Business developmentforBirmingham AEC firms.
BD-AEC runs business development for Birmingham architecture, engineering, and construction firms as an embedded, fractional director. Your principals bill at premium rates, so they shouldn't be chasing the pipeline. We run it for you in the Magic City, where the owners and primes are tightly held and local, with the relationships that win work before the RFQ ever drops.
The Birmingham market
Who buys design and construction here
Birmingham is a headquarters market, and that shapes how AEC work gets won here. Roughly 420 design and construction firms compete across the Birmingham metro, where the biggest owners and three nationally ranked contractors all sit downtown.
Birmingham is unusual: the biggest buyers of design and construction and the biggest builders both sit downtown. UAB and the UAB Health System anchor everything, with a steady pipeline of work like the North Pavilion emergency department expansion, the Zeigler research building renovation, and the new UAB Medical West hospital in Bessemer. The corporate base runs deep too, with Regions Financial, Protective Life, Vulcan Materials, Encompass Health, EBSCO, and Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED all building here.
What makes this market its own animal is that Brasfield & Gorrie, Robins & Morton, and Hoar Construction are all headquartered in Birmingham. The prime relationships you need are local and tightly held. The region's industrial roots run deep as well, with Vulcan Materials, McWane, O'Neal Industries, and U.S. Pipe in Bessemer carrying Birmingham's iron and steel heritage, and the broader Alabama auto corridor adding the Mercedes plant in Vance and Honda in Lincoln within an easy drive. Public capital moves through ALDOT, Jefferson County, and the Birmingham Airport Authority.
Across all of it, these owners and primes hire on reputation and track record, not the low number from a firm they don't know. That's the opening for a fractional BD director. Competition for institutional, corporate, and public work is real, but it runs on relationships that take years to build inside a market this concentrated. A dedicated director who already knows the UAB owners, the contractor HQs, and the county and airport buyers shortens that runway dramatically.
U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (NAICS 5413, 2022)
Healthcare & academic medical
UAB and the UAB Health System, with the North Pavilion ED expansion, the Zeigler research renovation, and the new UAB Medical West hospital in Bessemer, plus Encompass Health.
Local contractor HQs
Brasfield & Gorrie, Robins & Morton, and Hoar Construction are all headquartered downtown, so the prime relationships you need are local and tightly held.
Corporate headquarters
Regions Financial, Protective Life, Vulcan Materials, EBSCO, and Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED all build here.
Public & infrastructure
ALDOT, Jefferson County, and the Birmingham Airport Authority, whose $100M capital program keeps work moving at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth.
Industrial & manufacturing
Birmingham's iron and steel base still drives facility work through Vulcan Materials, McWane, O'Neal Industries, and U.S. Pipe in Bessemer, with the Alabama auto corridor (Mercedes in Vance, Honda in Lincoln) within reach.
RFPs and bids
Where Birmingham architecture and engineering work gets advertised
These are the agencies and institutions that put architecture and engineering work out to bid in Birmingham, and the portals where they post it. Bookmark them. Winning the work is a different job from finding it, and finding it is the part you can do yourself.
Jefferson County Environmental Services Department
Design engineering and construction management for the county sanitary sewer system, awarded off a standing Qualifications-Based Selection eligibility list with four consultant categories: sanitary sewer rehabilitation/maintenance, small-scale wastewater facilities and line work, large-scale wastewater facilities and line work, and other professional services.
Jefferson County Commission Purchasing Division
County roads, bridges, buildings and general services work; also operates the Purchasing Association of Central Alabama (PACA) cooperative, whose bid catalog carries solicitations for 100-plus central Alabama partners including the City of Birmingham, Birmingham Board of Education, Jefferson County Board of Education, Hoover, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Trussville and Lawson State Community College.
City of Birmingham Purchasing Division
Sealed bids and RFPs for city facilities and public works, currently including a Department of Public Works RFP for study, design and development of a landfill gas-to-energy system; sealed-bid procedures apply above $15,000.
Alabama Department of Transportation, East Central Region
Highway and bridge design, corridor studies and construction engineering and inspection; the Region's Birmingham Area covers Blount, Jefferson, Shelby and St. Clair counties, and consultant work is advertised as a Notice of Need through ALDOT's Contract Management Group.
City of Birmingham Regional Water Works (d/b/a Central Alabama Water)
Filter plant, dam, distribution and facility work for the regional water utility restructured by Act 2025-297 and renamed in June 2025; the old bwwb.org address now 301-redirects to caw-al.gov.
Birmingham Airport Authority
Airfield, apron, parking deck and terminal projects plus land acquisition and planning consulting, published through Beacon Bid; also one of only four certifying members of the Alabama Unified Certification Program, so metro firms can obtain DBE certification locally.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Planning, Design & Construction
Campus capital projects awarded by Qualifications-Based Selection above $1,000,000 and many below it, plus two-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity agreements across 13 disciplines re-solicited by RFQ at the end of each calendar year.
Where solicitations are posted
How selection works here
Alabama gives local agencies no Brooks Act style QBS mandate: Ala. Code 41-16-51(a)(3) exempts architects, engineers and consultants from competitive bidding outright, and the old state level QBS statute at 41-16-72 was repealed by Act 2021-296 effective October 1, 2022, so each Birmingham buyer writes its own selection rules and the real gate is a standing list rather than a single advertised RFP. That makes term and on-call positions the practical way in here: Jefferson County Environmental Services keeps a Consultant Eligibility Screening list with one application per project category, UAB maintains a roughly 400-firm consultant database and two-year ID/IQ agreements across 13 disciplines that it re-solicits annually with no prequalification prerequisite, and ALDOT prequalifies architecture and engineering consultants through its Contract Management Group before any East Central Region Notice of Need can be answered. Two local rules shape who wins: the City of Birmingham awards to a vendor with a place of business inside the city limits whose bid is no more than 5 percent above the low bid, and the Birmingham Airport Authority is one of just four Alabama Unified Certification Program certifying agencies alongside ALDOT, the Alabama State Port Authority and the City of Mobile, so a metro firm pursuing DBE status certifies at home.
The Birmingham bid watchlist
Finding the work is a job in itself. Once a quarter we send this page's market to your inbox: new federal awards in the Birmingham metro, buyer moves, and portal changes. No pitch, just the market.
Email scott@bd-aec.com with the subject "Birmingham bid watchlist" and we'll add you.
Federal market
Federal AEC spending in Birmingham
Federal agencies obligated $241M for architecture, engineering, and construction work in the Birmingham metro over the last twelve months. Enough to matter as one channel among several, and small enough that a handful of firms hold most of it.
Obligated, 12 months
$241M
Across the 7-county Birmingham, AL area.
Largest buyer
Department of Justice
$170M of the total.
Firms winning it
- Brasfield & Gorrie LLC · $160M
- BL Harbert International LLC · $56M
- Coburn Contractors, LLC · $14M
- Geographic Information Services, Inc · $7M
Federal prime contract awards, USASpending.gov, twelve months to August 2026. Federal work is one slice of this market and excludes state, municipal, institutional, and private owners.
By discipline
BD-AEC in Birmingham, by discipline
We run business development for Birmingham AEC firms one discipline at a time, one client per discipline. Open your discipline’s Birmingham page on the main site for the local picture.
Civil Engineering
Birmingham business development for civil engineering firms.
Structural Engineering
Birmingham business development for structural engineering firms.
Architecture
Birmingham business development for architecture firms.
Land Surveying & Geospatial
Birmingham business development for land surveying & geospatial firms.
Landscape Architecture
Birmingham business development for landscape architecture firms.
Construction Management
Birmingham business development for construction management firms.
Transportation & Traffic Engineering
Birmingham business development for transportation & traffic engineering firms.
Testing & Special Inspection
Birmingham business development for testing & special inspection firms.
Why us, here
Why a fractional BD director in Birmingham
BD-AEC runs business development in Birmingham, and Scott knows the owners, primes, and agencies here by name. In a headquarters market where UAB drives the demand and Brasfield & Gorrie, Robins & Morton, and Hoar hold the prime relationships, that local knowledge is the difference between a cold proposal and a warm introduction. We work these relationships directly, not from a distance.
By policy, BD-AEC represents one firm per discipline, project type, and market, an ethical line that protects every client's pipeline. For a Birmingham firm, that means an exclusive BD partner who will never walk your relationships across the street to a competitor.
Questions
Straight answers
Does BD-AEC actually work the Birmingham market?
Yes. Scott works the Birmingham owners, primes, and public agencies directly, not from a distance. He knows the UAB owners, the downtown contractor HQs, and the county and airport buyers who decide who wins here.
What kind of AEC firms do you represent in Birmingham?
Principal-led architecture, engineering, and construction firms, roughly $1M to $20M in revenue, whose senior people are too valuable to spend their week on business development. By policy we take only one firm per discipline, project type, and market, so we never represent two competitors.
How is a fractional BD director different from hiring a salesperson?
A salesperson cold-calls. A fractional BD director is an embedded, senior partner who owns your pipeline: the strategy, the relationships, the teaming, and the pursuit. You get the expertise of a six-figure BD hire without the full-time salary line.
The big contractors are headquartered right here. How do we compete for that work?
Brasfield & Gorrie, Robins & Morton, and Hoar run much of the region's work, and the way you get on their teams is relationships, not bids. Scott knows how these primes select their design and trade partners, and he positions your firm for the pursuits where you actually fit.
How do we start?
Tell us about your firm and your market using the form below. Scott will respond within one business day to set up a discovery call and tell you honestly whether your discipline and market are open.
Talk to Scott
Is your Birmingham market open?
Tell us your firm and your discipline. Scott will respond within one business day and tell you honestly whether your Birmingham market is open and what a fractional BD director would do first.
Request a discovery call
Birmingham AEC firms only. We'll never share your details.
More markets at bd-aec.com