Job Description
Planning Director | Private Developer | Suffolk / East Anglia | Highly Competitive Package
Twenty years of graft. Hard-won consents. Complex schemes. Difficult LPAs. Projects that changed the landscape — literally.
If that's you, this is the role that does justice to everything you've built.
An absolute uniron of a role for someone who has been round the block - is very commercial and has the technical planning experience for large scale, complex projects/planning/developments!
The Business
* Privately owned developer with in-house construction — they don't just plan it, they build it
* £40 million turnover and accelerating
* Flat structure — fast decisions, direct access to the people who matter
* Zero corporate nonsense, zero public sector pace
* Suffolk-based, within 60 miles of IP6
* Schemes across Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire — developments that will define this region for decades
The Role
* Own the planning function — strategy to consent, end to end
* Lead complex large-scale residential and mixed-use schemes — some running 1–3 years
* Instruct and manage external consultants, planning lawyers and counsel
* Engage directly with LPAs, statutory consultees and stakeholders
* Contribute commercially to land acquisition decisions and site appraisals
* Work shoulder to shoulder with construction, commercial and development teams
* Stay ahead of emerging local plans, policy shifts and legislative change
* Protect and grow the land pipeline through sharp, strategic planning
Who You Are
* MRICS qualified — non-negotiable
* 20 years minimum across planning, development and construction combined
* Built your career in the private sector — you understand land value, viability and the real cost of delay
* Experienced with large, complex, long-cycle schemes — you've carried projects from promotion to consent and know what's at stake when the detail is wrong
* Commercial as well as technical — you contribute to land bids, read viability appraisals and protect the bottom line
* Hands-on and decisive — in the room, not above it
* Strong existing relationships with LPAs across the East of England
* Living within 60 miles of Ipswich — this is your market and you know it.
What This Isn't
Not a corporate role. Not a committee seat. Not a title with no teeth.
This is a senior appointment inside a fast-moving private developer where your decisions are real, your fingerprints are on genuine schemes, and the legacy you leave on the East of England landscape is something you'll actually be proud of.
If that's speaking to you — let's talk.