• Support the One AIIM initiative focusing on unified systems and processes.
• Maintain strong practical knowledge of digital print, direct mail, large format, finishing, and fulfillment production processes with a particular emphasis on large format.
• Collaborate closely with Production and Prepress to validate assumptions and optimize production methods.
• Partner with Purchasing to assess materials, suppliers, outsourced services, installations, and cost elements.
• Work with Finance and Production teams to analyze significant estimate-to-actual variances and improve future cost forecasting.
• Share expertise to strengthen estimating capabilities across the organization.
• Perform other duties as assigned by leadership periodically.
• Be prepared for occasional travel or site visits in line with project needs.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of five years’ experience in print/production estimating or related solution roles.
• Documented strong experience in large format estimating is essential.
• A broad and solid understanding of digital production, substrates, finishing, fulfillment, and associated manufacturing processes.
• Proven experience leveraging technology and ERP/MIS systems to streamline estimating or production workflows.
• Demonstrated ability to partner directly with Sales and clients to create solutions rather than merely processing request-for-quotes.
• Strong analytical skills to apply production and costing data for informed decision-making.
• Deep understanding of job-level profitability, cost-to-serve, and production efficiency metrics.
• Adept at learning new technologies and willing to question established practices.
• Willingness and enthusiasm to work across AIIM’s comprehensive capabilities rather than focusing on a narrow production area.

Who Will Succeed

• Individuals who seek to innovate and improve existing processes alongside delivering accurate estimates.
• Those who enjoy engaging with Sales and clients to understand underlying needs beyond the stated specifications.
• Persons who embrace ERP, automation, and data as enhancements to their role rather than threats.
• Professionals open to proposing better methodologies beyond historical practices and eager to understand capabilities outside their immediate expertise.
• Those mindful of scalability, repeatability, automation, and profitability when devising solutions.
• Team players who value sharing knowledge and helping develop a robust estimating function instead of guarding personal expertise.
• Candidates who recognize that the optimal solution may involve combining various AIIM capabilities rather than traditional narrow approaches.

Measures Of Success

• Performance will be gauged beyond output volume, focusing on estimate accuracy, speed, profitable business acquisitions, client value creation, improved estimate-to-actual performance, ERP platform adoption, and contribution towards a standardized and scalable estimating model.
• The Estimator is expected to be a trusted advisor to Sales, clients, and operations, consistently questioning how clients’ objectives can be met better through AIIM’s capabilities.