Property Development Director

Property Development Director

Responsible for leading the successful delivery of new restaurant openings and refurbishments across the entire UK & Ireland estate.

Accountable for driving best practices in cost-saving procurement strategies and value engineering initiatives.

Tasked with developing innovative restaurant formats, cost models, and modern construction methods to support future UK growth, in collaboration with both equity and franchise partners.

What you'll be doing:

• Develop and maintain a clear strategic roadmap for new restaurant openings and refurbishments.
• Lead end-to-end execution of new builds and refurbishments to support fast-paced, profitable growth.
• Oversee the creation, approval, and management of comprehensive construction budgets.
• Collaborate on design development to align with brand standards for aesthetics, quality, scale, and cost-efficiency.
• Communicate policy updates and best practices, particularly around construction site health and safety, to internal and external stakeholders.
• Drive a continuous improvement programme focused on reducing construction costs through value engineering and strategic procurement.
• Rigorously manage budgets, ensuring financial discipline, with clear authorisation for any variances.
• Motivate and challenge project managers to consistently meet or exceed business objectives.
• Build and maintain strong cross-functional relationships to enable a seamless and effective property development programme.

What you'll already have:

• Technical Professional Qualification
• Significant knowledge of new restaurant/retail project management, including estimates/tenders, contract negotiations
• Knowledge of design and construction processes and ability to deliver to time, cost and quality
• Familiar with statutory legislation and latest health and safety requirements
• Ability to communicate and build relationships
• Excellent leadership skills
• Proven results against KPIs
• Ability to manage and deliver against multiple projects and to tight deadlines

Who We Are: 

Where those who love pizza can be their true self. We’ve been around since 1965, bringing pizza to the UK and have since grown to a multichannel, international brand.  Our people are at the heart of our success and everything we do, we believe you should always be able to express yourself.   

Our values and culture are made up of three key parts: use your head, show your heart and create a home.  For us, this shows up as: 

• Head - were customer centric, commercially driven and obsessed by performance in all we do 
• Heart - we show our heart, are honest and vulnerable with our teams and lead everything through our people 
• Home - we create a home, where everyone has a place at our marble table and you can truly express yourself everyday  

Inclusivity and respect are at the heart of our business and are valued by our teams, customers, and suppliers. PizzaExpress and Milano is a place where everyone is welcome, and everyone belongs.  That’s why we assess each application on the aptitude to do the job and nothing else.