Development Project Manager, Hospitality

The Oberon Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 115,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Paid time off and holidays

Dining and venue benefits

Job summary

The Oberon Group seeks a Development Project Manager to own the design, construction, and pre-opening phases of new openings. You will be the single point of accountability from lease execution through handover to operations, overseeing budgets, schedules, and cross‑functional teams in-field and on site.

You will manage 2–4 active projects, coordinating with architects, GC, chefs, and landlords, and drive opening readiness including POS, menus, staffing, and compliance.

Qualifications

• 4–7 years managing hospitality, restaurant, hotel, or comparable commercial construction and development projects.
• You have opened projects to live openings and understand the final weeks’ pressures.
• Fluent reading of full drawing sets and handling RFIs; can distinguish real cost impact from padding.

Responsibilities

• Own the owner’s representative role from concept through certificate of occupancy.
• Build and maintain the project budget and schedule; track variances and publish clear ownership reporting.
• Run the bid process: prepare scopes, solicit and level bids, negotiate contracts, and make award recommendations.
• Review drawing sets at milestones for constructability, code compliance, and operational sense.
• Manage permitting and approvals (DOB, Health, licensing, landmarks) as applicable.
• Lead weekly OAC meetings and site walks; publish notes and open-item logs.
• Drive the pre-opening critical path across construction, licensing, hiring, training, technology, and marketing.
• Coordinate internal teams so deliverables land on schedule; oversee the handover package and post-opening debriefs.

Skills

Budgets

Schedules

Excel/Sheets

PM tools (Asana, Smartsheet, Procore)

Tools

AutoCAD

Revit

Bluebeam

Job description

We are looking for a Development Project Manager to serve as the primary project manager for our new openings. You will be the single point of accountability from lease execution through the handover to the operating team — running the design and construction process, then running the pre-opening work that turns a finished space into a functioning business.

This is a hands‑on role. You will be in the field, in the drawing set, and in the budget. You will manage two to four active projects at different stages at once, and you will be the person everyone — architect, general contractor, chef, general manager, landlord, expediter — calls when they need an answer. If you like being the connective tissue between a design vision and a room full of guests, this is that job.

What You’ll Own

Design & Construction

• Serve as the owner’s representative on each project, managing the architect, designer, engineers, expediter, general contractor, and specialty consultants from concept through certificate of occupancy.
• Build and maintain the project budget and schedule. Track every line, flag variances before they become problems, and produce clear, current reporting for ownership.
• Run the bid process: prepare scopes, solicit and level bids, negotiate contracts, and make award recommendations.
• Review drawing sets at each milestone for constructability, code compliance, and operational sense — catching the service-flow and back‑of‑house problems that read fine on paper and fail in practice.
• Manage permitting and approvals, including DOB filings, Health Department, liquor licensing timelines, landmarks or community board review where applicable, and utility coordination.
• Own the change‑order process: evaluate, negotiate, document, and approve, with a clear paper trail on every decision.
• Lead weekly OAC meetings and regular site walks. Publish notes, decisions, and open‑item logs that people actually use.
• Drive the close‑out: punchlist, commissioning, TCO/CO, warranties, as‑builts, and O&M documentation.
• Manage FF&E and OS&E procurement — specification, vendor selection, purchase orders, lead‑time tracking, delivery logistics, receiving, and installation.

Pre‑Opening & Handover to Operations

• Build and own the pre‑opening critical path, working backward from the target opening date across construction, licensing, hiring, training, technology, and marketing.
• Coordinate the internal team — culinary, beverage, events and sales, design, marketing, finance, and operations — so that each function’s deliverables land on schedule.
• Manage the operating‑systems buildout: POS, reservations and event‑management platforms, payroll and scheduling, inventory, AV, Wi‑Fi, phones, security, and music.
• Track licensing and compliance to opening: liquor license, certificates, food handler requirements, insurance, permits, and inspections.
• Support the opening team on site — installations, deliveries, mock services, and the punch‑and‑fix cycle through the first weeks of operation.
• Prepare and deliver the handover package: warranties, vendor contacts, equipment manuals, service schedules, and a clean list of outstanding items with owners and dates.
• Run a post‑opening debrief on every project and fold what you learn into the standards and templates for the next one.

Who You Are

• Four to seven years managing hospitality, restaurant, hotel, or comparable commercial construction and development projects — on the owner’s side, or on the GC/architect side with a clear reason you want to move to it.
• You have opened things. You have carried at least a few projects through to a live opening and know what the last three weeks feel like.
• Fluent in construction: you can read a full drawing set, hold your own on an RFI, and tell the difference between a real cost impact and a padded one.
• Strong command of budgets and schedules. Comfortable in Excel or Google Sheets, and in a project‑management tool (Asana, Smartsheet, Procore, or similar).
• Working knowledge of NYC permitting and agency process — DOB, DOHMH, SLA, FDNY — or demonstrated ability to get up that curve quickly.
• A clear, direct communicator in writing. Your meeting notes and status reports should let someone who missed the meeting know exactly where things stand.
• Organized under pressure and unbothered by competing priorities. You keep the plates spinning without dropping the details.
• Comfortable holding vendors and consultants to their commitments while keeping the relationship intact — we work with our partners more than once.
• Available for a hospitality schedule: extended hours, evenings, and weekends during openings and critical milestones.

Nice to Have

• Experience across more than one asset type — a restaurant and a hotel, or a restaurant and an event venue.
• Ground‑up or adaptive‑reuse experience, not only interior fit‑outs.
• A prior life in restaurant, hotel, or event operations. Knowing how a kitchen or a banquet floor actually runs makes you better at this job.
• Familiarity with commercial kitchen and bar equipment specification, and with event‑space requirements: load‑in, rigging, power distribution, and acoustics.
• Fluency with AutoCAD, Revit, or Bluebeam for markup and takeoffs.
• $115,000 – $125,000 base salary, depending on experience
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Paid time off and paid holidays
• Dining and venue benefits across our portfolio

About Us

The Oberon Group builds and operates hospitality — restaurants, event spaces, and hotels — with a point of view. Our projects are design‑driven and detail‑obsessed, and we open them the same way we run them: carefully, and with the guest experience decided long before the doors do. We have a growing pipeline of new projects across all three categories, and we are hiring the person who will carry them from empty room to opening night.