Director - Healthcare Facility Planner, Healthcare Strategic Advisory

Ankura•New York, SC

1d•$85,000 - $200,000•Remote

About The Position

Ankura’s Healthcare Strategic Advisory team advises leading health systems on critical capital and real estate investments, helping clients mitigate risk and execute projects from planning and design through financing and activation. The Healthcare Architectural Planner plans, programs, and develops healthcare environments that support clinical excellence, operational efficiency, patient-centered care, and strategic growth. The role connects healthcare operations, strategic planning, facility investments, and capital project implementation. The planner collaborates with health system leadership, internal project teams, and consultants to translate organizational objectives into effective, adaptable facilities. The work emphasizes healthcare planning and programming rather than technical building design. This remote position can be based flexibly within the United States. The role includes analyzing facility and operational data, developing planning concepts and conceptual budgets, supporting capital investment decisions, and presenting findings to healthcare executives, clinical leaders, and project stakeholders. It also requires applying healthcare planning guidelines, regulatory knowledge, evidence-based design principles, and current industry practices.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, Healthcare Planning, Architectural Engineering, or a related field.
5–8 years of experience in healthcare architecture, medical planning, healthcare facility planning, or healthcare facility development.
Experience supporting healthcare master planning, facility programming, renovations, expansions, and capital planning initiatives.
Experience developing conceptual project budgets and planning-level cost estimates for healthcare facility projects.
Demonstrated ability to assist in facilitating executive, physician, and operational stakeholder workshops.
Strong understanding of hospitals, ambulatory care, and healthcare operational workflows.
Proficiency with AutoCAD, Revit, Bluebeam, and Microsoft Office Suite.
Strong analytical, communication, presentation, and facilitation skills.
Ability to manage multiple projects and collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams.
Authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Licensed Architect (RA) or actively pursuing architectural licensure.
Experience with acute care hospitals, academic medical centers, ambulatory facilities, behavioral health facilities, and/or large integrated health systems.
Knowledge of healthcare forecasting, capacity planning, facility benchmarking, and capital investment analysis.
Experience participating in Strategic Facility Master Planning (SFMP) engagements.
Experience evaluating service-line growth scenarios and their facility implications.

Responsibilities

Lead and support strategic facilities master planning through healthcare facility planning and programming.
Conduct space-needs assessments, utilization analyses, occupancy studies, and departmental evaluations to determine current and future facility requirements.
Develop functional programs and space-allocation recommendations aligned with strategic, operational, and clinical objectives.
Evaluate patient flow, staff workflows, operational processes, and departmental adjacencies.
Prepare planning concepts, adjacency diagrams, stacking plans, and test-fit studies for healthcare facilities.
Facilitate stakeholder workshops, user-group meetings, and planning sessions to establish project requirements and priorities.
Analyze existing facility conditions and identify opportunities for optimization, expansion, renovation, consolidation, modernization, or redevelopment.
Assess the physical-space implications of strategic growth scenarios, service-line initiatives, and operational changes.
Evaluate facility deficiencies, capacity constraints, and space utilization for long-term planning.
Develop conceptual project budgets and order-of-magnitude cost estimates for renovations, expansions, new construction, and capital improvements.
Collaborate with architects, engineers, contractors, and cost consultants to validate assumptions and compare planning alternatives by cost.
Support capital planning and investment decisions by assessing the financial implications of facility recommendations and implementation strategies.
Support business cases for capital investments, including financial, operational, and strategic analyses.
Participate in capital prioritization and portfolio planning across client assets, and help prioritize investments based on operational needs, strategic objectives, facility conditions, and financial constraints.
Support strategic facility planning from concept development through business-case evaluation and project initiation.
Collaborate with project teams throughout planning, design, and construction.
Review design solutions for alignment with clinical workflows, operational objectives, strategic goals, and industry best practices.
Provide guidance on healthcare design standards, patient experience, and operational efficiency.
Support project managers with scope development, design reviews, budget validation, and stakeholder coordination.
Participate in design charrettes, planning meetings, and executive presentations.
Collect, analyze, and interpret facility, operational, utilization, and market data to support planning recommendations.
Translate operational and clinical planning assumptions into facility and space requirements.
Support scenario modeling and sensitivity analyses for strategic facility investment decisions.
Develop planning reports, executive presentations, dashboards, and supporting documentation.
Create facility assessment scorecards, benchmark comparisons, and planning models to evaluate performance and future needs.
Present findings and recommendations to healthcare executives, clinical leaders, and project stakeholders.
Maintain knowledge of healthcare planning guidelines, FGI requirements, accreditation considerations, and industry best practices.
Apply evidence-based design principles, patient safety considerations, and operational planning strategies to recommendations.
Stay informed about emerging healthcare delivery models, facility trends, and regulatory requirements affecting facility planning and design.
Understand facility implications of ambulatory growth, virtual care, care-at-home models, and evolving healthcare delivery strategies.