Building an owner's commissioning hiring brief

WBDG makes the Owner's Project Requirements the basis for commissioning success criteria. Translate those requirements into the actual responsibilities of the hire: design review, test readiness, evidence review, issue escalation or operational handover.

Do not use 'owner's representative' as shorthand for unlimited technical or commercial authority. Identify the decision boundaries in the role brief.

A phased campus handover requires different coordination from one complete building turnover. State whether systems are shared with an occupied facility, whether multiple delivery teams overlap and who controls access and operational risk.

ASHRAE discusses the need for closer coordination when smaller infrastructure blocks move through commissioning. Ask for experience organizing those interfaces, without assuming that project scale alone proves it.

Define the hire's role in operator attendance, training, systems manuals and unresolved issues. Ask how they confirmed that records were usable by the team inheriting the building, not merely present in a document system.

A candidate should distinguish delivery completion from operational readiness. The owner determines acceptance under the project agreements; a recruiter does not certify the facility.