Head of Land Development

Rhaelm; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

RHAELM is seeking a Head of Land Development to drive the group’s geotechnical strategy and enabling works across sites, including brownfield and industrial land. Based in London, you will lead risk assessments, oversee consultants, and coordinate with Origination, Planning and Commercial teams, with international travel as required.

You will own development standards, de-risk sites to standard levels, and build a team at head office while supporting in-country recruitment.

Qualifications

• Degree in civil or geotechnical engineering
• Chartered status (e.g. CEng, CGeol or equivalent)
• Working knowledge of CDM 2015 or equivalent early-works health and safety regimes
• Postgraduate qualification in geotechnical or environmental engineering (desirable)

Responsibilities

• Support Origination’s site screening with early ground assessment and technical due diligence
• Own the geotechnical strategy for each site, including subsurface and seismic risk where applicable
• Assess land contamination and set remediation strategies for brownfield and industrial sites
• Lead third-party surveys: topographical, UXO, archaeology, flood and drainage, ecology baseline work with Planning
• Lead site capacity and layout test-fits against group build standard
• Set civil engineering and enabling works strategy: earthworks, access, drainage, utility diversions
• Estimate abnormal site costs and build ground risk into business cases and budgets
• Manage interfaces with land and energy partners, including shared infrastructure and safety zones
• Appoint and manage geotechnical, environmental and civil consultants and early-works contractors
• Set group technical and health and safety standards for site investigation and early works
• Handover each site to build team with ground risk understood
• Build a right-sized team at head office and report site readiness and risk to SVP

Skills

Ground investigations

Cost estimation

Consultant management

Technical standards

Ground risk clarity

Safety leadership

Education

Degree in civil or geotechnical engineering

Chartered status (e.g. CEng, CGeol)

CDM 2015 knowledge

Postgraduate geotechnical/environmental qualification (desirable)

Job description

About RHAELM

RHAELM is the sovereign AI cloud built to accelerate secure AI deployment at scale, combining power and infrastructure pipelines with global capability and local, in-country operations. Headquartered in London, with deployments across Europe and APAC, we deliver ring-fenced compute, networking, and storage infrastructure alongside a sovereign platform and flexible Bare Metal, Kubernetes, and AI-as-a-Service models. Focused on regulated and mission-critical sectors including Government, Defence, Healthcare, and Financial Services, we give organisations sovereign control over their AI infrastructure, platform, and data.

This Role

As Head of Land Development, you will decide how RHAELM turns secured land into sites that are ready to build. Reporting to the SVP Development & Origination at our London head office, you will lead the group’s technical strategy for land and ground: geotechnics, contamination and remediation, site surveys, layout and enabling works. Our portfolio sits close to generation or with a connection in place, often on brownfield and industrial land.

You will take each site from early ground assessment through enabling works to handover to the execution team or contractor, working alongside Origination, Planning, Commercial and Power, and coordinating with in-country teams. You will own the group’s land development standards, so every site is de-risked to the same level. Domestic and international travel will be required, occasionally and at times frequently.

Key Responsibilities

• Support Origination’s site screening with early ground assessment and technical due diligence

• Own the geotechnical strategy for each site, including subsurface and seismic risk where applicable

• Assess land contamination and set remediation strategies for brownfield and industrial sites

• Lead the scoping, preparation and oversight of third-party surveys, including topographical, UXO, archaeology, flood and drainage, and ecology baseline work with Planning

• Lead site capacity and layout test-fits against RHAELM’s group build standard

• Set the civil engineering and enabling works strategy, covering earthworks, access, drainage and utility diversions, and deliver enabling works to programme and budget

• Estimate abnormal site costs and build ground risk into business cases and budgets

• Manage interfaces with land and energy partners, including shared infrastructure, access, safety zones and decommissioning schedules

• Appoint and manage geotechnical, environmental and civil consultants and early-works contractors

• Set group technical and health and safety standards for site investigation and early works

• Hand over each site to the build team or contractor with ground risk understood and documented

• Build a right-sized team at head office, support recruitment of in-country personnel, and report site readiness and risk to the SVP

Experience

• 15+ years in land development, geotechnical or civil engineering on major infrastructure, energy, industrial or data centre projects, including at least 5 years in a senior leadership role

• A track record leading brownfield site development, including contamination and remediation, through to construction handover

• Experience scoping and overseeing site investigations and specialist consultants across several sites at once

• Experience delivering enabling works and managing early-works contractors

• Experience of sites adjacent to operating industrial or power generation facilities

• Multi-market experience, ideally including seismic regions in Asia-Pacific

Skills

• Reading ground investigation findings and turning them into clear development decisions

• Estimating and challenging abnormal costs and programme risk

• Strong consultant and contractor management, holding third parties to scope, quality and cost

• Setting technical standards that work across countries with different regulatory regimes

• Explaining ground risk clearly to non-technical leaders

• Visible safety leadership in site investigation and early works

Qualifications

• Degree in civil or geotechnical engineering, engineering geology or a related discipline

• Chartered status (e.g. CEng, CGeol or equivalent)

• Working knowledge of CDM 2015 or equivalent early-works health and safety regimes

• Postgraduate qualification in geotechnical or environmental engineering (desirable)