Global Head of Real Estate and Workplace

Deepgram; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Deepgram is seeking a Global Head of Real Estate and Workplace to oversee end-to-end management of the company’s physical spaces across the U.S. and internationally.

You will read leases, supervise buildouts, and run facilities operations while shaping culture through thoughtfully designed environments. Responsibilities include site selection, lease negotiations, international expansion, and leading a small workplace team.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in workplace, real estate, facilities or capital projects.
• End-to-end ownership of at least one office buildout.
• Ability to travel frequently to multiple offices and locations.
• Experience negotiating or managing commercial leases, working with brokers, landlords, and Legal.
• Budget ownership for capital and operating spend; strong commercial judgment.
• Experience delivering or operating space used for public events, customer-facing programming, or brand moments.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end real estate strategy from site selection to operations for multiple locations.
• Read leases, manage buildouts, and lead vendor relationships.
• Develop and maintain a repeatable playbook for opening and running Deepgram locations.
• Lead a small workplace team and manage real estate and facilities budgets and contracts.
• Collaborate with Finance, Legal, IT, and Security to ensure compliant, scalable spaces.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Project management

Budgeting

Travel flexibility

Communication

Tools

IWMS

Job description

Company Overview

Deepgram is the leading platform underpinning the emerging trillion-dollar Voice AI economy, providing real-time APIs for speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and building production-grade voice agents at scale. More than 200,000 developers and 1,300+ organizations build voice offerings that are ‘Powered by Deepgram’, including Twilio, Cloudflare, Sierra, Decagon, Vapi, Daily, Cresta, Granola, and Jack in the Box. Deepgram’s voice-native foundation models are accessed through cloud APIs or as self-hosted and on-premises software, with unmatched accuracy, low latency, and cost efficiency. Backed by a recent Series C led by leading global investors and strategic partners, Deepgram has processed over 50,000 years of audio and transcribed more than 1 trillion words. There is no organization in the world that understands voice better than Deepgram.

Company Operating Rhythm

At Deepgram, we expect an AI-first mindset—AI use and comfort aren’t optional, they’re core to how we operate, innovate, and measure performance.

Every team member who works at Deepgram is expected to actively use and experiment with advanced AI tools, and even build your own into your everyday work. We measure how effectively AI is applied to deliver results, and consistent, creative use of the latest AI capabilities is key to success here. Candidates should be comfortable adopting new models and modes quickly, integrating AI into their workflows, and continuously pushing the boundaries of what these technologies can do.

Additionally, we move at the pace of AI. Change is rapid, and you can expect your day-to-day work to evolve just as quickly. This may not be the right role if you’re not excited to experiment, adapt, think on your feet, and learn constantly, or if you’re seeking something highly prescriptive with a traditional 9-to-5.

About the Role

We are growing our geographic footprint and opening multiple workspaces and event spaces across the U.S. and internationally. Most of these locations serve a dual purpose. They are working spaces for Deepgram employees and public event venues that host meetups, hackathons, and customer and developer gatherings. Designing and operating space that does both well is a key aspect of this role.

Right now, real estate decisions, office openings, construction projects, and facilities operations are spread across many people. We need one responsible and experienced owner who knows how to do this all end to end. Someone who can read a lease, walk a construction site, manage a vendor, and think clearly about how a space shapes culture, brand, and community.

As Global Head of Real Estate and Workplace, you will take full ownership of Deepgram's physical spaces from site selection through to operational, welcoming offices. You will find potential real estate, negotiate and manage leases, run buildout projects, stand up facilities operations, and build the repeatable playbook we use to open and run every Deepgram location. Then you will hire and lead a small team to run it with you.

This is a player-coach role. You will be in the work, not above it, and you will build the function as you go.

What You'll Own

Requirements Scoping & Internal Stakeholder Management

• Converting the CEO and executive team’s vision into a documented program for each site

• Gathering requirements across Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Developer Relations, People, IT, Security, and Finance to determine how each space will be used and what it needs to solve for

• Reconciling competing requests into a single prioritized brief, secure executive approval, and own that brief as the source of truth for architects, general contractors, and all subsequent change decisions

Capacity & Space Planning

• Occupancy forecasting and space programming against the company headcount plan, in partnership with Finance and People

• Recommendations on the size, timing, and location of new and expanded space, grounded in utilization data rather than anecdote

• The tradeoff at each site between event capacity, collaboration space, and focus work, documented and revisited as headcount changes

Real Estate & Leasing

• Site selection, tours, and location recommendations as we evaluate new and expanded spaces

• Lease negotiation and renewals, partnering with Finance and Legal on LOIs, term sheets, insurance needs, and commercial terms, including tenant improvement allowances, free rent, escalations, letters of credit and security deposits, restoration and holdover obligations, assignment and sublease rights, and expansion and termination flexibility

• Analysis of lease versus license, coworking, and short-term venue alternatives in markets where a long-term commitment is not yet warranted

• International site selection and leasing, including engagement of local counsel and brokers, country-specific code and accessibility standards, and coordination with Finance, People, and Legal on the entity, tax, and employment implications of each location

• Partnership with Accounting on lease classification and ASC 842 treatment, and delivery of the underlying data Finance needs for budgeting, forecasting, and audit

• Landlord and broker relationships, and ownership of all real estate documentation and key dates

Construction & Buildout

• End-to-end project management of office buildouts, from design intent through permitting, construction, and move-in

• Coordination of architects, general contractors, designers, and trades — holding scope, budget, and timeline

• Design and delivery of assembly and event space, including occupancy classification and egress, load-in and rigging, AV and streaming infrastructure, acoustics, power and network capacity for large gatherings, and commercial or catered food service

• Permitting, code, accessibility, and safety compliance across every project

Facilities & Workplace Operations

• Day-to-day operations across all offices: supplies, maintenance, security and access, signage, and the overall office experience

• The staffing model (when necessary) for onsite support, including office managers and hourly staff, and the systems that keep each space running without escalation

• A consistent operating standard so every location runs the same way, as well as playbooks.

• Space and desk management, access control, and visitor management systems

Team & Budget

• Eventually, building and leading a small workplace team as the function scales

• Full ownership of the workplace and real estate budget, capital projects and operating costs

• Vendor sourcing, contracts, and performance management

Your First 12 Months

• Get all active office projects under a single plan, budget, and timeline

• Establish the facilities operating standard and onsite staffing model for our existing locations

• Build the real estate and workplace playbook so the next office opening is repeatable, not improvised

• Hire the first members of your workplace team

What You Bring

• 10+ years in workplace, real estate, facilities, or capital projects, including end-to-end ownership of at least one office buildout

• Ability to travel. Given the nature of this role, you will have to be available to travel to multiple offices and locations frequently.

• Direct experience negotiating or managing commercial leases, working with brokers, landlords, and Legal

• Strong construction and vendor project management — you can hold architects, CMs, and GCs to scope, budget, and schedule

• Working knowledge of permitting, building codes, accessibility, and workplace safety

• Experience delivering or operating space used for public events, customer-facing programming, or brand moments

• Budget ownership for capital and operating spend, with sound commercial judgment

• Comfort operating with ambiguity in a fast-moving, scaling company — you don't wait for a playbook, you write it

• An eye for how physical space shapes culture, and genuine care for a consistent experience across every location

• Experience operating across multiple cities or a distributed, remote-first company

• Experience supporting spaces used for customer-facing events or brand moments

• Experience leasing or building in international markets, particularly EMEA or APAC

• Familiarity with lease administration, space management, or IWMS platforms

• Experience hiring and managing a small ops or facilities team

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