What is a Traveling Superintendent?

A traveling superintendent is a manager or supervisor who travels as part of his or her job description. Traveling superintendents can work in a number of settings and industries, traveling either to specific jobs or to multiple jobs within a general travel area. These professionals need to be highly organized and self-motivated, and they generally need ample experience in their area of work, combined with professional qualifications such as certifications or degrees.

The construction industry often has need for traveling superintendents. In this case, the superintendent travels to a specific job to supervise it and see it through to completion. The superintendent is responsible for managing personnel, time, and costs to keep the project on task. Traveling superintendents may float between multiple job sites while working for a single company, or may focus on a particular site, depending on the size of the company and the needs it may have.

In addition to overall superintendents who handle entire job sites, the construction industry also utilizes traveling superintendents, using them to supervise areas of a job such as the installation of heating and cooling systems. This type of traveling superintendent has specialized experience and training which are applied to the task to make sure that it is completed in a timely fashion.

Other traveling superintendent positions can include jobs as retail managers, hotel managers, and maintenance superintendents. Some companies use a traveling superintendent to monitor multiple locations and provide consistent supervision, and companies can also hire freelancers who may handle supervision for several different companies. In these cases, the traveling superintendent helps to keep work consistent and of high quality.

School superintendents may also be classified as traveling superintendents. Commonly school districts are large enough to require travel if the superintendent wishes to actively be involved with the management and administration of several campuses. In this case, the traveling superintendent is compensated for travel and provided with accommodations to facilitate frequent rotation through the district for the purpose of keeping an eye on the quality of education.

To work as a traveling superintendent, it helps to be very flexible, and to be willing to travel long distances which may require being away from home for days or weeks. Some professional traveling superintendents actually live in trailers, moving their trailer to the job site or to a facility near the job site so that they can bring home with them on the road.