The Hardest Role to Hire
Try hiring a BIM developer today and you’ll quickly find out how rare they are.
You’re looking for someone who understands engineering, knows BIM tools and data standards, and can write clean, efficient code. That kind of hybrid skill set isn’t just uncommon, it’s almost impossible to find.
Most people fall on one side of the line: they’re either strong on the engineering and coordination side or confident with code and automation. But both? That’s a unicorn.
And yet, this is exactly the role that will shape the future of construction design.
Why This Role Matters So Much
First we should ask the question, why do you need a BIM developer when there’s such a vast suite of commercial software available?
The list of software tools available to BIM teams today is huge, and growing. From clash detection to issue tracking, validation to visualisation, there’s software for almost everything.
But when you zoom in on real-world projects, the gaps appear.
Every project is different. Every workflow has quirks. The way a team structures data, handles file handovers, or deals with model updates isn’t something a generic tool always handles well.
That’s where BIM developers come in.
A good BIM developer doesn’t just automate processes. They build tools that reflect how your team works. They create scripts that solve problems specific to your workflow. They reduce friction, improve consistency, and free up your team to focus on higher-value work.
And increasingly, they’re becoming essential.
BIM is becoming more pivotal, and in turn, more complex. Custom tools help bridge the gap between what’s possible and what’s practical.
Customised Tools: The Key to Speed, Quality, and Repeatability
Two of the biggest bottlenecks on most projects are time and quality.
Models need to be built fast, but they also need to meet a high standard. And checking that quality manually takes time. It depends on who’s available, how thorough they are, and what else they’re juggling.
With the right tools in place, quality checks become automated and repeatable. Every model gets reviewed the same way, every time. That consistency alone can help avoid costly errors and delays.
The same is true for model setup, data validation, file exports, and coordination reports.
If it’s repeatable, it can be automated. And if it can be automated, a BIM developer should be building a tool for it.
The AI Advantage
Here’s where it gets interesting.
You don’t need to be a senior software engineer to become a BIM developer anymore. With the help of AI, someone with solid BIM and engineering knowledge, and just a little coding ability, can now build genuinely useful tools.
AI can:
- 🛠️ Write code based on plain language prompts
- 📖 Explain what the code is doing so you can understand and learn
- 🐞 Troubleshoot bugs and guide you through fixes
- 🧭 Guide you step by step through the process of building and launching your tool
- 💡 Suggest new ideas and improvements as your tools evolve
This dramatically lowers the barrier to entry. You don’t need a dedicated dev team. You just need someone technical enough to describe the problem, and curious enough to let AI help them solve it.
With the rise of AI, the skill of development is shifting. It’s no longer about writing every line of code from scratch. It’s about knowing how to guide AI to find the right solution.
“When I was doing all this [coding] way back when, you had to write the code. Now AI has to discover the answer.”
Eric Schmidt, Former CEO of Google
And AI isn’t just helping write tools. It can be easily embedded within them.
Traditional development has often revolved around identifying every potential scenario and defining a response for each one. But now, instead of hardcoding dozens of rules or conditions, you can simply define the available actions and let AI decide which one fits the situation best.
That unlocks more intelligent tools, without needing to write overly complex logic.
Integrating AI is Easier (And Cheaper) Than You Think
And here’s the best part: You don’t need to invest in expensive enterprise-level AI platforms to get started.
Thanks to API services like OpenAI’s, you can embed the power of an LLM into your custom tools with minimal effort and almost no upfront cost. Think of it like your tool talking to ChatGPT for guidance halfway through it’s task.
These APIs are commercially supported, widely documented, and easy to use in common programming environments.
You don’t have to train your own models or build your own infrastructure. You simply connect to the service, let them handle the AI backend, and only pay a small fee for the volume of usage.
That means even a small team with limited coding knowledge can create powerful, AI-enabled tools today, not years from now.
So Where Should You Start?
You don’t need to reinvent your whole workflow overnight.
Start with your biggest pain point. What’s slow? What’s error-prone? What’s being done manually that shouldn’t be?
If you already have someone on your team with strong BIM knowledge and a bit of coding ability, empower them. Encourage them to experiment. Support them with time and tools. Let AI carry the rest.
Because the next evolution in digital construction won’t come from software vendors alone, it’ll come from the people who know how to shape the tools themselves.
Eric Schmidt quote: The Diary of a CEO Podcast, Episode “Ex Google CEO: AI Can Create Deadly Viruses! If We See This, We Must Turn Off AI!” (timestamp 27:35).
Digital Innovation in Construction 
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