Operations Manager, Commercial Property Service

Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer; Glen Allen (VA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer is seeking an Operations Manager to provide administrative, operational, and financial support to the Commercial Property Services leadership team and staff. The role coordinates onboarding, offboarding, HR lifecycle tasks, billing, contracting support, and daily executive assistance, ensuring efficient, compliant processes in a fast-paced environment.

On-site position requiring strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to escalate when

Qualifications

• 2+ years in administrative, executive support, or coordinator roles; CRE/PM experience preferred.
• Experience with accounts payable/billing processes and property-management/accounting software a plus.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office; able to learn PM/accounting software.
• On-site role with occasional local travel between offices.
• Strong organizational/time-management skills across multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to draft professional correspondence and redline contracts.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate onboarding for new entities/properties and ensure data accuracy in systems.
• Manage offboarding when properties end, including billing and system access changes.
• Handle HR exit paperwork and employee lifecycle tasks; coordinate IT access provisioning.
• Support billing, invoicing, and financial reporting; review statements and back-bill when needed.
• Draft/redline management agreements and amendments with leadership input.
• Administer property-management platforms (Prism, Building Engines, Nexus) and coordinate vendor communication.
• Schedule and manage leadership meetings, events, and office logistics; track headcounts and milestones.

Skills

Organization

Time management

Communication

discretion

Independent work

Problem solving

Education

Associate/bachelor's degree preferred

Tools

Prism/Building Engines

Nexus

Vector Solutions

Yardi

Job description

Reports To: First Vice President, Commercial Property Services

Primary Function

The operations manager provides administrative, operational, and financial-support for the Commercial Property Services leadership team and the broader property management staff. This role is the central point of coordination across new-property onboarding, property and contract offboarding, employee lifecycle administration, billing and invoicing support, property-management-system administration (Prism/Building Engines, Nexus, Vector Solutions), contract and agreement drafting support, and day-to-day executive support to senior leadership. The role also owns the logistics that keep the team's recurring meetings, trainings, and culture events running -from room bookings and catering orders to headcount tracking - along with a life-safety responsibility as a building floor warden. Success in this role requires strong organizational discipline, comfort managing many concurrent, deadline-driven workstreams, and the judgment to know when an item needs to be escalated rather than handled independently.

Education

Associate or bachelor's degree preferred, or equivalent combination of education and relevant administrative/coordination experience.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in an administrative, executive support, or coordinator role; commercial real estate or property management experience strongly preferred.
• Experience with accounts payable/billing processes and property-management or accounting software is a plus.
• Primarily an office environment with regular use of a computer, telephone, and standard office equipment.
• Occasional need to move about the office and building to fulfill floor warden and meeting-logistics responsibilities.
• This position is on-site; occasional local travel between office locations may be required.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills, with demonstrated ability to manage a high volume of concurrent, deadline-driven tasks across multiple stakeholders.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office (Outlook, Excel, Word, Teams) and ability to learn property-management and accounting software platforms (e.g., Prism/Building Engines, Nexus, Yardi, Vector Solutions).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including comfort drafting professional correspondence and basic contract redlines.
• Sound judgment in prioritizing tasks and identifying when an issue requires escalation to leadership.
• Discretion in handling confidential financial, contractual, and personnel information.
• Comfort working independently while proactively keeping leadership informed of status and open items

Responsibilities

• Property & Entity Onboarding
• Completes new-entity/property set-up documentation for every newly won management assignment, including legal entity name, tax ID, accounting method (cash vs. accrual), designated property-management system (Prism, Yardi, or Nexus), and outside bank account requirements.
• Routes completed set-up forms to the appropriate internal distribution list, assigned property manager, and approvers; establishes the approver hierarchy for each new property in the accounting system.
• Requests and tracks collection of IRS Form W-9 from new property owners and associations prior to system finalization.
• Coordinates new SharePoint site/folder access for newly onboarded properties and projects.
• Manages the equivalent onboarding process for new condominium and homeowners' association engagements, including confirming bank accounts and manager assignment.
• Property & Contract Offboarding
• Prepares and files termination documentation when a managed property is sold or a management agreement ends.
• Notifies relevant internal stakeholders and distribution lists when management of a property ends, so billing, engineering coverage, and system access are discontinued appropriately.
• Employee Lifecycle Administration
• Completes HR exit/termination paperwork for departing employees and routes required documentation to Human Resources.
• Coordinates timed removal of system and building access for departing employees.
• Processes property manager reassignment notices when portfolio assignments change, and updates system approver access to match.
• Supports new-hire onboarding: completes new-hire intake documentation, coordinates business card orders, schedules employee headshots, initiates corporate credit card set-up requests, and loops in IT for system access provisioning.
• Billing, Invoicing & Financial Administration
• Compiles recurring work-order billing reports across multiple markets and routes them for management approval prior to invoicing; produces a year-to-date roll-up on a periodic basis.
• Reviews fuel-card and corporate credit card statements, applies correct general ledger coding, and routes for payment approval.
• Prepares and issues invoices for association clients and select properties, including back-billing when required.
• Maintains and troubleshoots the invoice approval routing/hierarchy to ensure timely processing.
• Supports drafting of management-fee structures for new and renewing management agreements.
• Performs periodic reconciliation of third-party system billing (e.g., building-operations platform invoicing) against internal billing records, identifying and resolving discrepancies such as missing credits, properties no longer under management, under-billed properties, and fee structures inconsistent with the governing agreement.
• Contract & Agreement Support
• Drafts new association management agreements, amendments, and fee-increase amendments, incorporating tracked changes for stakeholder review prior to execution.
• Supports redlining and negotiation of management agreement terms (e.g., fee escalation methodology) in coordination with leadership.
• Property Management System Administration
• Serves as the internal point of contact for the property-operations platform (e.g., Building Engines/Prism), including data accuracy on property profile pages, support-ticket coordination, and testing of new platform features.
• Coordinates platform account-management relationship changes and transition meetings with the software vendor's customer success team.
• Organizes and facilitates system training sessions for the property management team and distributes related process guidance.
• Maintains training-compliance records in the company's learning management system and confirms completion status for required staff training.
• Insurance & Risk Support
• Coordinates filing of internal incident reports
• Supports administration of fleet safety and vehicle-monitoring program rollouts.
• Meeting, Event & Office Logistics
• Schedules and maintains all standing leadership and team meetings (biweekly leadership meeting, monthly all-team meeting, recurring cross-functional business updates), including room reservations, virtual meeting links, and rescheduling as needed.
• Books conference rooms for meetings, trainings, and vendor presentations, accounting for room capacity and adequate turnover time between reservations.
• Orders and coordinates catering and meal service for recurring and one-off meetings, including selecting vendors, communicating order deadlines, collecting individual meal selections, and confirming headcounts through RSVP tracking.
• Builds meeting agendas in coordination with leadership and coordinates supporting presentation materials.
• Plans and executes team culture events (e.g., seasonal outings, sporting events), including venue coordination, budget tracking, and attendance/headcount management.
• Tracks employee milestones (birthdays, work anniversaries) and coordinates related recognition and client appreciation gifts.
• Coordinates logistics for on-site vendor visits and external training sessions, including registration and post-event arrangements.
• Executive & Team Support
• Serves as first point of contact for day-to-day operational questions routed to senior leadership, triaging and resolving routine requests directly.
• Maintains master contact directories for property managers, assistant property managers, and lease administrators.
• Distributes templates, instructions, and communications for special projects assigned across the team.
• All other tasks and duties as assigned, with dates to be agreed upon.

Salary: $80000 - $100000 per year