Facilities & Real Estate Business Manager

Rakuten Kobo Inc.; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 99,000 - 172,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Health, vision, dental insurance

401k matching

PTO

Volunteer Time Off

Job summary

Rakuten International is seeking a Real Estate & Facilities Business Manager in San Mateo. You will serve as the strategic operational lead, partnering with Finance, HR, and Sustainability to align workspace strategy with the company’s broader goals.

You will own executive reporting, data-driven decision support, and global standards across regions, weaving insights into actionable plans and cross-team collaboration.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in Corporate Real Estate, Facilities Operations, or Business Operations/Strategy.

Responsibilities

• Executive Reporting: Lead Monthly/Quarterly Business Reviews and executive presentations.
• Strategic Business Partnership: Liaise between Real Estate and Finance, HR, Operations, Sustainability.
• Portfolio & Lease Governance: Maintain lease data integrity and readiness for audits.
• Operational Workflow: Coordinate regional facilities managers for global standards.
• Performance Analytics: Report KPIs on facility performance, space utilization, costs.
• Strategic Projects: Support hybrid work policy, office transformations, ESG reporting.
• AI Integration & Innovation: Use AI tools to automate reporting and data synthesis.
• Team Engagement & Communications: Lead Global Real Estate & Facilities Team All-Hands.

Skills

Executive reporting

Data visualization

Strategic partnership

Budget management

Cross-functional collaboration

AI integration

Tools

Tableau

Excel

PowerPoint

Canva

Adobe Creative Cloud

Slack/Teams

Jira/Confluence

Workday

Box

Job description

Job Description

Rakuten International is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese global technology leader in services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Headquartered in San Mateo, California with more than 4,000 employees worldwide, the Rakuten International business portfolio includes market leaders in e-commerce, digital marketing, advertising, communications and entertainment. We create products and services that provide exceptional value by aligning members and the businesses that want to engage them in a shared community.

Job Summary

The Real Estate & Facilities Business Manager serves as the strategic operational lead for the Global Real Estate & Facilities department. This role acts as a primary business partner to the Head of Real Estate, driving departmental efficiency, executive reporting, and cross-functional alignment. You will bridge the gap between regional facilities teams, Finance, HR, Business Operations, Sustainability and internal business units to ensure the real estate portfolio supports the company’s broader business strategy. You are the \"operational engine\" of the department, ensuring that data-driven insights are translated into action.

Key Responsibilities

• Executive Reporting: Lead the preparation of Monthly and Quarterly Business Reviews (MBR/QBR) and strategic presentations for executive leadership; translate complex portfolio data into compelling, high-level narratives.
• Strategic Business Partnership: Act as the primary liaison between the Real Estate department and internal stakeholders (Finance, HR, Business Operations, Sustainability, internal business units, etc.), ensuring workspace strategies align with evolving organizational needs.
• Portfolio & Lease Governance: Oversee the integrity of critical lease information and portfolio data, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and readiness for audits and strategic decision-making.
• Operational Workflow: Manage the operational cadence of the department; coordinate with regional facilities managers to ensure consistent global standards and reporting alignment.
• Performance Analytics: Monitor and report on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to facility performance, space utilization, and portfolio costs to inform long-term real estate strategy.
• Strategic Projects: Assist the Head of Real Estate in managing cross-departmental initiatives, including hybrid work policy implementation, office transformations, and sustainability/ESG reporting.
• AI Integration & Innovation: Leverage Artificial Intelligence tools to streamline departmental workflows, automate reporting, enhance data analysis, and drive innovative workplace solutions.
• Team Engagement & Communications: Coordinate and lead the monthly Global Real Estate & Facilities Team All-Hands; curate the agenda and develop presentation materials to ensure global team alignment and transparency.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Communication: Exceptional ability to synthesize complex data into executive-level presentations.
• Financial Acumen: Strong understanding of real estate financial metrics, lease administration, and budget management.
• Influencing Skills: Proven track record of managing cross-functional relationships and influencing stakeholders across various seniority levels.
• Data Literacy: Proficiency in data visualization and reporting tools (e.g., Excel, Tableau, or similar); high attention to detail regarding lease and portfolio data.
• AI Integration & Innovation: Leverage Artificial Intelligence tools to streamline departmental workflows, automate reporting, enhance data analysis, and drive innovative workplace solutions.
• Soft Skills: Ability to operate as a \"right-hand\" partner to leadership, maintaining confidentiality and high professional standards.
• Real Estate & Facilities Management (IWMS/CAFM) Data Visualization & Analytics like Tableau for tracking KPIs, mastery of Excel (Pivot Tables, VLOOKUP, complex modeling), a plus.
• Executive Presentation: Expert-level skills in PowerPoint, Canva, and Adobe Creative Cloud (specifically for creating high-impact visual narratives).
• AI & Automation Tools: Experience with generative AI platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, or Microsoft Copilot) to automate report generation, summarize meeting notes, and streamline data synthesis.
• Enterprise Collaboration: Proficiency in Slack & Teams (for real-time stakeholder communication), Jira/Confluence (for project tracking and documentation), and Workday (for departmental budget/headcount reporting).
• Cloud Infrastructure: Familiarity with Box Drive/Docs/Forms for collaborative document management and cross-departmental information gathering.

Minimum Requirements

7+ years in Corporate Real Estate, Facilities Operations, or Business Operations/Strategy. #LI-TL1

Five Principles for Success

• Always improve, Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen
• Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
• Hypothesize - Practice - Validate – Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
• Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
• Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

Equal Employment Opportunity

Rakuten provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type. Rakuten considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Compensation

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location.

USD $99,306.00 - $171,612.00 annually

The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus, health, vision, dental insurance, 401k matching, PTO, Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.

Other Company Information

Rakuten International oversees 7 businesses with over 4,000 employees globally. The brand is recognized for its leadership and innovation in e-commerce, digital content, advertising, entertainment, and communications, bringing the joy of discovery and access to more than 1 billion members across the world. Everyday team members deliver on the company’s mission to delight merchants and customers through innovation, optimism, and teamwork.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act’s Transparency in Coverage Rules require group health plans to disclose on a public website information regarding in-network provider rates and historical out-of-network allowed amounts and billed charges for covered items and services in two separate machine-readable files (MRFs). The MRFs for Rakuten’s Aetna benefit plan are provided in the link below. Aetna Transparency in Coverage: Machine-Readable Files | Rakuten