2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Construction 4.0 is the application of Industry 4.0 concepts to construction industry. Changes toward construction 4.0 are already in place, including the use of more technology in the construction industry, which has long been seen as a technology laggard industry. This new reality will cause changes in companies, business models, and workforce development. Some new roles have been suggested by previous studies. However, there is a lack of studies to identify recent information from industry about those and other new positions. To address this gap, this paper utilizes a qualitative review of job postings for top 20 2023 ENR contractors. A total of 186 emerging construction 4.0 positions were selected for further analysis. Based on the findings, the researchers identified four major categories of construction 4.0 positions: ‘virtual design and construction,’ (VDC) with the most open positions, followed by ‘design and construction integration management,’ (DCIM) ‘lean and industrialized construction’ (LIC) and ‘innovation management’ (IM). VDC as well as DCIM positions are focused on project, mainly design phase, management. However, while VDC positions manage building information modeling, DCIM focus on a broader scope of information management. LIC positions focus on production and process improvement. And IM positions support innovation at the company level. Main responsibilities and qualifications for each category are presented in our results. The findings included here can help construction educators understand the nature of these emerging construction 4.0 roles and start a conversation about how this information can affect construction education.