How She Rebuilt Her Career After Starting Over
Starting a Career in Construction without a Blueprint.
In an industry where credibility is often framed by engineering degrees and years in the field, Jessica Nolan, CMIT, represents a different — and increasingly powerful — narrative. She did not enter construction management through a traditional academic pathway. She did not inherit a network in infrastructure or begin her career on a job site. Instead, she stepped into a complex, technical industry with no formal construction education and built her authority through discipline, certification, and sustained performance.
Today, Nolan serves as Project Coordinator and Interim Assistant Office Manager for Urban Engineers, Inc. in the firm’s New England region. In that role, she supports major federally funded transportation initiatives in partnership with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority (PRHTA), and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT). The programs she helps coordinate range from bridge rehabilitations and signal upgrades to emergency rail infrastructure restoration and multibillion-dollar capital improvement initiatives.
Her entry into the field was not accompanied by technical coursework or a field apprenticeship. What she brought instead was more than 16 years of high-level administrative and operational experience, sharpened in education, healthcare, association management, and residential construction support. When she transitioned into infrastructure, she immersed herself in the language and mechanics of the industry: federal reporting systems, financial tracking, contract documentation, change order management, and capital program oversight. She learned the intricacies of FTA Project Management Oversight documentation, quarterly reporting protocols, and compliance standards not from a classroom, but from immersion, execution, and mentorship.
Within two years, she had become a central point of operational continuity across multiple high-profile programs. Her work supports initiatives including the FTA $3.0 billion PMO Region 1 MBTA core capacity and accessibility projects and the FTA $390 million PMO Region 4 PRHTA Emergency Relief for Tren Urbano. She has also contributed to CTDOT bridge, signal, and safety improvement programs across Connecticut’s interstate network. While she may not be pouring concrete or welding steel, she ensures that the operational backbone of these programs — documentation, reporting, financial oversight, and executive coordination — remains disciplined and precise. In large-scale infrastructure, failure often occurs in administrative gaps. Nolan has made it her role to close them.
Understanding that experience can be reinforced with formal credentials, Nolan pursued certification through the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA). She earned her Construction Manager in Training (CMIT) Level 1 designation and is advancing toward Level 2, along with OSHA 10 Construction Safety certification and continued professional development through her firm’s internal training institute and association educational programs. The CMIT credential reflects structured mastery of construction management fundamentals — cost control, schedule management, safety protocols, and contract administration. For Nolan, certification was not symbolic; it was a commitment to technical legitimacy in an industry that values measurable competence.
Her professional growth quickly extended beyond her employer. Nolan started volunteering for the Connecticut Chapter of CMAA, contributing to communications strategy and supporting programming and industry engagement initiatives within her first two months in the industry. She was appointed by her peers and now serves on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Chapter of CMAA Communications. Board service in a professional association signals more than volunteerism; it reflects peer trust and positions her within the conversations shaping industry standards and professional development.
What makes her trajectory particularly compelling is the context in which it unfolded. Following a contentious divorce, Nolan became a single mother of two young children while simultaneously launching her career in construction management. Evenings that might have been reserved for rest were often dedicated to studying for certification exams or completing professional development coursework. Days were structured around executive-level coordination, federal reporting deadlines, and operational oversight. At home, she managed the logistics, stability, and demands of raising two small children independently.
At the same time, she sustained a 14-year career as a professional singer with the band LittleHouse. Music is not a footnote in her life; it is a parallel discipline. Performing live music requires discipline, rehearsal, endurance, and composure under pressure — the same attributes demanded in boardrooms and project meetings. Balancing motherhood, corporate performance, nonprofit governance, and long-standing creative artistry is not a product of chance multitasking; it reflects structured resilience and deliberate time management.
Nolan’s path challenges the assumption that influence in construction must begin with a hard hat at age twenty-two. Her progression illustrates that authority can be constructed through self-education, visible commitment, credentialing, and consistent execution. She entered the industry where she could contribute, learned faster than expected, formalized her knowledge through certification, expanded her visibility through association leadership, and delivered measurable value on complex infrastructure programs.
Now serving as Interim Assistant Office Manager while remaining actively engaged in business development and regional growth strategy, Nolan continues to expand her scope of impact. Her work supports not only project delivery but also organizational performance and market positioning. She represents a model of what modern leadership can look like: adaptive, disciplined, and multidimensional.
Jessica Nolan did not begin her career in construction with a blueprint. She built one — through determination, education, service, and the refusal to let nontraditional beginnings define the scale of her ambition.
