Homebuilder and Land Development Recruiters in California

SBR Jobs recruits the leadership that finds the dirt, entitles it, and builds it out: Division Presidents, VPs of Land Acquisition and Land Development, Forward Planning and Purchasing leaders, and the construction executives who deliver communities on schedule. Direct-hire executive search for California production and custom homebuilders, based in Sacramento since 1997.

Homebuilder hiring is a land problem before it is a construction problem

Every builder in California is competing for the same short list of people who can source lots, run entitlements through a hostile approval process, model a takedown that still pencils at today’s cost of capital, and then turn that land into a community that closes on time. Those people are almost never on the market. They are running a division for one of your competitors, and they take a call from a recruiter only when the recruiter understands their work.

That is where SBR fits. We have recruited for the California building industry since 1997, we speak land and forward planning as fluently as we speak field operations, and we approach candidates one at a time with a story about your specific opportunity, not a job posting. Public and private builders, master-planned communities, infill, attached and detached product, active adult, build-to-rent.

The homebuilder seats we fill most often

• Division President
• VP of Land Acquisition
• VP of Land Development
• VP of Forward Planning
• VP of Construction
• VP of Purchasing
• VP / Director of Operations
• CFO / Controller
• Director of Land Acquisition
• Land / Entitlement Project Manager
• Forward Planner
• Area Construction Manager
• General Superintendent
• Director of Purchasing
• VP of Sales and Marketing
• Director of Customer Service

What California homebuilders pay in 2026

Annual base salary ranges from SBR’s 2026 California Construction Salary Guide, built from our own placements, offers and counteroffers across California homebuilders. Bonus, vehicle allowance and profit participation are negotiated on top.

All 38 homebuilder roles, plus general contractor and data center ranges, are in the 2026 California Construction Salary Guide. Land and Purchasing salaries rose faster than any other homebuilder category this cycle.

What the market is telling homebuilders

• Land talent is the bottleneck. Land Acquisition Directors, Forward Planners and Land Development leaders are up 20 to 30 percent or more since 2024, and the internal bench behind them is thin. Every builder that wants to grow in 2027 is hiring for these seats now.
• Finance leadership is retiring faster than it is being replaced. Controller and CFO-track compensation is up 30 percent or more as long-tenured finance leaders exit with no successor ready.
• Field leadership is tightening. Superintendents, Construction Managers and Area Construction Managers show steady 8 to 15 percent growth as the Boomer generation leaves the field.
• Offers are being lost to speed. The acceptance rate on offers has fallen from 58 percent to 20 percent in two years. Candidates with three live conversations take the one that moves fastest and communicates best.

Where we recruit

Sacramento and the Sierra foothills, the Central Valley from Stockton to Fresno and Bakersfield, the Bay Area and the East Bay, and statewide for division and corporate leadership. We also bring land and construction leaders into California from Texas, Arizona, Nevada and the Mountain West when the seat calls for it.

Because we have worked this market for almost three decades, we know which people have actually delivered in your submarkets, which ones are quietly open to a move, and what it will take to get them to say yes.

How an SBR homebuilder search runs

1. Intake with the hiring authority

   The seat, the product, the submarkets, the lot pipeline, the P&L the person will own, and the culture they have to fit. We push back where the brief and the market disagree.

2. Market map

   We build the real population: everyone in the region who has done this work at a comparable builder, not everyone with the title on LinkedIn. Then we calibrate the target profile with you before outreach starts.

3. Direct, confidential outreach

   One at a time, peer to peer, with specifics about your opportunity. Your company name never appears on a posting or in a mass email. Most of the people we place were not looking.

4. Culture fit scoring, not just skills

   Every candidate is scored on how they run land, how they run a team and how they run a number, alongside the technical fit. You see the scoring, not just the resume.

5. Weekly reporting through the offer

   You always know who is in process, who declined and why, and what the market is telling us about the seat. We stay through offer, resignation and start date.

Why homebuilders work with SBR

Frequently Asked Questions