Development Manager in England

New Homes | Major mixed tenure & mixed-use schemes | Land acquisition & delivery

We're looking for an experienced land‑led Development Manager to help grow and deliver a major new homes pipeline across the Southwest. If you thrive on finding, shaping and securing land opportunities then working them through due diligence, planning and into delivery, this is a role with real influence and scale.

Please note: Our Southwest office is currently based in Eastleigh and is due to relocate to Swindon later in 2026. As a result, we offer a flexible approach to office working.

More about your role

You’ll report to the Development Director and take ownership of identifying and progressing land‑led opportunities across the region, helping deliver the land‑led development pipeline in line with Group objectives and the Business Plan. The portfolio spans large‑scale multi‑tenure and mixed‑use developments, affordable programmes and Joint Venture schemes.

More about you

Essential

• To have a strong network of contacts, ideally along the M4/M5 corridors.
• Experienced in the private sector (national housebuilder or similar), with a strong new homes track record.
• Proven ability to lead land bids end‑to‑end, securing competitive and deliverable opportunities.
• Strong commercial and numerical capability, including financial appraisals, scenario testing and Anaplan for land bids.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience producing and presenting board‑level papers.

Preferred

• Strong understanding of multi‑tenure new homes development, including planning, construction, funding and legal considerations.
• Experience negotiating complex land and development agreements and supporting or mentoring more junior team members.

If you're commercially sharp, well connected, and excited by complex land‑led opportunities that make a lasting impact, we'd like to hear from you.

Benefits

• Competitive salary, with a salary review yearly.
• Pension with matched contributions up to 7%.
• Excellent holiday package – up to 35 days annual leave with the option to buy or sell leave.
• Competitive Bonus.
• Company car or Car allowance.
• Training and development.
• Extra perks including huge discounts and offers from shops, cinemas and much more.

What's next?

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we offer a guaranteed interview to candidates who are disabled, neurodiverse, or have served in the Armed Forces, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to be considered under this scheme, please indicate this in your application. We are dedicated to creating a supportive and accessible recruitment process for all.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application or interview experience, let us know. We’re happy to work with you to ensure you have the opportunity to perform at your best.

If you are a Places for People customer and you’re looking for support with your application, please contact our skills and employment team at . We understand the importance of a supportive and inclusive work culture, so please talk to us at interview about flexibility you may need. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want, but we promise not to judge you for asking. For this role we are open to discussing the possibility of reduced hours, flexible start and finish times or compressed hours.

Safeguarding

At Places for People, safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. We are committed to creating safe communities for our customers and colleagues by protecting children, young people, and adults at risk from harm, abuse, and neglect. We follow robust safeguarding policies and procedures, ensuring all employees, volunteers, and contractors uphold the highest standards of safeguarding and accountability. Our recruitment process includes pre‑employment checks, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks where applicable, to promote a safe and secure working environment. By joining Places for People, you are expected to contribute to our safeguarding culture, following our policies and reporting concerns to protect those in our communities.