Strategy Manager

At Gensler, Design Strategy helps organizations navigate change and unlock new possibilities. Combining research, analytics, design thinking, and deep stakeholder engagement, we develop strategies that transform how people work, experience, and interact with the built environment. Our New York Strategy Studio is expanding, and we're seeking an experienced Strategy Manager to lead complex client engagements and shape the future of our growing practice.

About the role

This role is ideal for a strategic thinker and trusted advisor with expertise in workplace strategy, management consulting, real estate strategy, change management, experience strategy, or a related field. You'll work with leading organizations across corporate, cultural, and real estate sectors, helping them solve complex business challenges through innovative strategies that align people, place, technology, and organizational goals.

As a Strategy Manager, you will help organizations tackle complex business, workplace, and organizational challenges through research-driven, data-informed, and human-centered strategy. Working at the intersection of business, experience, and the built environment, you'll lead engagements from discovery through implementation planning, helping clients make informed decisions and drive meaningful change. This role combines client leadership, project delivery, business development, and team mentorship.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy engagements from pursuit through delivery, ensuring successful outcomes for clients and project teams.
• Build strong client relationships and facilitate conversations with senior stakeholders around workplace, portfolio, organizational, and experience-related challenges.
• Provide leadership to client and internal teams by communicating project objectives, scope, terms, and schedule.
• Lead workflow planning, coordination, and administration for a multidisciplinary team of strategists, researchers, designers, and stakeholders to generate transformative ideas and implementable strategies.
• Develop proposals and project scopes for new client engagements, creating innovative approaches that deliver value and generate client enthusiasm.
• Understand team member capabilities and goals to build effective project teams and identify opportunities for advancement and hiring needs.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for clients, responding to communications and requests in a timely manner.
• Arrange and prepare for client touchpoints, documenting decisions made, action items, and deadlines.
• Proactively manage project financial performance, including resourcing, scope, fees, forecasting, and profitability.
• Manage and track new business opportunities, client touchpoints, and project pipeline using Salesforce.
• Interface with design studios to ensure seamless transition of design strategy to design implementation.
• Partner closely with the Studio Director to maintain seamless studio operations with a dynamic staffing model.
• Mentor team members and support their professional growth through coaching and project leadership.
• Continually seek opportunities to improve workflows and work more effectively.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional experience in strategy consulting, workplace strategy, management consulting, organizational development, change management, real estate strategy, experience strategy, or related advisory fields.
• Proven success leading complex client engagements and managing consulting/strategy engagements.
• Experience serving as a primary client contact and building long-term client relationships.
• Experience responding to RFQs and RFPs.
• Demonstrated ability to develop project approaches, scopes of work, and professional service proposals.
• Experience negotiating project scope, fees, managing project financial performance, and ensuring fiscal responsibility.
• Experience facilitating executive workshops and stakeholder engagement processes.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in a relevant discipline a plus.
• Experience within workplace strategy, architecture, real estate, or related fields is a plus.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign preferred), and digital collaboration platforms such as Miro, Mural, and Microsoft Teams.

Skills

• Excel at building relationships and influencing stakeholders across all levels of an organization.
• Drive accountability and clear structure on projects with evolving or vague parameters.
• Effectively manage multiple concurrent projects in a dynamic environment with disciplined time management.
• Quick, tactical thinker able to see the big picture and chart a path forward.
• Strong and persuasive writer, able to clearly and succinctly describe processes, options, findings, and recommendations.
• Collaborate effectively and empathetically across disciplines and perspectives.
• Demonstrate strong business judgment and understanding of project economics.
• Bring curiosity, initiative, and a commitment to continuous learning with acute attention to detail.

About Strategy at Gensler

Gensler's Strategy Practice explores and defines how space, technology, services, and policy can create great experiences and support organizations' best work. Our multidisciplinary global team partners with corporate clients, healthcare and cultural institutions, real estate developers, and universities to solve complex business and organizational challenges. Through research, stakeholder engagement, analytics, and strategy development, we help clients align their environments with their business objectives and create experiences that support performance, culture, and growth. Working alongside Gensler's design teams in New York and around the world, we translate strategy into impactful design solutions while helping organizations navigate and sustain change.

Life at Gensler

At Gensler, we are committed to enjoying life as much as delivering best-in-class design. Our offices reflect our people’s diverse interests through curated art exhibits, internal design competitions, and “Well-being Awareness Week.” We encourage every person at Gensler to lead a healthy and balanced life.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and disability benefits.
• Wellness programs and flex spending.
• Paid holidays and paid time off.
• 401k, profit sharing, and employee stock ownership.
• Twice annual bonus opportunities.
• Reimbursement for certain professional licenses and associated renewals and exam fees.
• Tuition reimbursement for certain eligible programs or classes.

Pay

The base salary range for this role is estimated between $117,500 - $140,000. Gensler’s total compensation package includes a base salary and two annual bonuses paid in December and June.