DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT : Full-cycle owner-side leadership across master planning, horizontal development, and vertical execution. The Director of Development will serve as Our Client’s senior owner-side development leader and the CEO’s primary development counterpart. The role owns the full lifecycle, from master planning, entitlements, infrastructure, and horizontal development through vertical design, construction, delivery, and stabilization.
Because the current projects are currently concentrated in master planning, entitlements, and infrastructure, the immediate priority is a leader who can manage horizontal complexity, retain institutional knowledge, direct sophisticated consultants, and personally drive execution while positioning the portfolio for successful vertical development. During the current master-planning phase, the Director will work hand in hand with Our Client’s world-class external development partner, which is leading that process — absorbing institutional knowledge, providing informed ownership input, and helping Our Client make sound decisions without duplicating the partner’s work. This is a senior, hands-on role within a deliberately lean organization.
Why this opportunity is so special:
This is a dream job. The client has the capital, the vision, and a pipeline of projects that rarely come along. That said, this isn’t a role for someone driven by title or ego. It’s for a patient, seasoned leader who knows when to quietly observe, when to reinforce the owner’s objectives, when to take charge, and when to roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to keep the project moving forward.
You’ll be the CEO’s right hand—a trusted partner who can shift seamlessly between strategy and execution. A strong background in vertical development across mixed-use, multifamily, commercial, and infrastructure projects is essential.
There are very few opportunities like this.
About Our Client
Our Client Company is a multigenerational, family-owned real estate company evolving from a traditional holding platform into a more integrated owner, operator, and developer. Its current priorities include significant mixed-use master planning and entitlement efforts in Southern California, together with a new corporate headquarters. Our Client takes a patient, disciplined approach to capital and creates value through thoughtful planning, strong relationships, and excellent execution.
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REPORTS TO
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Chief Executive Officer
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LOCATION
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Costa Mesa, California, with an anticipated future office in Irvine
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SCHEDULE
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On-site Monday through Friday, generally 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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TEAM
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No direct reports initially; builds a lean development team as workload requires
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Key Responsibilities
Full-Cycle Development Leadership
- Lead projects across the full development lifecycle, including feasibility, entitlement, master planning, infrastructure, design, preconstruction, horizontal and vertical construction, delivery, lease-up coordination, and stabilization.
- Translate the company’s long-term ownership objectives, design priorities, risk tolerance, and capital-stewardship principles into executable decisions and clear recommendations to the CEO.
Master Planning and Horizontal Development
- Direct master-plan, entitlement, environmental-review, and land-development workstreams across large-scale, phased mixed-use projects, including on-site and off-site infrastructure, grading, drainage, roads, utilities, sanitary sewer, civil engineering, parcel sequencing, and horizontal budgets.
- Work alongside the external development partner and consultant team, provide Our Client’s ownership perspective, and understand the rationale and tradeoffs behind recommendations so major decisions align with the company’s long-term objectives.
- Evaluate what must be completed now versus later, pressure-test consultant assumptions, and identify infrastructure or phasing decisions that could affect entitlement strategy, cost, schedule, or vertical feasibility.
Vertical Development and Construction
- Lead product programming, architecture, design development, preconstruction, contractor selection, value engineering, construction, commissioning, delivery, and closeout while balancing quality, cost, schedule, market position, and long-term operating performance.
- Coordinate the transition from horizontal development into vertical execution and ensure continuity among development, construction, asset management, property management, leasing, and operations.
Partner, Consultant, and Institutional Knowledge Management
- Coordinate architects, engineers, planners, attorneys, contractors, cost estimators, and specialty consultants while maintaining independent owner-side judgment and accountability for scope, budget, schedule, quality, and communication.
- Become Our Client’s internal source of truth for project history, assumptions, constraints, decisions, unresolved issues, dependencies, and tradeoffs so critical knowledge remains with the company through partner, consultant, and city-staff transitions.
Project Management, Reporting, and CEO Leverage
- Personally maintain or oversee project schedules, budgets, cash-flow inputs, action lists, decision logs, scopes, contracts, invoices, consultant deliverables, meeting materials, and executive reporting.
- Own coordination, follow-up, issue tracking, and discrete workstreams that should not remain with the CEO day to day. Escalate material issues early with clear options and recommendations, and represent the company alongside the CEO with public agencies, community stakeholders, neighboring owners, and business partners.
- Partner with the CFO on underwriting, financing, financial controls, joint-venture evaluation, and capital-partner due diligence. The CFO will lead financial and capital-markets workstreams; this role will own the underlying development assumptions, costs, schedules, and execution risks.
Platform and Team Building
- Build practical development systems, reporting standards, approval processes, and document controls without recreating every specialist discipline internally.
- Remain capable of personally running projects, add staff only when volume and complexity justify it, and initially serve as the owner’s representative for the company’s new office build-out alongside the various project responsibilities.
Qualifications
Required
- Generally 10 or more years of progressive real estate development experience with meaningful responsibility for complex mixed-use, master-planned, or phased projects.
- Demonstrated experience across horizontal and vertical development, including entitlements, infrastructure coordination, design, preconstruction, construction, and delivery.
- Strong command of schedules, development budgets, horizontal and vertical cost drivers, contracts, change management, risk tracking, and consultant accountability.
- Ability to distinguish material risks from temporary noise, identify where additional analysis creates value, and operate effectively without excessive structure or a large internal team.
- Strong communication skills and a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, or equivalent experience.
Preferred
- Experience with large-scale mixed-use master plans and Southern California entitlement processes.
- Civil engineering, land-development, or horizontal-construction background, or substantial experience managing those disciplines from the developer or owner side.
- A blend of institutional-quality training, entrepreneurial hands-on execution, and experience building development systems or teams.
Leadership Profile
The successful candidate will bring an owner’s mindset, seasoned judgment, high integrity, low ego, intellectual curiosity, and a strong work ethic. This person must be equally comfortable shaping strategy and completing detailed work, direct with the CEO, disciplined with capital, thoughtful about relationships, and curious about evolving design, renter behavior, mobility, parking, technology, and operating models.
Compensation and Benefits
- Base salary: TBD, based on experience
- Annual performance bonus eligibility; potential long-term incentive participation subject to final plan structure and company approval.
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage, with employee premiums fully covered and 50% of dependent premiums covered.
- Four weeks of paid vacation and SIMPLE IRA employer match up to 3% of compensation, subject to applicable plan terms.
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GILLIAN EXECUTIVE SEARCH – is a leader in real estate development executive level retained recruiting. Contact Kipp Gillian to learn more. 866-600-0437 x 1, 949-637-6401c, kgillian(@)gessearch.com