Vice President - Real Estate, Construction & Store Development

Job Description:

Position Summary

The Vice President, Real Estate, Construction & Store Development is an enterprise leadership role responsible for developing and executing Les Schwab’s store growth strategy. Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, this role owns the end-to-end store development function, including market strategy, pipeline targets, capital allocation, real estate development, construction delivery, facilities strategy, and performance accountability.

The VP will lead the company’s approach to new-store growth, relocations, remodels, portfolio optimization, and long-term asset performance. This leader will ensure growth decisions are disciplined, financially sound, operationally executable, and aligned with the company’s strategic priorities.

This role is responsible for building a scalable development function that can support disciplined expansion across existing and new markets, including the structure, processes, tools, reporting, and cross-functional coordination needed to execute growth at pace.

Key Responsibilities

Growth Strategy & Pipeline Ownership

• Own the company’s store growth strategy in partnership with the CEO, Operations, Finance, and other executive leaders.

• Translate enterprise growth goals into market plans, pipeline targets, development priorities, and execution roadmaps.

• Lead market prioritization, site strategy, rural and metro expansion planning, and long-range store development forecasting.

• Establish and manage pipeline targets by market, stage, timing, investment level, and expected return.

• Maintain clear visibility into the full development pipeline, including new stores, relocations, remodels, acquisitions, and strategic portfolio opportunities.

• Identify constraints to growth and recommend changes to structure, process, staffing, capital, or external partnerships.

Capital Allocation & Investment Performance

• Own capital allocation recommendations for store growth, relocations, remodels, and major real estate investments.

• Partner with Finance to evaluate site economics, project returns, capital requirements, operating assumptions, and long-term performance expectations.

• Ensure real estate and construction investments are tied to clear financial and operational outcomes.

• Establish investment discipline around project prioritization, approval thresholds, ROI, IRR, payback, budget control, and post-opening performance.

• Track actual performance against approved business cases, including project cost, timing, sales ramp, operating performance, and return expectations.

• Provide executive leadership with regular reporting on pipeline health, capital deployment, project performance, and key risks.

Real Estate Portfolio & Site Development

• Lead real estate strategy and execution for new stores, relocations, expansions, acquisitions, lease renewals, and portfolio optimization.

• Evaluate site acquisitions, ground-up developments, lease-versus-buy options, and strategic market opportunities.

• Oversee site selection, market analysis, broker strategy, real estate committee materials, deal structuring, and transaction execution.

• Partner with brokers, developers, legal advisors, landowners, municipalities, and other external partners to advance priority projects.

• Ensure real estate decisions support both near-term deployment schedules and long-term market performance.

Construction, Design & Delivery

• Oversee construction delivery for new stores, relocations, remodels, conversions, and major capital projects.

• Own construction cost management, project timelines, quality standards, and delivery accountability.

• Establish and maintain design standards, prototype requirements, contractor selection processes, bidding standards, safety expectations, and quality controls.

• Ensure construction projects are delivered on time, on budget, and in a manner that supports store readiness and operational execution.

• Strengthen the handoff from Real Estate to Construction and from Construction to Operations.

Facilities & Asset Management

• Oversee the strategy for facilities management, property management, lease administration, landlord interface, and long-term asset support.

• Ensure stores, Main Office, and other company facilities are maintained to support operational continuity, safety, brand standards, and asset value.

• Implement proactive maintenance, repair, vendor, and capital planning processes.

• Partner with Operations and support functions to address recurring facility issues, landlord matters, and asset performance risks.

• Evaluate whether property management and facilities should be consolidated or more closely integrated to better support the existing asset base.

Operating Model, Governance & Cross-Functional Integration

• Build a scalable Real Estate, Construction, and Store Development operating model.

• Define roles, responsibilities, decision rights, governance, reporting, and approval processes across the development lifecycle.

• Partner closely with Operations to ensure site decisions, construction delivery, staffing, training, store opening readiness, and post-opening support are coordinated.

• Partner with Finance, Legal, Compliance, HR, M&A, Facilities, and other teams to ensure development activity is aligned, disciplined, and executable.

• Establish clear handoffs across market planning, site approval, transaction execution, construction, turnover, grand opening, and stabilization.

Team Leadership

• Lead and develop the Real Estate Development, Construction & Design, Facilities, Property Management, and related support teams.

• Set clear expectations, priorities, accountabilities, timelines, and performance measures.

• Build the internal capabilities and external partner network needed to support growth at scale.

• Foster a culture of accountability, speed, disciplined decision-making, cost control, operational partnership, and continuous improvement.

Executive Communication & Reporting

• Provide regular reporting to the CEO and executive leadership on growth strategy, pipeline status, capital allocation, project performance, risks, and key decisions.

• Develop clear executive-level materials to support investment decisions, real estate approvals, market entry recommendations, and project prioritization.

• Communicate effectively with internal stakeholders and external partners, including brokers, developers, contractors, legal advisors, municipalities, and consultants.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in commercial real estate development, construction, store development, facilities, or related growth functions.

• Experience leading multi-unit retail, automotive, service, restaurant, convenience, or other distributed-location development strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to own growth strategy, pipeline management, capital planning, and performance accountability.

• Proven experience with site selection, market planning, lease and purchase transactions, ground-up development, relocations, remodels, and portfolio optimization.

• Strong financial acumen, including capital budgeting, real estate economics, ROI, IRR, payback analysis, pro formas, project cost controls, and post-opening performance tracking.

• Experience leading construction delivery, design standards, contractor/vendor management, permitting, project management, and operational handoffs.

• Ability to build scalable teams, processes, governance, reporting, and external partner networks.

• Strong executive communication skills and ability to influence across Operations, Finance, Legal, HR, M&A, and other functions.

• Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate, Business Administration, Finance, Construction Management, Civil Engineering, or a related field required. MBA or advanced degree preferred.