Job DescriptionVICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT :The VICE PRESIDENT of DEVELOPMENT will serve as Our Client's senior owner-side development leader, working as part of a small internal team and reporting directly to the CEO. This is a hands-on role in a deliberately lean organization: the Director will oversee the project management of the developments while personally handling much of the detailed work. VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENTLong-term owner-side leadership across master planning, apartment development, infrastructure, design, construction, and operations. During the current master-planning phase, an experienced external development partner is leading that process. The Director will work hand in hand with the partner and consultant team - absorbing institutional knowledge, providing informed ownership input, and helping Our Client make sound decisions without duplicating the partner's work - while positioning the company for successful vertical development. The development strategy is centered on long-term ownership rather than building, stabilizing, and selling. Decisions are therefore evaluated differently: not simply what can be built within the initial budget, but what will create enduring value over decades. That requires a disciplined balance among marketability, design quality, construction cost, operating efficiency, maintenance, durability, and long-term capital requirements. Apartments are expected to be a central component of the program, and the Director must understand how planning and construction decisions ultimately affect leasing, resident experience, operations, and long-term asset performance. Why This Opportunity Is UniqueOur Client has the capital, patience, and perspective to create developments intended to remain in its portfolio for generations. The objective is not simply to complete projects - it is to create places that are well conceived, financially disciplined, operationally sound, and valued by residents and the surrounding community at opening and years later. Place-making is central to that effort, and so are relationships: the projects require extensive, professional, and respectful coordination with adjacent and nearby property owners, community stakeholders, public agencies, consultants, and development partners - relationships that will extend well beyond construction. This is a senior role for someone with strong judgment and little ego - someone who knows when to lead, when to listen, when to challenge assumptions, and when to personally take ownership of the detailed work necessary to keep a project moving. About Our ClientOur Client is a multigenerational, family-owned real estate company evolving from a traditional holding platform into an integrated owner, operator, and developer. Its current priorities include significant master planning and entitlement efforts in Southern California, together with a new corporate headquarters. Because the company develops to own, it considers planning, design, construction, operations, maintenance, marketability, and community relationships together. REPORTS TO | Chief Executive OfficerLOCATION | Orange County, CaliforniaSCHEDULE | On-site Monday through Friday, generally 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. TEAM | Small internal development team supported by sophisticated external partners and consultants
Key Responsibilities
Full-Cycle Development Leadership:
Lead projects across the full development lifecycle - feasibility, entitlement, master planning, infrastructure, product programming, design, preconstruction, horizontal and vertical construction, delivery, lease-up coordination, stabilization, and transition to long-term operations. Serve as the CEO's primary development counterpart, translating the company's ownership objectives into practical development decisions and clear recommendations. Oversee the day-to-day project management necessary to advance multiple complex workstreams at once.
Apartment Development, Marketability and Operations:
Provide experienced leadership in the planning, design, construction, and delivery of apartment communities. Own the balance test at the heart of the strategy: durability and maintainability on one hand; design quality, amenities, unit planning, resident experience, and competitive market positioning on the other - supporting a strong initial lease-up without sacrificing the operating performance required of a long-hold asset. Work closely with ownership, designers, consultants, leasing, property management, and operations so that decisions made in planning and construction serve the asset across its full life.
Place-Making and Long-Term Asset Quality:
Help create developments that function as enduring places rather than collections of buildings - treating architecture, landscape, public spaces, amenities, circulation, mobility, parking, retail interfaces, and community integration as interconnected. Judge design and construction investments by how the properties will perform and be perceived at opening, five years later, and over decades - within a disciplined budget, identifying where additional investment creates meaningful long-term value and where it does not.
Master Planning and Horizontal Development:
Direct master-plan, entitlement, environmental-review, and land-development workstreams across large-scale phased projects, including infrastructure, grading, drainage, roads, utilities, sanitary sewer, civil engineering, parcel sequencing, and horizontal budgets. Work alongside the external development partner and consultants while maintaining Our Client's independent ownership perspective, and pressure-test assumptions where warranted. Evaluate infrastructure, phasing, and entitlement decisions for their impact on cost, schedule, future vertical development, operations, and surrounding properties.
Team and Consultant Leadership:
Co-lead the internal project-management staffing plan with the CEO and CFO, determining how the internal development organization should grow as volume and complexity increase. Collaborate with the CEO and CFO in selecting and hiring the external consultant team - architects, engineers, planners, attorneys, contractors, cost consultants, and other specialists - with clear scopes, deliverables, budgets, schedules, and accountability. Keep the internal organization lean while ensuring Our Client retains the knowledge, decision-making capability, and project controls to manage its developments effectively.
Stakeholder and Neighbor Coordination:
Develop and maintain constructive working relationships with adjacent and nearby property owners and other stakeholders, representing Our Client professionally in discussions involving access, infrastructure, circulation, construction impacts, entitlements, and shared concerns. Work alongside the CEO in relationships with municipalities, community stakeholders, neighboring ownership groups, and business partners, managing them as the long-term relationships they are.
Project Management, Reporting and CEO Support:
Maintain or oversee project schedules, development budgets, cash-flow inputs, action lists, decision logs, scopes, contracts, invoices, consultant deliverables, meeting materials, and executive reporting. Become Our Client's internal source of truth for project history, assumptions, constraints, decisions, unresolved issues, and dependencies - so critical knowledge stays with the company through partner, consultant, and city-staff transitions. Work closely with the CFO on underwriting, financing, financial controls, capital planning, and evaluation of development alternatives; the Director owns the underlying development assumptions, costs, schedules, and execution risks. Escalate material issues early with concise, well-supported recommendations, and take ownership of coordination, follow-up, and workstreams that should not remain with the CEO day to day. Initially serve as the owner's representative for the company's new office build-out alongside project responsibilities.
Qualifications:
RequiredTen or more years of progressive real estate development experience with meaningful responsibility for complex projects. Meaningful apartment/multifamily development experience, including an understanding of design, construction, leasing, property operations, maintenance, and long-term asset performance. Demonstrated experience across horizontal and vertical development - entitlements, infrastructure coordination, design, preconstruction, construction, delivery, and stabilization. Strong command of development budgets, schedules, contracts, change management, cost drivers, project controls, and consultant accountability, including experience managing sophisticated external project professionals. Demonstrated ability to evaluate development decisions from the perspective of a long-term owner rather than solely a merchant builder. Ability to operate effectively within a small internal team while personally managing detailed project work, with strong communication, judgment, and relationship-management skills.
Preferred:
Large-scale mixed-use or master-planned developments in which apartments represent a significant component.
Southern California entitlement and development experience.
Experience integrating development, leasing, property management, operations, and asset-management considerations into project decisions.
Experience within a long-term ownership organization - family-owned real estate company, institutional owner/operator, or similarly patient-capital environment.
Experience building internal development teams and selecting external consultant 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 - comfortable working directly with the CEO and CFO in a small organization while directing large external teams, and equally comfortable shaping strategy and completing detailed work. Above all, the Director should be a hands-on development professional who understands the difference between developing a project to sell and developing a place you intend to own for generations.
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. 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
