Senior Development Manager

Churchill Living Ltd; England; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading housing provider in the UK seeks a Senior Development Manager to oversee affordable housing projects. The role involves managing all phases of development, liaising with stakeholders, and ensuring compliance with regulations. The ideal candidate will have a degree related to construction and significant experience in project management and financial oversight. This position offers a competitive salary, car allowance, and a range of additional benefits.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Company Car or Cash for Car benefit

26 days annual holiday + Bank Holidays

Day off on birthday

BUPA Cover

Health Screening

Group Personal Pension Plan

Life Assurance

£200 John Lewis vouchers for expectant parents

Fund-matching programme

Qualifications

• Proven experience managing affordable or mixed-tenure housing developments.
• Strong understanding of public grant funding streams and planning processes.
• Excellent negotiation capabilities in delivering design and build projects.

Responsibilities

• Manage and coordinate all stages of developments from contract to handover.
• Identify value engineering opportunities while maintaining standards.
• Oversee Divisional procurement of contractors and manage compliance.

Skills

Leadership

Financial acumen

Project management

Stakeholder management

Risk management

Education

Degree in Construction, Real Estate, or related field

Job description

Job Title: Senior Development Manager – Partnerships

Location: This position can be based from any of our offices in the UK but travel to sites and Head Office in Ringwood will be required

Salary & package: Competitive salary + car / car allowance and group bonus scheme

About the role

Churchill Living is seeking an experienced Senior Development Manager to join our team. This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in our partnership strategy, working closely with key stakeholders to drive growth and collaboration. The role reports directly to the Executive Partnerships Director. The Senior Development Manager will lead the end‑to‑end delivery of affordable and mixed‑tenure housing projects for registered ‘Affordable Housing’ providers as part of Churchill Living’s Partnerships team. This role combines technical design oversight, commercial acumen, and project leadership to ensure all schemes are delivered profitably, efficiently, to the highest design and appropriate sustainability standards.

You will manage design and build processes, support registered provider funding applications, co‑ordinate divisional procurement, and stakeholder relationships to ensure each development achieves its legal, commercial, social, and regulatory objectives.

Your key responsibilities will include :

Project Development & Delivery

• Manage and coordinate all stages of affordable and mixed‑tenure developments from agreed terms stages through contract agreements, planning stages, detailed design, construction, and handover.
• Oversee the design and build process to ensure quality, compliance, and cost‑effectiveness in line with Project Development Agreement’s.
• Manage input from Group Legal, Group Finance Divisional teams, consultants, to deliver projects within agreed budgets, timelines, and quality benchmarks.
• Ensure projects comply with Section 106 agreements, planning obligations, and specified affordable housing standards and partnership requirements.

Financial & Commercial Management

• Identify value engineering opportunities without compromising standards or regulatory compliance.
• Work closely with finance and land teams to monitor KPI profit margins and overall development performance.
• Oversee Divisional procurement of design & build contractors, ensuring commercially sound contracts are being implemented (e.g., JCT Design & Build).
• Control Contract Sum Analysis (CSA) payments and ensure appropriate process are followed.

Grant & Funding Management

• Maintain an awareness of processes for affordable housing grant applications to Homes England or other funding bodies.
• Assist the purchasing `Registered Provider’ regarding grant funding applications, programme deadlines, approval submissions and reporting obligations.

About you

We are seeking a highly skilled professional with a degree in Construction, Real Estate, or a related field, and proven experience managing affordable or mixed‑tenure housing developments within a private developer, housebuilder, or registered provider environment.

The ideal candidate will bring strong financial and commercial acumen, including expertise in viability assessments, appraisals, and risk management. You will have a solid understanding of public grant funding streams, such as those offered by Homes England, and demonstrate excellent project management and negotiation capabilities, particularly in the delivery of design and build projects. A comprehensive knowledge of planning processes, building regulations, and wider housing policy frameworks is essential for success in this role.

We are looking for an individual with strong commercial awareness and a focus on driving profitability. The ideal candidate will demonstrate confident leadership and effective stakeholder management, with the ability to analyse complex information and solve problems proactively.

How you'll be rewarded

• Competitive salary
• Company Car or Cash for Car benefit
• Annual holiday entitlement - 26 days + Bank Holidays
• Day off on your birthday
• Excellent Colleague Benefits including; BUPA Cover, Health Screening, Group Personal Pension Plan and Life Assurance
• £200 John Lewis vouchers for expectant parents
• We are a charity first company who offer a fund‑matching programme

About us

We are Churchill Living, the leading provider of housing that offers freedom, independence, and unrivalled living value for the over 60s, and we’re looking for people like you!

As a family‑run, privately‑owned business we have a strong culture built on trust and integrity. We’re proud of what we do, and the people we work with, and we believe in giving something back to the communities where we operate. Our success is built on our fantastic team of more than 700 Colleagues across the country, which is growing all the time.

We pride ourselves on building beautiful, quality apartments in desirable locations across the country for those looking for greater freedom and independence. Our developments are designed to provide safety, support and a sense of community for our Customers to enjoy, ensuring peace of mind for them and their families.

We are proud to have been voted a Sunday Times Top 10 “Best Places to Work” based on our Colleague feedback. Not only that, but we’ve won a host of industry awards including the prestigious Housebuilder of the Year at the WhatHouse? Awards

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