Real Estate Program Manager

Nokia Corporation; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Nokia is seeking a Real Estate Program Manager to lead lab consolidation and relocation across multiple sites. You will align Business, R&D IT, Real Estate, Digital Office, Engineering, and local delivery teams to ensure ownership and timely decisions.

This role emphasizes governance, risk management, and executive reporting, with technical design remaining with specialists. You will drive integrated plans, advance milestones, and coordinate with stakeholders to maintain operational continuity.

Qualifications

• Experience managing complex programs in corporate real estate, construction, facilities, technology, engineering, or laboratory environments.
• Proven ability coordinating multi-site programs with interdependent schedules, workstreams, stakeholders, risks, and executive decision points.
• Strong knowledge of governance, integrated planning, schedule management, risk management, change management, and executive reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to establish clear ownership, drive action, and elevate issues constructively.
• Experience working across business, real estate, IT, engineering, infrastructure, and local delivery teams.
• Strong organizational, communication, stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to balance strategic program view with tracking detailed dependencies and delivery commitments.
• Ability to communicate and present credibly to senior executives and governance forums.
• Familiarity with lease events, site exits, reinstatement obligations, relocations, and lab transitions.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of lab consolidation and relocation program strategy.
• Establish program governance, scope, workstreams, named owners, decision points, reporting requirements, and handover processes.
• Maintain an integrated program view of site exits, lease dates, and transitions.
• Coordinate with diverse teams to define program requirements, priorities, and constraints.
• Lead program-level coordination across multiple projects with clear plans and milestones.
• Drive follow-up across workstreams and escalate delays or incomplete inputs.
• Coordinate relocation planning with lab optimization and cloudification activities.
• Route technical judgments to relevant specialists and track decisions to closure.
• Own the program risk-management workflow and escalation paths.
• Present program status, risks, dependencies, and decisions to senior stakeholders.

Skills

Program management

Stakeholder management

Risk management

Executive reporting

Cross-functional coordination

Change management

Job description

The Real Estate Program Manager will lead program-level coordination of Nokia's lab consolidation and relocation initiatives. The role will bring together Business, R&D IT, Real Estate, Digital Office, Engineering, and local delivery teams to establish clear ownership, integrated plans, and timely decisions across a complex, multi-site portfolio. The position requires strong program governance, communication, risk management, and executive escalation capabilities. It is focused on coordination and delivery leadership, while technical design and infrastructure decisions remain with the appropriate subject-matter specialists.

Program Planning & Strategy

• Lead the development of the lab consolidation and relocation program strategy, ensuring alignment with corporate real estate objectives, business priorities, lab optimization initiatives, and cloudification workstreams.
• Establish program governance, scope, workstreams, named owners, decision points, reporting requirements, and a formal handover process before execution begins.
• Maintain an integrated program view of site exits, lease and reinstatement dates, lab transitions, move sequencing, dependencies, risks, and required executive decisions.
• Coordinate with Business, R&D IT, Real Estate, Digital Office, Engineering, and local delivery teams to define program requirements, priorities, and implementation constraints.

Program Execution & Management

• Lead program-level coordination across multiple lab consolidation, relocation, and site-transition projects, ensuring each workstream has a clear plan, accountable owner, and agreed delivery milestones.
• Drive follow-up across workstreams, challenge delays or incomplete inputs, and escal...
• Coordinate relocation planning with lab optimization and cloudification activities to support operational continuity and efficient sequencing.
• Use regional delivery resources and local project teams as required to support execution while maintaining overall program control and consistency.
• Route technical judgments concerning lab design, IT, engineering, infrastructure, security, and workplace requirements to the relevant specialists and track decisions through closure.

Risk & Dependency Management

• Own the program risk-management workflow, including risk identification, mitigation coordination, escalation, and closure tracking.
• Monitor cross-project dependencies affecting business units, leasing, reinstatement, infrastructure, lab readiness, and transition timing.
• Identify schedule, operational, cost, and continuity risks early and coordinate corrective actions with the responsible workstream owners.
• Maintain transparent escalation paths and ensure material risks and decisions are presented to the appropriate governance forums.

Stakeholder Management & Governance

• Serve as the central program coordination point across internal stakeholders, workstream leads, regional delivery teams, and senior business executives.
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and ensure responsibilities, decisions, assumptions, and handoffs are clearly documented and understood.
• Maintain a disciplined governance cadence, including working sessions, decision forums, executive reviews, and action follow-up.
• Present program status, risks, dependencies, and decision requirements credibly and concisely to senior stakeholders.

Reporting & Documentation

• Provide concise program plans, executive status reports, risk assessments, meeting records, decision logs, and action trackers.
• Maintain comprehensive program documentation, including scope, governance, integrated schedules, workstream plans, transition milestones, risks, dependencies, and handover records.
• Ensure program information is current, consistent, and suitable for executive decision-making.
• Capture lessons learned and delivery insights to improve future lab consolidation and relocation initiatives.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Experience managing complex programs or projects in a corporate real estate, construction, facilities, technology, engineering, or laboratory environment.
• Proven background coordinating multi-site programs with interdependent schedules, workstreams, stakeholders, risks, and executive decision points.
• Strong knowledge of program and project governance, integrated planning, schedule management, risk management, change management, and executive reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to establish clear ownership, drive action follow-up, challenge incomplete inputs, and elevate issues constructively.
• Experience working across business, real estate, IT, engineering, infrastructure, and local delivery organizations.
• Strong organizational, communication, stakeholder-management, facilitation, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to maintain a strategic program-level view while tracking detailed dependencies and delivery commitments.
• Ability to communicate and present credibly to senior business executives and governance forums.
• Working familiarity with corporate real estate, lease events, site exits, reinstatement obligations, relocations, and technically demanding workplace or lab transitions.
• Familiarity with project and program management tools used for integrated schedules, risk registers, action tracking, and status reporting.

Nice to Have

• Experience coordinating laboratory consolidation, relocation, optimization, or cloudification programs.
• Experience managing transitions involving specialized lab infrastructure, critical IT dependencies, engineering systems, and business-continuity requirements.
• PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, or an equivalent project or program management certification.
• Real estate or facilities management credentials, such as CoreNet MCR or IFMA CFM, or relevant engineering, construction, or technology qualifications.
• Experience working in a global, matrixed organization with regional and local delivery teams.

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If you're interested in this role but don't meet every listed requirement, we still encourage you to apply. Unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences enrich our teams, and you may be just the right candidate for this or another opportunity.

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