Job title: Design & Construction Manager Location: Sunshine West, VIC Employment type: Full-time
About the role
Blue Hippo Laundry is one of Australia's fastest-growing retail networks — Australia's largest company-owned self-service laundromat brand, backed by private equity and scaling from ~50 stores today to 100+ nationally, at a sustained rate of 15–20 new stores a year. This is a rare chance to step into a genuinely unique, high-impact role at the centre of that growth story, with real ownership and a direct line to the CEO.
This isn't a traditional project management position — it's a design-led leadership role. You'll be in constant dialogue and negotiation with our external design consultant team, who handle the detailed design, engineering coordination and statutory approvals, to make sure every store lands true to the Blue Hippo standard. Alongside that, you'll hold the programme and the budget, manage the landlord relationship and run the tender — owning the commercial outcome so every store opens on time, on budget and trading-ready.
The upside here is significant. Most of the value is created early, in the commercial groundwork before a builder is ever appointed, and in the systems you'll put in place — the prototype, the panel, the tender package, the programme template, the cost benchmark and the handover standard you build for store 51 will still be earning its keep at store 100. Very few roles in Australian retail offer this level of ownership over a national rollout, this early in its growth curve.
What you'll own
- Pre-lease feasibility & site assessment — assess base building capacity (water, power, gas, drainage, exhaust routes, structural constraints) before lease execution, so deal-breakers and landlord works are negotiated into the lease, not discovered during design.
- Design input & landlord approvals — work closely with the external design consultant team through every stage of design, negotiating outcomes that keep each store consistent with the Blue Hippo standard, and manage the landlord approval relationship end to end with Tier 1 and Tier 2 centres.
- Building services outcomes — make sure mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, gas and structural outcomes are integrated to Blue Hippo's operational requirements, working with the design consultant team who manage the technical detail and approvals.
- Tendering, procurement & contract management — run competitive tenders, level returns properly, build and manage a national panel of builders and consultants, and control variations.
- Construction delivery & programme control — hold the master programme across all live projects and report status weekly with a clear read on risk.
- Handover & closeout — oversee practical completion and defects rectification, and formal signed handover to Operations.
- Standards, systems & reporting — own the Blue Hippo prototype and fitout standard, and report weekly to the CEO on programme, cost, risk and pipeline.
What you'll bring
- Experience delivering a program of new store fitouts — multiple sites per year, running concurrently.
- A track record taking tenancy designs through approval with major shopping centre landlords, and a good understanding of how their design and delivery teams work.
- A strong design eye and the confidence to hold your ground with a design team — negotiating outcomes that protect the brand standard without needing to own the technical detail yourself.
- Familiarity with services-heavy tenancies — for example, commercial kitchens, food production, medical or similar — enough to brief a design team and sanity-check their outcomes.
- Experience running tenders, holding a budget and managing a variation register with builders.
- A track record working backwards from a committed trading date and holding the critical path across multiple live projects.
- A willingness to travel interstate, and a base in metropolitan Melbourne with a current driver's licence.
This background is common among people who've rolled out multi-site QSR, hospitality or food retail programs, where the same challenges show up — negotiating landlord approvals, driving service capacity into a shell that never had it, and opening on a committed trading date. We'd also love to hear from strong candidates with a background in landlord-side tenancy delivery, retail shopfitting, or other multi-site services-heavy rollouts such as medical, veterinary or gym networks.
Why this role
- Be part of a national brand growth story. Own delivery for a brand scaling from ~50 to 100+ stores, at 15–20 new stores a year — very few roles in Australian retail offer this volume of impact under one person.
- Real seniority, real access. Report directly to the CEO with genuine decision rights, and your work goes straight into what leadership sees.
- No red tape. A lean, fast-moving leadership team means decisions get made quickly — you won't be stuck waiting on layers of sign-off to get things done.
- Genuine ownership and autonomy. This is your programme, your budget and your call on how the work gets done — full accountability, and the flexibility to run it your way.
- Hybrid, flexible working. A mix of site, office and home-based work to suit the demands of the role, not a rigid nine-to-five in one location.
- Backed by strong growth plans. A private equity-backed platform with capital committed to an aggressive growth strategy, and a leadership team that understands what delivery capability is worth.
- A genuine pathway to grow with the business. As Blue Hippo scales nationally, so does your remit — greater budget authority, multi-state responsibility and a delivery team reporting to you.
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