Global Real Estate Strategy Lead

Grant Thornton; Houston (TX); Hybrid; USD 188,000 - 313,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Competitive compensation

Job summary

Grant Thornton is seeking a Senior Director, Real Estate to lead the firm’s global real estate strategy and portfolio. This role drives strategy, workplace design, transactions, and financial management of the global lease portfolio, partnering with Workplace Operations on place-based execution.

The candidate will build a new global real estate organization, set standards, govern data and analytics, and lead cross-functional teams to optimize occupancy and capital planning across a multi-country

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in real estate, business, architecture/engineering, or a related field (advanced degree a plus)
• 15+ years of corporate real estate experience, 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
• Proven ability to provide strategic oversight of a global or multi-country portfolio
• Excellent stakeholder-management and executive-communication skills

Responsibilities

• Define and own the global real estate strategy, portfolio plan, and occupancy strategy aligned to firm growth and integration
• Build and lead a new global real estate organization with the capabilities, operating model, and regional reach required to support a changing portfolio driven by global acquisitions and organic growth
• Set 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
• 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 outsource provider- and partner-first delivery model, holding partners accountable to performance and service standards
• Own the global design standards, recommending changes in office designs and layouts in accordance with business needs and regional/local adaptions where necessary
• Ensure projects are delivered on scope, schedule, and budget, and to firm design standards
• 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
• 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

Skills

Stakeholder management

Executive communication

Financial acumen

Global portfolio oversight

Education

Bachelor's degree in real estate, business, architecture/engineering, or a related field

Advanced degree a plus

Job description

Grant Thornton is seeking a Senior Director, Real Estate to lead the firm’s global real estate strategy and portfolio. This role drives strategy, workplace design, transactions, and financial management of the global lease portfolio, partnering with Workplace Operations on place-based execution.

The candidate will build a new global real estate organization, set standards, govern data and analytics, and lead cross-functional teams to optimize occupancy and capital planning across a multi-country