Business Development Manager, Custom Homes and Additions (San Diego)

You have spent years building relationships with San Diego architects and designers. This is the seat where those relationships are worth the most.

Pave Talent is hiring on behalf of an established San Diego design-build firm that builds custom homes, large additions, and small multifamily. Average project is $650,000, with a range from $250,000 to $4 million. About 75 percent of the work is new square footage. The company has never advertised for a client and does not intend to start. Every project comes from architects, designers, adjacent firms, and the relationships in this market.

Why this seat exists

The company is at roughly $10 million and intends to reach $20 to $30 million. Ownership has been carrying business development alongside running the company, and there is no dedicated sales function to inherit. You would be building it, and you would own how it gets built.

What makes this different

• No lead queue and no house accounts. Nobody rations appointments to you and nobody takes the large deal off your desk.
• The estimator attends every initial site visit with you and handles technical questions during the proposal presentation. You are not doing takeoffs at night.
• The company's change order record is exceptional, and detailed scoping and transparent pricing are the reason clients come back and architects keep referring. You will not spend the second half of every job apologizing.
• The client profile is the second-time construction client who already got burned once and will pay for thoroughness. You are not defending a bid against three lowballers.
• There are roughly 400 architects in San Diego County and the company works with about 40 of them. The territory is genuinely unworked.

What you will do

• Own the referral channel end to end: architects, designers, and adjacent firms who touch the homeowner before a builder does.
• Run the discovery call, qualify the project, and decide what is worth pursuing.
• Walk the site with the estimator, then present the proposal with them alongside you.
• Show up in the rooms where this work originates: AIA San Diego, BIA, NARI, NKBA, and the local real estate investment groups.
• Build the sales function itself, including the process and the cadence, with real influence over how it is designed.

What you bring

• A live San Diego referral network you can call today. This is the single thing that cannot be trained, and it is the core of the role.
• A track record selling residential construction where you personally sourced the work, not where a marketing budget fed you appointments.
• Comfort with $500,000 to $4 million projects and the buyers who fund them.
• The ability to read a plan set and hold your own on a job walk.
• Experience running your own shop or a book of business with little supervision is a strong plus.
• Authorization to work in the United States without sponsorship.

Compensation

Commission based, uncapped, at 3 percent of contract value, with a monthly draw available while you ramp. On the company's average project that is roughly $19,500 per closing. Target earnings are $160,000 to $200,000. The current top performer is the highest paid person at the company, ahead of both owners.

Benefits include a 401(k), subsidized dental and vision, life insurance, mileage reimbursement, and an optional company vehicle with a fuel card. Flexible hours and unlimited PTO, measured on production rather than desk time. This role is based in San Diego and requires being in the market.

This is not the right seat for you if

You need inbound leads or a marketing budget to produce. There will never be one here. Your network is the entire engine, which is exactly why the ceiling is uncapped. If you are relocating to San Diego, this is not the right fit either. The relationships are the job.