Lease Manager

H&M Group•Houston, TX

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

H&M Group is a global company of strong fashion brands and ventures. Our goal is to prove that there is no compromise between exceptional design, affordable prices, and sustainable solutions. At H&M, we want to liberate fashion for the many, and our customers are at the heart of every decision we make. We are made up of thousands of passionate and talented colleagues united by our shared culture and values. Together, we want to use our power, our scale, and our knowledge to push the fashion industry towards a more inclusive and sustainable future. As a Lease Manager, your main focus will be to manage the store portfolio in your market by securing the best locations and deals, optimizing performance, and ensuring long‑term sustainable growth for all brands. You lead the full leasing lifecycle—from market analysis and deal negotiation to due diligence, business case preparation, and cross‑functional execution—to secure profitable, competitive, and future‑fit stores. This hybrid role reports into our Expansion Manager and is based out of one of our Sales Region Office in Houston, TX.

Requirements

Bachelor's or master's degree in Real Estate, Business, Economics, or a related field
Strong leasing and negotiation skills with a solid understanding of legal frameworks
Strategic and analytical mindset with the ability to balance long-term vision and short-term actions
Strong planning, organization, and prioritization skills with the ability to manage multiple projects
Calm and solutions-oriented approach in complex situations and under pressure
Strong financial understanding and business acumen
Results-driven with strong communication and influencing abilities
Proficient in MS Office and Power BI
Advanced English level, both written and spoken
Minimum 3 years of experience in leasing, controlling, or real estate, preferably within the retail industry
Communicative and socially confident, combining analytical and methodical thinking with a conscientious and results-driven approach.
Resilient, decisive, and action-oriented while fostering collaboration and maintaining professionalism in all interactions

Responsibilities

Enable growth by developing and maintaining an up-to-date roadmap for each brand
Have a great understanding of local customer behavior, and the local competition
Create and follow up on pipeline, ensuring that we continuously work on several alternatives
Enable the optimization of selling, location, and profitability of each deal
Set ambitious targets for each deal, based on its location strength, and use H&M’s negotiation principles to negotiate the best deal, always in a professional way and in line with our Code of Ethics
Analyze relevant data (e.g. market rent, traffic, cannibalization) to ensure your business cases are based on facts
Coordinate in a positive and collaborative way with other functions before finalizing the negotiations
Complete due diligence reports on our landlords, to ensure that we have vetted our business partners
Recommend the full business case in terms of fit with market strategy, location requirements, commercial idea, configuration of space, economic and legal terms, as well as risk assessment
Present ready negotiated business cases for approval by in a professional and convincing way
Work closely with C&F and Legal and help facilitate deals through the legal and construction process
Ensure the store portfolio is commercially competitive in your geographic area and beats local competition in terms of customer experience
Actively seek ways to improve the portfolio, keeping in mind the long-term impact and aligning with latest global leasing and legal guidelines
Negotiate lease actions for existing stores based on a thorough analysis of the performance and conditions of the store (e.g. breaks, terminations, lease term, extensions, rent reductions, capital contribution)
Stay up to date on the financial/strategic performance of our landlords as well as relevant changes to their assets and continuously uphold professional business relations with them
Work in close collaboration with the Expansion Manager in Sales Market to set and implement the strategy in your market
Take the lead on driving store projects until signing and ensure close collaboration of the project team (inside and outside of Expansion) and secure their input in the project time plan and service scope delivery
Work closely with legal, facilities and the operational team to ensure that we act in line with our contractual rights and obligations throughout the lease term