Land development and residential executive search

Retained search across land development and residential, from acquisition and entitlement through site civil delivery, homebuilding and master planned communities. Vice president to C‑suite.

Key roles we place ↓

Overview

What we do in land development and residential

Metric Geo places senior and executive leaders across land development and residential construction, covering land acquisition and entitlement, site and civil delivery, homebuilding operations and master planned communities. Searches are retained and run from vice president through C-suite.

Residential is cyclical and hiring follows it closely. When rates move, land teams stop and start, and the leaders worth having learn to read that. What we look for is someone who has run a business through a downturn as well as an upswing, because the second is a great deal easier than the first.

Roles

The roles we place in land development and residential

VP Land Acquisition Land sourcing, underwriting and deal structuring.
VP Land Development Entitlement through horizontal delivery across communities.
Division President Full profit and loss leadership for a homebuilding division.
VP Construction Vertical construction delivery, quality and cycle time.
Director of Entitlements Approvals, zoning and municipal relationships.
VP Purchasing Trade partner strategy, cost and supply.
Director of Forward Planning Community planning, product and engineering coordination.
Chief Operating Officer Operational leadership across divisions and markets.
VP Sales & Marketing New home sales, marketing and community launch leadership.

+ many others

Within this sector

What land development and residential covers

Land Acquisition & Entitlement

Sourcing, underwriting and getting land approved.

Site & Civil Development

Horizontal delivery, infrastructure and lot production.

Homebuilding Operations

Vertical construction, purchasing and division leadership.

Master Planned Communities

Large scale community development and phased delivery.

Market

Hiring in land development and residential right now

Residential hiring has been on and off, and the pattern is now familiar. Rates move, land teams pause, and six months later the same companies are trying to rebuild the capability they let go. The businesses that held their land teams through the quiet periods are the ones with pipeline now.

Division president is the hardest brief in this market. It asks for full profit and loss ownership, land instinct and construction credibility in one person, and very few people genuinely have all three. Most searches at that level come down to a judgment about which of the three you can develop.

Entitlement expertise is the other scarcity, and it is local. Someone who knows the approval process and the people in one jurisdiction is not easily transplanted to another, so these searches are narrower than they first appear and are worth starting earlier than feels necessary.

Common questions

Residential hiring questions

The questions clients ask most often before briefing a land or residential search.

How long does a land or residential leadership search take?

We work to seven days to a shortlist on most briefs. How long the search takes after that depends on the role and on notice periods, so we set out a realistic timeline with you at the start.

Do you work retained or contingent?

Retained. Our land and residential consultants have spent years building relationships in this market, so most shortlists start from people we already know, and talent mapping, backed by our marketing reach, covers the rest of the market so nobody credible gets missed. Retained is what lets us give that kind of time to one brief.

Do you place below vice president?

Our focus is vice president and above, but we do take on director and senior manager searches where the role is critical, such as a director of entitlements in a difficult jurisdiction, or a forward planning lead on a large community. What matters is whether it is a hire you cannot afford to get wrong.

How local does a land hire need to be?

More local than most other hires we do. Entitlement and land acquisition depend on knowing the jurisdictions and the people in them, and that knowledge does not transfer neatly across a state line. Construction and operations leadership travels much more easily. Being clear about which of those you are hiring changes how widely we search.