Director, Global Real Estate

About the role

The Director, Global Real Estate owns the firm's global real estate strategy and portfolio. This is a strategy-and-oversight role for global real estate activities across strategy, workplace design, transactions, and financial management of the global lease portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Portfolio Strategy & Governance
  • Define and own the global real estate strategy, portfolio plan, and occupancy strategy aligned to firm growth and integration
  • Establish workplace design standards and guardrails applied across the portfolio
  • Establish real estate governance, data, and analytics to support capital and occupancy decisions
  • Continuously evaluate and propose automation and AI adoption opportunities within real estate and design & construction processes, partnering with Global Transformation & Integration on centralized prioritization and delivery
• Transactions & Partner Management
  • Own the transactions strategy and oversee execution through the firm's appointed real estate transactions partner
  • Oversee the external design & construction partner relationships, ensuring best-in-class outcomes with fees appropriately charged to capital projects
  • Manage an outsourced provider- and partner-first delivery model, holding partners accountable to performance and service standards
• Design & Construction Oversight
  • Own the global design standards, recommending changes in office designs and layouts in accordance with business needs and regional/local adaptations where necessary
  • Ensure projects are delivered on scope, schedule, and budget, and to firm design standards
• Data, Analytics & Performance
  • Establish metrics and targets for efficiency, cost, and customer satisfaction across the real estate portfolio
  • Build, monitor, and act on reports and dashboards that track performance and progress against targets, elevating the function's data, analytics, and business-intelligence maturity
  • Use data-driven insights to inform decisions, prioritize improvements, and demonstrate value to firm leadership
• Cross-Functional Leadership
  • Partner with Workplace Operations on place-based execution (occupancy, moves, fit-outs) via the dotted-line relationship with Regional Managers
  • Collaborate with Finance on capital planning, accounting and financial reporting treatment, and project economics
  • Represent the function with strong executive presence, delivering clear, concise, and executive-ready communications and deliverables
  • Co-design the function's detailed target model with the Global Administrative Services Leader

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in real estate, business, architecture/engineering, or a related field (advanced degree a plus)
• 10+ years of global corporate real estate experience within a multinational organization, including portfolio strategy and transactions oversight
• Experience leading a partner-led delivery model (brokerage, design, and construction vendors)
• Strong financial acumen, including capital planning and project economics
• Pioneered ability to provide strategic oversight of a global or multi-country portfolio
• Excellent stakeholder-management and executive-communication skills
• Ability to travel as business needs arise (international and domestic)

Pay

The base salary range for this position is between $184,000 and $276,000. Placement within the pay range is at Grant Thornton’s discretion, and it is based on multiple factors, including but not limited to, job-related knowledge/skills, experience, business needs, progression within the role, geographic location, and internal equity.

Schedule

This position will require in-person attendance at least three days per week, either at a GT office or client site.