Director, Development and Construction

Welltower’s Independent Living (IL) Cottage program is an emerging product type within the company’s senior-housing platform. This role is accountable for converting an active pipeline of cottage opportunities—both infill on existing senior-housing campuses and new ground-up sites—into delivered, occupied communities that meet underwriting expectations and operator standards. The Director will define and scale a new product category at the largest healthcare REIT in the world, build the program’s playbook, manage a portfolio of concurrent projects across the United States, and partner closely with Investments, Operations, and Asset Management to ensure cottage projects perform against pro forma.

Responsibilities

• Program Strategy & Pipeline Development
  • Build and maintain Welltower’s IL Cottage program strategy, including site-selection criteria, prototype standardization, and target-market prioritization.
  • Lead pipeline review across the active cottage opportunity set, advancing top-priority parcels through feasibility, design, and entitlement.
  • Establish and refine the program’s underwriting framework, including yield-on-cost targets, residual land economics, and per-unit cost benchmarks.
  • Partner with the Investments team on acquisition diligence and structuring for cottage-eligible parcels and campus expansions.
• Project Pipeline & Portfolio Management
  • Oversee a portfolio of concurrent ground-up cottage developments from concept through stabilization, ensuring timely delivery and pro forma performance.
  • Direct pre-construction planning across feasibility scoring, site testing, design coordination, budgeting, scheduling, and procurement.
  • Identify and resolve risks across schedule, budget, scope, and entitlement; escalate trade-offs to senior leadership with clear recommendations.
  • Maintain a portfolio dashboard and reporting cadence that provides leadership with real-time visibility into project status, capital deployment, and key milestones.
• Partnership & Stakeholder Management
  • Cultivate and manage relationships with development partners, general contractors, architects, civil engineers, and entitlement consultants.
  • Negotiate development agreements, design contracts, and construction contracts to protect Welltower’s economic and timing interests.
  • Serve as the primary liaison between cottage projects and operating partners on existing campuses, ensuring resident experience and operational continuity through construction.
  • Coordinate closely with Investments, Asset Management, Legal, and Insurance on cross-functional project decisions.
• Standards, Quality & Innovation
  • Define and maintain the IL Cottage prototype standard, including unit programming, exterior design language, building systems, and site-planning principles.
  • Champion construction methodologies—modular, panelized, and other off-site approaches—that improve cost, schedule, and quality outcomes.
  • Establish and enforce best practices for entitlement, permitting, and compliance with applicable building codes, accessibility standards, and local regulatory requirements.
  • Lead lessons-learned and post-occupancy review processes to drive continuous improvement across the program.
• Team Leadership & Development
  • Build and lead a team of development and construction professionals dedicated to the cottage program, including managers, project managers, and external owner’s representatives.
  • Mentor team members and create growth pathways aligned with the program’s expansion.
  • Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, and intellectual honesty in pipeline review and project decision-making.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Civil Engineering, Architecture, Real Estate Development, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in real estate development and/or construction management, with a meaningful portion in senior housing, multifamily, single-family for-rent, or comparable horizontal residential product.
• Demonstrated experience leading multiple ground-up projects concurrently, with full accountability for project schedule, budget, and quality outcomes.
• Strong command of pre-construction, design coordination, scheduling, budgeting, procurement, and construction methodologies.
• Working knowledge of entitlement, zoning, and site civil considerations across multiple U.S. jurisdictions.
• Proficiency in construction management software (Procore, Yardi, Bluebeam, MS Project) and Microsoft Office Suite.
• Strong financial acumen, including the ability to read and pressure-test development pro formas.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence at the executive level and partner across functions.
• Track record of building and leading high-performing teams in a growth environment.

Travel: 30–40% out-of-area and overnight travel expected.