Development Manager

Join us as a Development Manager at Thirteen Group!

Role Overview

Thirteen Group is on the lookout for two Development Managers to join our Land and Development team. With responsibility for leading the pre-commencement phases of development projects, you’ll drive the process to take a scheme from a new development opportunity through to post-commencement stage. This is a hybrid role, so you’ll work between home, our fantastic office at Hudson Quay in Middlesbrough, as well as going out to see development opportunities across our operating area. We’ll need you to be flexible around business and team need, so you may need to come into the office more frequently when required.

Thirteen Benefits

• Salary – £59,083 per annum
• Annual leave – starting at 28 days and rising to 31 days after three years, a day off for your birthday, plus bank holidays.
• Pension – up to 17% contributions (flexible contribution rates of up to 7% colleague and up to 10% employer).
• Simply Health – save money on common health expenses and get access to health and wellbeing support services.
• T’dar – our Discount and Reward platform giving you huge savings on everyday brands.
• Opportunities to buy and sell annual leave.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage pre-commencement development activity for land-led and developer-led projects. You’ll lead the progression of projects throughout the identification, acquisition, feasibility, and planning processes.
• Drive project performance against financial hurdles and forecasted programmes, proactively managing risk and reporting variances.
• Oversee multi-disciplinary project teams of consultants and solicitors. You’ll also manage relationships with developers, landowners, agents and local authorities to secure opportunities.
• Support with contractor selection and appointment for land led schemes. You’ll negotiate land contracts, build agreements (including JCTs), and development agreements.
• Lead the pre-commencement gateway and assurance process, ensuring projects enter delivery with robust approvals, budgets, compliance, and risk controls.
• You’ll have line management responsibility of an Assistant Development Manager.
• Prepare approval information for new schemes and high-quality written reports for senior stakeholders.

About You

• You’ll have experience in land acquisition, negotiation, and development pre commencement processes.
• Experience of the pre-commencement development stages, particularly in land acquisition and negotiation. You’ll have a working knowledge of development design, feasibility, planning, and sustainability principles.
• An understanding of feasibility appraisal and early-stage risk management, ensuring schemes are viable, deliverable, and offer value for money.
• Proven capability of building trusted relationships with colleagues, consultants, funders, landowners, developers, and planning authorities.
• Great communication skills, with the ability to produce high-quality written reports and present complex information effectively.

Why Thirteen

At Thirteen, we work together to provide quality homes, build stronger communities, and support people to live well. As the largest housing association in the North East and among the top 25 nationally, we manage over 36,000 homes, with over 1,600 colleagues providing services for around 100,000 customers.

Our vision is to be the most trusted housing association, with happy customers. In fact, we put customers at the heart of everything we do.

• Join a team that’s local at heart but welcomes talent from everywhere.
• Be part of an organisation that values diversity and inclusivity.
• Be a part of a company that offers tailored support services, going beyond just housing solutions.