Project Analyst / Project Manager | Land Acquisition
Stockton / Central Valley, California · Direct hire, full time
The Opportunity
A Central Valley residential developer and homebuilder is making the second hire into its newly created Land Acquisition department, and it is a senior seat. Where the Director sources the deals and drives the entitlements, this person answers the question that decides whether any of it happens: does it pencil?
This is not a support analyst role. The company is looking for a high level land acquisition analyst who carries deals independently, builds the model without being told what to put in it, and is trusted to say a deal does not work. Junior analysts who have worked inside someone else's template will not fit.
Every acquisition the company considers will run through this seat. You will build the model, run the feasibility, coordinate the due diligence, and put a defensible number in front of ownership. Once a deal closes, you own the reporting that tells everyone whether it is performing the way the model said it would.
Because the department is being built from scratch, the analytical standard is not inherited. You will help set it: what the company's pro forma looks like, what assumptions get tested, what the reporting package contains, and how a deal gets approved.
Core Responsibilities
- Underwriting and pro forma modeling. Build and maintain the financial model on every land pursuit. Residual land value analysis, cash flow projections, IRR and return on cost, absorption and pricing assumptions, horizontal development cost buildups, carry and financing cost, and sensitivity analysis across the variables that actually move the outcome.
- Feasibility analysis. Determine whether a site works once housing is placed on it. Yield studies and unit mix against site constraints, product type testing, revenue assumptions by submarket, fees and exactions, offsite and infrastructure obligations, and the honest answer on whether the profit is there at a land price the seller will accept.
- Due diligence. Coordinate and track the diligence package across title and survey, environmental assessment, geotechnical, wetlands and biological, traffic, utility will serve, existing entitlements, and encumbrances. Chase the consultants, hold the schedule, and translate findings back into the model as they land.
- Actual versus budget reporting. Own the reporting that follows a deal after closing. Budget setup, cost tracking against the approved pro forma, variance analysis with the explanation behind each line, cash flow forecasting and reforecasting, and a reporting package ownership can read without a translator.
- Deal support and closing. Support the Director through LOI, purchase and sale agreement, and close. Maintain the deal pipeline and status tracking, prepare investment committee and ownership presentation materials, and keep the record of what was assumed at approval so it can be measured later.
- Market and data. Track comparable land transactions, finished lot pricing, new home pricing and absorption, competitive supply, and fee and impact cost changes across the target submarkets. Keep the assumption set current rather than rebuilding it from scratch on every deal.
Required Qualifications
- Seniority. Five or more years in land underwriting, real estate financial analysis, or development finance, within a homebuilder, land developer, owner developer, or real estate investment group. Has carried deals independently, not just supported someone else who did.
- Modeling. Builds land models from scratch rather than filling in a template. Cash flow, IRR and NPV, residual land value, and sensitivity analysis, with the judgment to know which assumptions actually drive the answer.
- Land economics. Working understanding of horizontal development costs, impact and permit fees, absorption, finished lot pricing, and how those interact to produce or destroy margin.
- Due diligence. Experience coordinating a real diligence package and holding a schedule across multiple outside consultants.
- Reporting. Demonstrated ownership of actual versus budget reporting and variance analysis, with the ability to explain the variance rather than just report it.
- Judgment and presence. Presents findings and a recommendation directly to ownership, defends the assumptions under questioning, and is comfortable recommending against a deal the department wants to do.
- Education. Bachelor's degree in finance, real estate, economics, accounting, civil engineering, or a related field.
- Authorization. U.S. work authorization.
Strongly Preferred
- Residential land and lot development experience specifically, as opposed to income property or commercial asset underwriting.
- Exposure to the California entitlement process and how entitlement risk and timing get priced into a land model.
- Central Valley and Northern California market familiarity across San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Sacramento counties.
- Familiarity with special district and public financing mechanisms such as CFD and Mello Roos, and how reimbursements affect land basis.
- Systems exposure: Argus, Power BI, Sage, Yardi, Procore, or comparable development accounting and reporting platforms.
- Experience helping build a reporting or underwriting standard from scratch rather than operating inside an established one.
First Year Measures of Success
- A standard underwriting model and feasibility template in use across all pursuits within the first quarter.
- Every active pursuit modeled, tracked, and current, with a clear pipeline view ownership can pull up at any time.
- A monthly actual versus budget reporting package running on closed projects, delivered on a fixed schedule.
Confidential executive search conducted by SBR Jobs (Silicon Beach Recruiter), Construction Executive Search.