Director Store Development Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Position OverviewBurlington is seeking a Senior Director, Construction to work closely with the full Construction team to provide strategic and tactical support.
This role partners closely with the VP of Construction and senior leaders to provide enterprise-level leadership over all construction activities that support company growth, new store development, and operational excellence, with full accountability for cost, schedule, quality, and risk management.
The Senior Director provides strategic direction to Construction Directors and Project Managers and helps define the future of the department. This leader coaches and mentors the team by setting clear, actionable objectives, fostering independence, and creating opportunities for growth.
Candidate may be located anywhere in the United States.A Day in the Life

Leadership

• Builds and leads strong, independent leadership teams that assume ownership and accountability for delivering projects aligned to departmental and company goals.
• Partners proactively with cross-functional stakeholders (e.g., Real Estate, Legal, Store Planning, IT, AP, Facilities, New Store Opening Team, and Operations) to remove roadblocks, align priorities, and drive timely decision-making.
• Establishes and communicates clear plans, priorities, and expectations, using a disciplined cadence (KPIs, milestones, and weekly status reporting) to ensure predictable outcomes.
• Applies and guides team critical thinking and data-driven problem solving to evaluate options, identify risks early, and implement mitigation plans that protect schedule, budget, and quality.
• Drives operational efficiency and consistent execution standards across the construction organization to improve on-time store openings.
• Develops Directors and Project Managers through coaching and feedback, strengthening solutions-oriented communication with business partners, vendors, and contractors.
• Owns the master CPM construction timeline and governance across the project life cycle, enabling cross-functional planning and advancing the new store development pipeline toward predictable, consistent store openings.

New Stores

• Provides strategic direction and hands-on guidance to ensure delivery of high-quality new store projects on schedule.
• Builds and supports construction budgets with the Real Estate team for potential new deals.
• Develops the team's ability to partner with landlords' construction and real estate representatives to negotiate work scope, value engineer (VE) where appropriate, and pursue the fastest path to market; leads by example and coaches for continuous improvement.
• Sets communication standards among Burlington partners, the landlord's architect, and engineering consultants to ensure cohesive construction documents.
• Partners with Real Estate and Legal to review and redline proposed work exhibits.
• Evaluates project risks to timelines and milestones; implements mitigation plans as needed.
• Oversees development of CPM project schedules from lease execution through turnover and grand-opening (GO).
• Develops and presents preliminary project schedules; leads review meetings to gather input, comments, and markups.
• Ensures teams conduct efficient space walkthroughs and develop a complete scope of work (SOW).
• Works closely with Burlington vendors and cross-functional partners (e.g., AP, IT, Store Planning) to develop SOW and construction documents.
• Collaborates and accurately reports project team updates to executive leadership to maintain integrity of new store pipeline. Actively works to solve problems to eliminate obstacles and accommodate corporate adjustments to ensure successful and timely store openings.
• Oversees the compliance reporting process for HVAC commissioning and turnover to Facilities, ensuring systems meet required standards and documentation is complete and accurate.

You'll Come With

Education: Bachelor's Degree

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of progressive leadership experience managing multi-site retail or commercial construction programs, including capital governance and executive-level stakeholder engagement. Demonstrated experience in successfully managing complex organizational initiatives involving multiple functions and multiple business areas. Includes the identification and articulation of problems, influencing decision-making process as well as delivery of expected results
• Experience in program and scheduling management, leading multidisciplinary, high-performance teams; proven ability to lead projects and team members to successful goal achievement.

Skills and Abilities:

• Demonstrated competency in strategic thinking and leadership.
• Strong organizational skills; ability to prioritize under time constraints; diplomacy and ability to deal effectively with people.
• Demonstrated ability to develop efficient, effective solutions to complex business problems and present recommendations to senior leadership using business language.
• Ability to build and maintain strong customer relationships and act as a trusted advisor to the business.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and manage within a dynamic, transformational culture.
• Understands connections and relationships across functions and entities for internal and external constituencies; thinks appropriately into the future.
• Makes timely and effective decisions.
• Communicates clearly in writing and verbally; sends the right messages to appropriate audiences, keeps stakeholders informed, and adapts style to the audience.

Travel: up to 50% of time as required by business needs.

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Come join our team. You're going to like it here!Compensation Range: $150,000.00 - $190,000.00