Chief Development Officer

Ladwig consulting; Dubai; On-site; AED 550,000 - 735,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading real estate firm in Dubai is seeking a seasoned executive to oversee its development strategy and portfolio. The ideal candidate will have over 15 years of experience in large-scale real estate or mixed-use development, showcasing robust leadership and financial acumen. This role is critical in ensuring cohesive project governance and successful stakeholder engagement while maintaining high-performance standards across development teams.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in large-scale real estate or mixed-use development.
• Strong strategic, commercial, and financial acumen.
• Proven leadership in product strategy and construction delivery.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the company’s development strategy.
• Oversee the entire development portfolio, prioritizing projects.
• Approve design briefs, technical specifications, and strategies.

Skills

Strategic oversight

Financial acumen

Project governance

Stakeholder engagement

Leadership

Job description

Responsibilities

1. Development Strategy & Portfolio Leadership
   • Define and lead the company’s development strategy, ensuring alignment with corporate growth objectives and market opportunities.
   • Oversee the entire development portfolio and prioritize projects based on commercial, financial, and strategic value.
   • 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

• 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.