How to Apply to Direcional Engenharia

Key Takeaways

Direcional Engenharia is Brazil's #1 Minha Casa Minha Vida homebuilder (B3:DIRR3), HQ in Belo Horizonte, founded 1981 by Ricardo Valadares Gontijo who remains CEO and Chairman, with the Gontijo family in control.
All hiring runs through Gupy. Create a complete Portuguese profile, fill every structured field, mirror the vaga's exact phrasing, and complete the asynchronous video interview on a desktop with good production quality.
Roughly 80% of revenue comes from MCMV — federal housing policy is the single largest variable in the business. Demonstrating MCMV literacy (faixas, Caixa, FGTS, repasse) is a competence signal across every role, not just engenharia.
Riva is Direcional's premium-segment growth story (média/alta renda in capital cities). If you're targeting Riva, signal middle/upper-income incorporação fluency and capital-city geographic experience — it's a different competitive set (Cyrela, Even, Eztec, Tegra) than core Direcional.
Compensation is solid within construction sector benchmark (comparable to MRV, Tenda, Plano&Plano, Cury) but does not match São Paulo banking or tech rates. Compete on stability, technical depth in residential construction, and exposure to one of the world's largest social-housing programs.
Portuguese is the working language at HQ and on canteiros. English is required only for corporate finance, investor relations, and selected Riva marketing roles. Submitting English-only CVs for BH or obra roles is a misfit signal.
CREA/CAU/CFT registration is non-negotiable for any role with technical responsibility on a canteiro. Sienge, SAP S/4HANA, Power BI, MS Project, Autodesk Revit are the dominant tools — name them where relevant.
Internal promotion is real. Many Direcional diretores started in regional engenharia roles and grew over 10–20 years. Signal long-term career intent in residential construction, not stepping-stone ambition.

About Direcional Engenharia

Direcional Engenharia S.A. is the largest homebuilder serving Brazil's Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) federal housing program, headquartered at Av. dos Andradas, 3000, in the Santa Efigênia district of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Founded in 1981 by civil engineer Ricardo Valadares Gontijo, who remains the controlling shareholder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board, the company employs roughly 12,000 people across its corporate offices, regional branches, and dozens of active canteiros de obra (construction sites) spanning Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, the Distrito Federal, Bahia, Pará, Amazonas, Goiás, and beyond. Direcional trades on B3 under the ticker DIRR3 and is a constituent of the Small Cap and Real Estate indexes. The Gontijo family retains controlling ownership, which materially shapes how the company is run: long-term operating discipline, conservative leverage by Brazilian incorporadora standards, and a founder-led culture in which Ricardo Gontijo himself is known to read site reports and speak with regional directors weekly. Strategically, Direcional is the dominant pure-play in the so-called 'baixa renda' (low-income) housing segment under MCMV — a federal program that subsidizes mortgages and developer fees for families earning up to roughly six minimum wages, originally created in 2009, scaled back during the 2016–2022 period, and aggressively reactivated by the Lula government from 2023 onward. The 2023–2025 MCMV reactivation has driven a measurable boom: net revenue in the most recent annual cycle exceeded R$3 billion, with launches and contracted sales (VSO) at multi-year highs, and the company has consistently delivered industry-leading return on equity in the residential segment. Roughly 80% of consolidated revenue comes directly from MCMV product, which is both the company's competitive moat and its single largest concentration risk — a change in federal housing policy is the most important variable in any Direcional valuation. Recognizing that, Direcional has invested aggressively since 2020 in Riva, a premium-segment subsidiary targeting middle-income buyers (above the MCMV cap) in capital cities, where margins are higher and the buyer base is less sensitive to interest-rate cycles. Riva launches and revenue have grown materially in 2024 and 2025, diversifying the revenue mix without diluting the MCMV machine. Direcional's competitive set is well-defined: MRV Engenharia (B3:MRVE3), the historical MCMV market leader, remains its primary national competitor; Construtora Tenda (B3:TEND3) competes hard in the lowest MCMV brackets; Plano&Plano (B3:PLPL3) competes in São Paulo capital metro; and Cury Construtora (B3:CURY3) — a co-controlled subsidiary of Cyrela — competes in São Paulo and Rio. Direcional's edge over this set has historically been operational: industrialized construction methods (alvenaria estrutural, fôrmas de alumínio, concrete pre-cast), tight cycle times, vertical land-bank discipline, and a regional model that pushes decision-making into local diretorias rather than centralizing everything in BH. Culturally, the company is Portuguese-primary at HQ (executive meetings, internal documents, performance reviews are all in PT-BR), pragmatic, hierarchical in the traditional Brazilian engineering sense, and unsentimental about cost. Compensation is modest by São Paulo banking or tech standards — Direcional pays solidly within the construction sector benchmark but does not chase Faria Lima rates — and instead competes on stability, technical depth in residential construction, and exposure to one of the largest social-housing programs in the world. For candidates, the meaningful truth is this: if you want a long career in industrial-scale residential construction in Brazil, with a credible path through engenharia de obras, planejamento, suprimentos, incorporação, vendas, ou corporativo, and you are willing to operate in Portuguese, accept the housing-policy concentration risk, and earn a competitive but not extravagant package, Direcional is among the strongest employers in the country. If you want optionality across global tech, English-first product work, or pay benchmarked to investment banking, this is not the right address.

ATS System: Gupy

Direcional Engenharia uses Gupy, the dominant Brazilian-built ATS, for all candidate intake across Direcional and Riva brands. Gupy is the standard hiring platform for the majority of large Brazilian employers (Magazine Luiza, Ambev, Itaú segments, Vivo, Stefanini, BTG Pactual, and most listed incorporadoras), and its interface will feel familiar to any candidate who has applied to a major Brazilian company in the last five years. The portal is Portuguese-language primary, hosted under a `*.gupy.io` subdomain, and integrates an AI matching engine called Gaia that scores candidates against vaga requirements based on structured profile data, CV parsing, behavioral test results, and (for many vagas) the asynchronous video interview. Crucially, Gaia ranks candidates and surfaces a recommended shortlist to recruiters — meaning your effective competition is not 'every applicant' but 'the top 20–30 candidates Gaia surfaces first'. Optimizing your structured Gupy profile, completing every test step, and delivering a clean asynchronous video interview are therefore as important as the CV itself. Gupy de-duplicates by CPF + email, so do not create multiple accounts. The platform retains your application history; recruiters can see every vaga you've applied to at Direcional, which means a pattern of thoughtful, targeted applications reads better than a flood of indiscriminate ones.

Fill the entire Gupy profile, not just upload a CV. Gaia's matching score is heavily weighted on structured fields (formação, experiências with start/end dates, idiomas with proficiency level, habilidades, áreas de interesse, pretensão salarial). Empty fields are penalized.
Use the exact phrasing from the vaga in your profile habilidades and CV. Gaia's keyword matching is literal — 'alvenaria estrutural' and 'alvenaria com blocos estruturais' do not score the same.
Complete the asynchronous vídeo entrevista on a desktop browser with good lighting, neutral background, and quiet audio. Most candidates who fail this step fail on production quality, not content.
Take the behavioral DISC and Portuguese assessments seriously. Gupy uses the results in Gaia's scoring; rushing them puts you below candidates who took 30 minutes to complete them properly.
Set 'Disponibilidade para mudança' truthfully. Direcional has obras across multiple states; if you mark 'sim' to mobility you may be matched to a vaga in a city you don't actually want to live in. Honest preferences match better than overclaiming flexibility.
Update your profile quarterly even when not actively job-hunting. Gupy timestamps profile activity and Gaia favors recently-active candidates in passive sourcing for new vagas.
Use the 'Indicado por colaborador' field when you have a real referral from a current Direcional employee. Indicação flags the application visibly to the recruiter and is the single highest-impact accelerator.
Do not apply to more than 3–4 Direcional vagas in the same week. Gupy aggregates application volume per company and a flood of applications reads as low signal — a focused, customized application pattern reads as serious.

Complete Gupy Resume Guide →

Interview Culture

Direcional's interview process is direct, technical, hierarchical in the traditional Brazilian engineering sense, and unsentimental about cost.

For corporate analyst and coordinator roles, expect three to four rounds spread across four to eight weeks: an initial recruiter call from RH (triagem comportamental e cultural, 30–45 minutes, conducted in Portuguese), a technical interview with the gestor da área (deep dive into your hands-on experience, asked in concrete project terms — 'me conta um projeto específico, qual era o orçamento, qual foi o cronograma, onde estourou, como você corrigiu'), often a panel with peers from adjacent areas (planejamento talking to suprimentos, vendas talking to crédito), and a final 'fit' conversation with a diretor for senior hires. For engenharia de obra roles, the process is faster and more pragmatic — recruiter call, technical interview with a gerente de obras, possibly a site visit to a current canteiro for the candidate to see the operating reality, and an offer. For diretoria-level hires, expect 8–12 weeks with extended panels and likely a conversation with the founder-CEO Ricardo Gontijo himself for the most senior roles. The tone is formal-respectful in the way Brazilian construction companies tend to be: addressed as 'você' (rarely 'senhor/senhora' unless the interviewer is significantly older), offered água or cafezinho if onsite at the Av. dos Andradas HQ in BH, with meaningful but brief small-talk at the start. This is a culture that respects time and concrete results over performance. Behaviorally, Direcional interviewers probe for the same patterns repeatedly across rounds: (1) can you operate at industrial repetition — Direcional builds tens of thousands of units per year using a high-repetition, industrialized methodology, and candidates who can describe how they delivered repeatable, standardized output at scale outperform candidates who describe bespoke one-off projects; (2) are you cost-disciplined — every interview will surface budget questions, where you came in over or under, and how you justified deviations to your superiors; (3) do you understand MCMV mechanics — even non-engenharia candidates are expected to know what MCMV faixa 1, 2, and 3 are, how Caixa's apresentação de obras works, and how the federal subsidy reaches the developer; (4) can you handle the regional and field reality of canteiros — many roles require travel to obras across MG, SP, BA, PA, AM, and being honest about willingness to spend weeks per quarter on site is part of the evaluation. Use the STAR method (Situação, Tarefa, Ação, Resultado) and lean heavily on quantified delivery: unidades, prazo, custo, qualidade, segurança (zero-acidente goals are part of operating culture). Direcional's compensation is structured as base CLT salary plus PLR (Participação nos Lucros e Resultados) tied to company and individual targets; PLR for corporate analyst and coordenador roles typically runs 1–3 months of base, gerente roles 2–4 months, and diretoria significantly more with executive incentive plans linked to share performance. Salaries are modest by São Paulo banking or tech-company standards (Direcional pays solidly within the construction-sector benchmark — comparable to MRV, Tenda, Plano&Plano, Cury — but does not match Faria Lima or Vila Olímpia rates). Benefits are standard Brazilian CLT: vale-refeição, vale-alimentação, plano de saúde (typically Unimed or Bradesco Saúde), plano odontológico, seguro de vida, previdência privada for senior roles, and gympass or similar wellness benefit. The sindicato dos trabalhadores nas indústrias da construção governs blue-collar canteiro labor, with annual convenções coletivas; corporate roles fall under the white-collar engineering sindicato. Internal promotion is real and visible — Direcional's diretoria includes multiple executives who started in regional engenharia roles and grew into corporate leadership over 10–20 years, which interviewers actively look for in candidates: signal that you want to build a long career inside the housing-construction ecosystem, not pass through on the way to consulting or banking.

What Direcional Engenharia Looks For

Demonstrated experience with high-repetition, industrialized residential construction — alvenaria estrutural, fôrmas de alumínio, concrete pré-fabricado, padronização de projeto, ciclo de obra em meses (not years). Direcional's competitive advantage is operational repeatability at scale, and candidates whose résumés read like custom one-off projects tend to misfit.
MCMV literacy. Even corporate finance, jurídico, tecnologia, and marketing candidates are expected to understand the MCMV federal program — faixas, FGTS subsidy, Caixa intermediation, repasse mechanics, and how a change in federal policy ripples through launches, contratos, and entregas. Treating MCMV as 'just a government program' rather than the company's core business is a fatal interview signal.
Cost discipline and budget rigor. Direcional operates on tight residential margins; every role from estagiário to diretor is expected to think in custo por m², custo por unidade, and variance against orçamento. Candidates who can speak fluently about budget governance, contingência, and renegociação com fornecedores stand out.
Portuguese fluency for all roles, with English as a plus only for corporate finance, investor relations (DIRR3 has institutional and foreign shareholders), and selected Riva premium-segment marketing roles. For most engenharia, suprimentos, vendas, and obra positions, English is not required and candidates over-emphasizing it can read as misaligned.
Mobility within Brazil. Direcional's canteiros span MG, SP, RJ, DF, BA, PA, AM, GO, and other states. Engenharia de obra, qualidade, segurança do trabalho, and many planejamento roles expect frequent travel and sometimes relocation to interior cities or to projects in the Norte region. Honest mobility signals match better than overclaiming.
CREA, CAU, or CFT registration where relevant. Engineers, architects, and técnicos must hold active professional registration to sign ART/RRT documents. This is a non-negotiable filter for any role with technical responsibility on a canteiro.
Familiarity with Sienge, SAP, Power BI, MS Project, and the Brazilian construction-civil software ecosystem. Sienge is dominant in incorporadoras and Direcional uses it for project management, contracts, and obra control; SAP S/4HANA handles corporate ERP. Naming these systems on your CV is a direct compatibility signal.
Industry-network credibility. Direcional executives and gerentes are active in Sinduscon-MG (the MG construction industry sindicato), Ademi-MG (the real-estate developers association), CBIC (national construction chamber), and SECOVI in respective states. Visible engagement with these bodies — speaking at events, contributing to working groups, holding committee positions — accelerates senior-level hires.
Long-term career intent. The Gontijo family runs Direcional for the long term, and the company prefers to hire people who will be around in five to ten years. Interviewers will probe for whether you treat this as a destination employer or a stepping stone; honest long-term intent reads better than performative loyalty.
Alignment with the company's social-mission framing. Direcional explicitly markets itself as a company that 'transforma vidas pela realização do sonho da casa própria' — translating the federal MCMV mandate into a brand promise about homeownership. Candidates who can speak credibly about why providing housing matters, without sounding rehearsed, fit the cultural tone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Direcional Engenharia hire remote workers?

Mostly no. Direcional is a construction company, and the majority of roles are either canteiro-based (engenharia de obra, qualidade, segurança do trabalho, mestre de obras, comprador local) or hybrid corporate at the Belo Horizonte HQ on Av. dos Andradas. Corporate areas typically operate hybrid 3-2 with three days in the office. Fully remote vagas exist for a narrow set of tecnologia and corporativo roles but are uncommon and usually flagged explicitly in the Gupy posting. If a vaga does not mention remote work, assume it is hybrid or on-site.

Do I need to be fluent in English to work at Direcional?

Generally no. Direcional is a Portuguese-primary Brazilian employer. English is required only for a narrow set of corporate finance, investor relations (because DIRR3 has institutional and foreign shareholders who participate in calls and roadshows), and selected Riva premium-segment marketing roles. For engenharia de obra, planejamento, suprimentos, vendas, crédito, jurídico, RH, and the vast majority of corporate roles, Portuguese fluency is sufficient and English is at best a 'nice to have'. Over-emphasizing English on your CV for a canteiro role can read as misaligned.

What does Direcional pay compared to MRV, Tenda, Plano&Plano, and Cury?

Direcional's compensation is competitive within the listed Brazilian residential incorporadora benchmark — broadly comparable to MRV (B3:MRVE3), Tenda (B3:TEND3), Plano&Plano (B3:PLPL3), and Cury (B3:CURY3) for equivalent roles and seniority levels. None of these companies pay Faria Lima banking rates or São Paulo tech-company rates; all of them compete on stability, technical depth in residential construction, and exposure to MCMV scale. PLR (Participação nos Lucros e Resultados) is meaningful — typically 1–3 months for analysts, 2–4 months for gerentes, and significantly more for diretoria with executive incentive plans tied to DIRR3 share performance. Negotiate PLR upside, not just base.

How concentrated is Direcional in MCMV, and what's the risk?

Roughly 80% of consolidated revenue comes from MCMV product. This is both Direcional's competitive moat — it is the largest pure-play in the segment — and its single largest concentration risk. A change in federal housing policy (subsidy levels, faixa thresholds, Caixa funding allocation) is the most important variable in any DIRR3 valuation. The Lula government reactivated MCMV aggressively from 2023 onward, which drove the 2024–2025 boom in launches and revenue. If federal policy shifts again, the company's growth profile shifts with it. Riva, the premium-segment subsidiary, exists in part to diversify this concentration. Candidates should understand this risk and be prepared to discuss it intelligently in interviews.

What is Riva and how is it different from core Direcional?

Riva is Direcional's premium-segment subsidiary, launched and scaled aggressively from 2020 onward, targeting middle and upper-middle income buyers (above the MCMV cap) in capital cities. Riva launches and revenue have grown materially in 2024 and 2025 and now represent a meaningful share of consolidated launches. Riva competes against Cyrela, Even, Eztec, Tegra, Trisul, Mitre, and similar premium-segment incorporadoras — a different competitive set than core Direcional's MCMV competition (MRV, Tenda, Plano&Plano, Cury). For candidates, Riva offers exposure to higher-margin product, more design-forward incorporação, and capital-city geographies. Apply through the same Gupy portal; the vaga will be tagged Riva when applicable.

How important is Belo Horizonte vs. other locations?

Belo Horizonte is the corporate HQ — the executive team, controladoria, finance, jurídico, RH, TI, and most corporate functions sit on Av. dos Andradas. If you want a corporate career path with proximity to the diretoria and Ricardo Gontijo himself, BH is the address. That said, Direcional has substantial regional operations across MG, SP, RJ, DF, BA, PA, AM, GO, and other states; many engenharia, vendas, suprimentos, and field-operations roles are based in those regional offices or attached to specific canteiros. For candidates open to relocation, this can accelerate growth — regional roles often carry more direct P&L responsibility earlier than equivalent BH-based corporate roles.

Does Direcional sponsor international candidates or relocations?

Effectively no. Direcional hires Brazilian candidates with valid CTPS (Carteira de Trabalho), CPF, and (where applicable) active CREA/CAU/CFT registration. The company does not run international recruiting programs or sponsor work permits for non-Brazilian candidates. Foreigners with permanent residency (RNM) and full work authorization can apply on the same terms as Brazilian candidates, but they should not expect the company to navigate immigration processes on their behalf. Portuguese fluency is required for nearly every role.

What's the interview process like for engenharia de obra roles vs. corporate roles?

Engenharia de obra interviews are faster and more pragmatic — typically a recruiter call (Portuguese, behavioral and CREA verification), a technical interview with a gerente de obras (deep dive into specific projects, budgets, prazos, and quality issues you handled), often a site visit to a current Direcional canteiro so the candidate can see the operating reality, and an offer. The full cycle runs 2–4 weeks for active vagas. Corporate roles (planejamento, controladoria, RH, TI, jurídico, marketing) run a longer 4–8 week cycle with recruiter triagem, gestor interview, peer panels with adjacent areas, and a final fit conversation with a diretor for senior hires. Diretoria-level hires take 8–12 weeks and typically include a conversation with Ricardo Gontijo himself.

What kind of background helps for Direcional's incorporação and novos negócios team?

Direcional's incorporação team handles land acquisition, project feasibility, legal due diligence, and product definition for new launches. The strongest backgrounds combine: (1) civil engineering or architecture training, (2) hands-on experience with land-bank evaluation in MCMV faixas, (3) financial modeling fluency (TIR, VPL, payback, sensibilidade), (4) regulatory knowledge of zoning (uso e ocupação do solo), licenciamento ambiental, and habite-se processes, and (5) network credibility with brokers (corretores fundiários) in target geographies. Candidates from competitor incorporadoras (MRV, Tenda, Plano&Plano, Cury, Even, Cyrela), from Big 4 real-estate advisory, or from Caixa's repasse and apresentação de obras teams have a direct competence path.

How does the founder-CEO Ricardo Gontijo influence day-to-day hiring and culture?

Ricardo Valadares Gontijo founded the company in 1981, retains controlling ownership, and continues to serve as CEO and Chairman. This is a founder-led, family-controlled company, and the founder's operating style is visible: long-term strategic patience, conservative leverage, hands-on engagement with regional operations, and a preference for hiring people who plan to build long careers inside the firm. For senior roles (gerente sênior, diretor), expect alignment with diretoria's strategic priorities to matter more than pure résumé fit. Ricardo Gontijo himself is reported to read site reports and speak with regional directors regularly — the operating cadence is closer to a hands-on industrial company than a delegating professional management firm. Candidates who want a heavily-empowered, autonomous-from-day-one role with no founder oversight may prefer professionally-managed competitors; candidates who want to learn from a founder who built the largest MCMV company in Brazil will find the access genuine.

Open Positions

Direcional Engenharia currently has 20 open positions.

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Related Resources

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Sources

Direcional Engenharia — Investor Relations and Annual Reports — Direcional Engenharia S.A.
B3 Listed Company Profile — DIRR3 (Direcional Engenharia S.A.) — B3 — Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão
Minha Casa Minha Vida — Federal Housing Program (Ministério das Cidades) — Governo Federal do Brasil
Caixa Econômica Federal — Habitação and Apresentação de Obras — Caixa Econômica Federal
Gupy — Brazilian ATS Platform Documentation — Gupy Tecnologia