Chief Development Officer

Our client, a luxury real estate developer are looking for the Chief Development Officer to join their team. Responsibilities: 1. Development Strategy & Portfolio Leadership Jointly with CEO: 1. Define and lead the company’s development strategy, ensuring alignment with corporate growth objectives and market opportunities. 2. Oversee the entire development portfolio and prioritize projects based on commercial, financial, and strategic value. 3. Approve concept strategies, feasibility outcomes, product propositions, and project positioning. Ensure cross-functional cohesion between product, commercial, design, construction, and project management. 2. Product & Concept Governance Oversee the creation and evolution of product strategy, product matrix, standards, and product-related KPIs. Ensure product concepts are viable, competitive, and aligned with customer insights, market research, and financial models. Approve product roadmaps, technical standards, and major design or product changes across all stages. Champion innovation in architecture, materials, design, sustainability, and smart-building technologies. 3. Design & Construction Oversight Provide executive oversight to the complete design and construction lifecycle. Approve design briefs, technical specifications, engineering strategies, and value-engineering decisions. Ensure all pre-design, design, and construction stages meet regulatory requirements and land-use conditions. Oversee tendering strategies, contractor and consultant selection, and contractual frameworks. Ensure construction progress, quality, cost, and schedule adherence through effective governance practices. Lead high-level stakeholder engagement with authorities and regulatory bodies for approvals and compliance. 4. Commercial Strategy & Financial Control Oversee commercial strategy development, ensuring integration with design, product, and sales positioning. Approve commercial frameworks, procurement plans, contracting strategies, and project cashflow forecasting. Ensure pre-contract cost control is aligned with business case assumptions and feasibility outcomes. Validate financial models, development budgets, and project profitability projections. Drive value engineering, cost optimization, and ROI enhancement initiatives across the project portfolio. 5. Project Governance & Execution Excellence Establish project delivery frameworks, governance structures, reporting systems, and performance metrics. Oversee project planning, scheduling, risk assessments, and mitigation strategies across all projects. Ensure PMs deliver projects according to scope, quality standards, budget, and timelines. Resolve escalated project issues, interdependencies, and critical path challenges. Lead gate reviews and ensure clarity of deliverables for every development stage. 6. Stakeholder & Investor Engagement Serve as the executive representative to master developers, and major project partners. Provide senior updates to investors, shareholders and the Board on project performance and development strategy. Support marketing and sales teams with technical, product and development insights during launches and campaigns. 7. Leadership of Development Divisions Lead, mentor, and develop senior leaders across commercial, design & construction, product, and project management teams. Build a high-performance culture emphasizing accountability, innovation, collaboration, and excellence. Ensure departmental KPIs cascade from company-level development objectives. Approve resourcing strategies, organizational structures, and capability development plans. 8. Handover, Commissioning & Post-Completion Activities Oversee final testing, commissioning, quality checks, and authority sign-offs. Ensure smooth transition of completed assets to operations, owners’ associations, or facility management teams. Conduct post-completion reviews and integrate lessons learned into future development practices. Requirements Skills & Experience 15+ years in large-scale real estate or mixed-use development with full lifecycle oversight. Strong strategic, commercial, and financial acumen, including feasibility review and portfolio prioritization. Proven leadership across product strategy, design management, construction delivery, and value engineering. Expertise in project governance, risk management, contracting, and regulatory/authority approvals. Executive-level stakeholder, investor, and board engagement experience with excellent communication skills. Strong people leader with a track record of building high-performance, cross-functional development teams.