Development Manager

Development Manager, Atlantic

Halifax, Nova Scotia (Hybrid)

Hawthorne Recruitment is proud to partner with Canada Lands Company (CLC) on the search for a Development Manager to join its Atlantic real estate team at a pivotal moment of growth and city-building impact.

About Canada Lands Company

Canada Lands Company is a federal Crown corporation with a national mandate to create vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable communities on some of the country’s most strategically significant lands. Unlike traditional private-sector developers, CLC measures success not only through financial performance, but through long-term public benefit, including place-making, social outcomes, environmental responsibility, and lasting community value.

In Atlantic Canada, CLC is advancing two of the region’s most ambitious redevelopment initiatives: Shannon Park and Pleasantville. Together, these multi-phase projects represent thousands of residential units, new public spaces, infrastructure, and mixed-use elements that will fundamentally reshape how people live, move, and connect in Halifax. This is rare, city-scale work with generational impact.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Director of Real Estate (Atlantic), the Development Manager will play a central execution role across CLC’s Atlantic portfolio. This is a hands-on development leadership position responsible for translating strategy into action and ensuring complex projects move forward with discipline, momentum, and care.

The Development Manager acts as a trusted execution partner to the Atlantic leadership team, advancing subdivision and servicing programs, managing consultants and contractors, navigating municipal and regulatory processes, and representing CLC on active project sites. Working closely with a small Halifax-based team and collaborating regularly with colleagues in Montreal, this role offers both autonomy and meaningful cross-regional engagement.

This is not a purely desk-based role. It is well suited to someone who enjoys being close to the work: reviewing plans, engaging engineers and builders, problem-solving in real time, and making informed decisions in complex, evolving environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Advance planning, engineering, servicing, and subdivision approvals for major redevelopment projects.
• Manage multidisciplinary consultant teams, including planners, engineers, architects, and contractors.
• Oversee procurement processes, scope development, tendering, and contract administration.
• Track project schedules, budgets, risks, and delivery milestones with a strong sense of accountability.
• Represent CLC with municipal staff, community stakeholders, builder partners, and internal teams.
• Support site activity, including site visits, coordination, and issue resolution during active phases.
• Contribute to internal reporting, governance materials, and decision-making processes.
• Adapt quickly to shifting priorities driven by project needs or broader public-sector initiatives.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate brings five to seven years of real estate development experience with demonstrated accountability for delivery outcomes. They have worked on the owner side of development, or in a comparable role where they were directly responsible for balancing schedules, budgets, approvals, and execution decisions.

They may come from backgrounds in planning, engineering, architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, or related disciplines. Most importantly, they bring real-world, hands-on development experience. They are comfortable on job sites, fluent in drawings and technical discussions, and confident engaging contractors, consultants, and public-sector partners.

Personally, this individual is:

• A self-starter who takes initiative and is comfortable operating with autonomy.
• Organized, adaptable, and able to work effectively amid ambiguity and changing priorities.
• A collaborative team player who communicates openly and values shared problem-solving.
• Motivated by public-interest development and the opportunity to create places that matter.

French language ability is considered an asset but is not required. Candidates do not need to be currently based in Atlantic Canada, though relocation support is not provided.

If you are driven by the opportunity to help shape meaningful, lasting communities and want to apply your development expertise in service of the public good, we would welcome the conversation. Please submit your application to Hawthorne Recruitment, where we remain dedicated to making matches made meaningful.

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