Account Director - Life Sciences

CBRE Group, Inc.; Branchburg Township (NJ); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

CBRE Group, Inc. is seeking an Account Director in the Global Workplace Solutions Local group in New Jersey. You will lead a major client account, oversee the full suite of FM services, and drive growth through extra works and projects while ensuring contract compliance and exceptional service delivery.

You will manage a team, mentor staff, and coordinate operations across hard and soft services, with responsibility for annual client reviews and governance. Travel to client sites is expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from a four‑year college or university.
• 8+ years of relevant work experience.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Ability to analyze complex business documents and respond to sensitive issues.
• Experience managing a P&L and budgets.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership, coaching and guidance to the account team to ensure commitments are met and exceeded.
• Identify opportunities for strategic development and organic growth within the account.
• Act as single point of contact for overall account operations and compliance.
• Supervise and coordinate operations including PM, reactive maintenance, vendor services, and help desk.
• Maintain governance regimes to meet regulatory and contractual commitments and client reviews.
• Drive customer-focused reporting, proposals, and communication to clients; develop innovation in solutions.
• Foster team development, staffing optimization, succession planning, and performance management.
• Oversee account P&L, budgets, and financial governance; manage WIP and payments.

Skills

Leadership

Account management

Strategic development

Client relationship management

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentoring/coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Word

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Outlook

Job description

Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) Local is a hard services-led, tailored facility management solution. We self-perform hard services while partnering with best-in‑class soft service providers to offer custom facility and project management solutions to our clients. We focus on empowering our team with a high-level of downstream accountability, resulting in an agile and efficient service delivery.

In addition to our core facility and project management capabilities, our platform offers direct access to our Best-in‑Class services, including ESG, Security Consulting, Workplace Strategy, and Workplace Experience.

About the Role:

As an Account Director you would be accountable for providing leadership, management, and development of a client account, ensuring both financial and operational commitments are met and exceeded.

This leadership role is the single point of contact for all operational needs for a $5 - $10m maintenance revenue, single customer account within GWS Local. The AD is responsible for delivering the full suite of FM services (hard and soft) to key clients, working in partnership with all stakeholders to ensure exceptional service is delivered and maintained at all times.

What You’ll Do:

General/Operations:

• Provide leadership, coaching and guidance to the account team, to ensure contractual commitments are met and exceeded.
• Identify and execute opportunities for the strategic development of the account, driving organic growth through the delivery of extra works and projects, and ensuring the account is retained upon renewal.
• Act as the single point of contact for overall account operations ensuring contractual compliance.
• Supervise, plan, and coordinate all aspects of operations, including preventative maintenance (PM), reactive maintenance, vendor services, help desk operation, soft service delivery where in scope, and extra works.
• Ensure appropriate account review, audit and governance regimes exist to meet regulatory, policy and contractual commitments, and ensure all required elements of the Local Target Operating Model are in place.
• Ensure a customer focus within all areas of operational activities, and that effective relationships are maintained with key clients at various levels, including formal monthly, quarterly and annual reviews.
• Communicate to clients regarding property profiles, emergency preparedness plans, site inspections, facility audits, work order progress, and other related reports in line with contract requirements.
• Present written recommendations to clients including economic justifications, financial reports, and monthly summary reporting in line with agreed expectations. Generate a robust communication strategy and ensure accuracy of reporting and client submittals.
• Drive innovation and thought‑leadership on the account, engaging with subject matter experts to provide a diverse offering of solutions to complex client problems.
• Work with other operational leaders to ensure the collaborative development of the business, effective teamworking, and a culture in keeping with the company’s RISE values.
• Support effective business communication internally and externally, with clients, CBRE team members, vendor partners, tenants, landlords, and all other business stakeholders.
• Support the sales process through solution development, participating in presentations and consultation meetings, and hosting visits as necessary.
• Support account diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) objectives; promote and maintain CBRE culture throughout account.

People:

• Accountable for all key hiring decisions; recruit, retain and develop talent for the present delivery and future growth.
• Provide leadership, guidance, coaching and direct support to deliver service excellence and high levels of employee engagement and ensure effective performance management is in place.
• Foster a learning environment, with appropriate training and development planning across the account.
• Ensure optimum staffing structures operate across the account, balancing cost reduction with the delivery of service excellence. Ensure structures support peaks and troughs in workload, disaster recovery, and contractual commitments.
• Ensure training needs are delivered, employees are fully competent to undertake their roles, and can reach their full future potential.
• Ensure effective succession planning is completed account-wide.

Finance/Commercial:

• Full responsibility for Profit & Loss including development of account financial plans for revenue and profit delivery, management of WIP, debt, cost control, and growth, ensuring that targets are met or exceeded.
• Ensure business policies and processes are effectively communicated and implemented across the account.
• Drive effective commercial and financial governance through accurate reporting, and appropriate checks and balances.
• Review purchase orders to ensure financial, contractual, and commercial accuracies.
• Supply chain management, including supplier performance reviews, supplier negotiations and re‑bidding, and the identification of additional scope opportunities.
• Drive sustainable organic growth of the account, maximizing extra works and project opportunities.

QHSE:

• Ensure the provision of a healthy and safe working environment on the account.
• Maintain both client and CBRE health and safety policy and process, ensuring this is effectively implemented across all service lines, self‑perform and vendor delivered.
• Develop environmental health and safety procedures for facilities. These procedures include emergency action plans, disaster recovery, business continuity, and other related procedures.
• Responsible for facility inspections for quality assurance on a periodic basis. Ensure facility procedures comply with local, state, and federal regulations.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Provides formal supervision to individual employees within single functional or operational area.
• Approves subordinate's recommendations for staff recruitment, selection, promotion, advancement, corrective action and termination.
• Effectively recommends same for direct reports to next level management for review and approval.
• Plans and monitors appropriate staffing levels and utilization of labor, including overtime.
• Prepares and delivers performance appraisal for staff.
• Mentors and coaches team members to further develop competencies.
• Leads by example and models behaviors that are consistent with the company's value.

What You’ll Need:

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree from four‑year college or university.
• 8 years+ relevant work experience.

Technology Skills:

• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.

Communication Skills:

• Ability to comprehend, analyze, and interpret complex business documents and respond effectively to sensitive issues.
• Requires ability to write reports, manuals, speeches and articles using distinctive style.
• Capability to create effective and persuasive presentations on complex topics to employees, clients, top management and/or public groups.
• Effective motivation and negotiation skills.

Reasoning Ability:

• Ability to solve advanced problems and deal with a variety of options in complex situations.
• Requires expert level analytical and quantitative skills with proven experience in developing strategic solutions for a growing matrix‑based multi‑industry sales environment.
• Draws upon the analysis of others and makes recommendations that have a direct impact on the company.

Financial Knowledge:

• Ability to calculate intermediate figures such as percentages.
• Strong commercial insight is essential, and experience of managing a P&L is preferable.

Other Skills and Abilities:

• Decisions made with in depth understanding and interpretation of procedures, company policies and business practices to achieve general results.
• Responsible for setting department deadlines; errors in judgment may cause long‑term impact to co‑workers, supervisor, department and/or line of business.

Circumstances:

• Must be flexible to work outside core office hours from time to time to meet tight deadlines as set by customers.
• This role will require travel on occasions, to other work locations for team meetings, site visits or to attend conferences and events.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Why CBRE?

When you join CBRE, you become part of the global leader in commercial real estate services and investment that helps businesses and people thrive. We are dynamic problem solvers and forward‑thinking professionals who create significant impact. Our collaborative culture is built on our shared values — respect, integrity, service and excellence — and we value the diverse perspectives, backgrounds and skillsets of our people. At CBRE, you have the opportunity to chart your own course and realize your potential. We welcome all applicants.

Applicant AI Use Disclosure

We value human interaction to understand each candidate's unique experience, skills and aspirations. We do not use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to make hiring decisions, and we ask that candidates disclose any use of AI in the application and interview process.