tdm recruitment
Senior Quantity Surveyor
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Job Title
A family owned developer building 40 to 60 premium homes a year across a tight patch of the Cotswolds and its fringes. No towers, no house-type factories, no apartment blocks with balcony packages you've priced a hundred times before. Just beautifully detailed three, four and five bedroom homes, natural materials, bespoke joinery, and a commercial approach that treats cost control as a craft rather than a spreadsheet exercise.
No desire to grow, they know their lane and they know it well, which is exactly the point. They need a Senior QS who can bring rigour to a business that has always run on relationships and reputation, without losing the thing that makes it special.
The Role
You'll take commercial ownership of two to three live sites, reporting into a Operations Director who has been with the business a long time and will give you genuine autonomy fairly quickly. Expect a mix of higher spec traditional build and some bespoke one-off plots, procured through a trusted panel of subcontractors who've worked with this business for years, alongside newer packages you'll help bring on board as the site programme grows.
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What you'll be doing
- Owning cost planning to practical completion, working closely with the technical team on specification decisions that genuinely move the cost needle on a premium product.
- Preparing and presenting monthly CVRs with real commercial insight, not just a number that ties out.
- Managing subcontractor accounts end to end: procurement, valuations, variations, and final accounts, largely under JCT Intermediate and Design and Build forms.
- Running tender analysis and package procurement for bespoke elements, from stone masonry to bespoke staircases, where "value engineering" means protecting quality, not stripping it out.
- Working directly with the buying function on framework negotiations for standard materials while retaining flexibility for the specification changes premium buyers ask for.
- Mentoring an Assistant QS and helping shape a more structured commercial process as the business scales.
- Attending design team and technical meetings where your cost input is expected to be substantive, not just a sense check at the end.
What we're looking for
- Solid housebuilding QS experience, ideally including exposure to higher spec or bespoke residential product, though strong volume experience with a genuine interest in premium work will be considered.
- Someone who can hold their own with subcontractors who've been in this trade for thirty years and won't be talked round by confidence alone.
- A degree or equivalent professional experience in quantity surveying or a construction related discipline; MRICS or working towards it is a bonus, not a requirement.
- Genuinely interested in build quality and detail. If you've never cared what a lime mortar joint looks like, this probably isn't your business.
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What's on offer
- £65,000 to £80,000 depending on experience, plus car allowance and a discretionary annual bonus.
- A commercial team small enough that your work is visible and valued, not lost in a matrix
- Real autonomy on site with senior support close at hand, not layers of sign off for every decision.
- Genuine investment in your development, including funded progression towards MRICS if you want it.
- A working culture built around long service and low turnover. People here tend to stay because they mean it.
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