Chief Development Officer

Overview

A private real estate investment and development firm is searching for a Chief Development Officer to spearhead a large luxury resort and residential community project situated in the Southeastern United States. Currently in its nascent development phase, the initiative aims to blend high-end residences with private club facilities, hospitality, golf, wellness, dining, and outdoor activities into a multi-year destination delivering tailored member experiences amid exceptional design and nature.

Role Responsibilities

• Act as the primary operational and development liaison to the founder and ownership group.
• Convert the founder's vision into actionable priorities, budgets, timelines, and execution strategies.
• Lead the evolution from an entrepreneurial project setup into a structured development and operational organization.
• Develop organizational structure, reporting hierarchies, and decision-making frameworks.
• Hire, guide, and manage senior leaders across functions including development, construction, finance, hospitality, sales, and operations.
• Clarify accountability across workstreams and enforce performance standards.
• Implement consistent executive reporting, leadership meetings, and milestone assessments.
• Discriminate between decisions requiring owner input and those delegated to executives.
• Shield ownership from daily operational distractions while providing clear insights on key decisions, risks, and prospects.
• Oversee the master development plan and phased rollout strategy ensuring alignment of land development, infrastructure, residential, hospitality, club, and amenities.
• Create development schedules with critical paths and milestone dependencies.
• Coordinate planning, design, engineering, permits, construction, and preparation for operations.
• Maintain alignment of all projects with the overarching vision, branding, and member experience.
• Forecast staffing, systems, and operational needs for each phase launch.
• Supervise projects from conception through construction and operational turnover.
• Manage construction leadership and implement disciplined procurement, contracting, and vendor management processes.
• Maintain relationships with architects, engineers, contractors, consultants, and partners, ensuring documented scopes, budgets, schedules, and responsibilities.
• Address conflicts among development, design, construction, finance, and operations teams promptly.
• Evaluate and adjust external partner performance as necessary.
• Uphold high standards in quality, cost efficiency, schedule adherence, and design execution.
• Work alongside Controller and accounting teams to define budget controls, cash flow forecasts, and project reporting linking finances to scheduling.
• Review major contracts and expenditures and establish executive dashboards covering schedule, budget, risk, and readiness.
• Ensure financial and accountability awareness among functional leaders.
• Develop foundational HR policies, role descriptions, reporting structures, decision rights, goal setting, and performance evaluation systems.
• Identify talent gaps and recruit leadership as needed; nurture a culture balancing entrepreneurial agility with disciplined execution.
• Integrate hospitality and club operational planning into development, preparing business plans, staffing models, budgets, and opening schedules for amenities.
• Coordinate transitions from construction completion to active operations ensuring premier service and experience standards.
• Spend consistent time onsite in the Southeast region and travel as needed for significant milestones and meetings.

Required Qualifications

• Around 20+ years of progressive real estate development experience.
• Senior leadership within luxury resorts, private clubs, destination communities, or large master-planned projects.
• Experience managing complex projects through planning, phased delivery, and operational stages.
• Strong expertise in luxury residential development and exposure to hospitality, private clubs, golf, wellness, or amenity-rich communities.
• Knowledge of horizontal land development and infrastructure execution.
• Demonstrated ability to lead multiple senior functional leaders.
• Experience building organizational structures and recruiting leadership personnel.
• Financial proficiency including budgeting, cash flow, forecasting, and cost control.
• Experience overseeing architects, engineers, contractors, consultants, and vendors.
• Ability to work effectively with entrepreneurial founders, family offices, or involved private owners.
• Capability to establish authority, resolve conflicts, and enforce accountability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing private clubs or luxury resorts from the ground up.
• Golf course or golf-community development knowledge.
• Wellness, longevity, spa, or health-focused amenity development.
• Background in outdoor recreation, equestrian, or conservation-oriented communities.
• Handling developments with several hundred residential homesites.
• Familiarity with membership strategy, club sales, branded residential projects.
• Experience setting up hospitality operations pre-opening.
• Expertise in Opportunity Zone or analogous development structures.
• Strong network in luxury hospitality, club operations, and residential development.
• Professional experience within the Southeastern United States.

Leadership Qualities

• Elicits respect beyond hierarchical authority.
• Focuses on leading fellow leaders rather than individual project management.
• Comfortable working in a dynamic entrepreneurial environment.
• Brings clarity to ambiguous responsibilities.
• Balances swift action with thoughtful decisions.
• Communicates openly and confidently with ownership.
• Challenges assumptions while honoring the founder's vision.
• Rapidly builds trust among internal teams and external partners.
• Keeps a keen sense of when to escalate issues versus independent resolution.
• Marries institutional discipline with practical hands-on approach.
• Driven by the ambition to develop a lasting organization and impactful legacy.

Location and Travel

This role offers location flexibility, allowing a remote or hybrid setup. However, consistent and meaningful presence onsite in the Southeastern United States is essential, typically about one week per month. Additional travel will be expected for major milestones, leadership meetings, and amenity openings. Candidates willing to relocate or maintain a second residence near the project will be highly regarded.

Why Join?

• Opportunity to lead the creation of a generational luxury destination.
• Work closely with the founder as their primary operational and development executive partner.
• Build and shape the organizational leadership team.
• Exercise comprehensive authority over development, construction, finance, and operations.
• Influence a multi-faceted project including luxury homes, hospitality, golf, wellness, dining, and outdoor experiences.
• Engage with the project at its formative stage with initial execution underway.
• Directly contribute to long-term value creation and establish a lasting legacy rather than a conventional development.