Program Management Leader

Cushman & Wakefield•Raleigh, NC

About The Position

The Program Management Leader works closely with client operational and project management leaders to provide supplemental governance, organization, and operational control for the client’s corporate real estate (CRE) leaders. The role reports directly to the Account Director, with dotted-line accountability to the P&P Platform, and enacts Cushman & Wakefield best practices for project management delivery. The role provides governance and oversight for the CRE Center of Excellence (COE) and global capital planning, and scheduling support for selected critical projects. For the COE, the leader develops and implements a global framework for corporate real estate service delivery, coordinating with functions such as transactions, strategic planning, occupancy, and facilities management. The role oversees controls specialists and technical resources, supports consistent reporting and governance materials, monitors service-provider performance, promotes compliance with delivery expectations, and reports data-quality issues and process gaps to the client. For global capital planning, the leader facilitates an end-to-end process to capture, prioritize, and track portfolio financial requirements; supports scenario analysis, submissions, performance reviews, and re-forecasting; and surfaces exceptions. For selected projects, the role provides independent schedule analysis, risk assessment, and ongoing schedule-management support, including written schedule assessments and aggregated reporting to client leadership. The leader also provides quality control and assurance on project-management service delivery, may participate in project-specific meetings, and may travel to project sites when needed with mutual approval from the client and Account Director. The role manages internal and external relationships and engages supporting resources. Travel may be up to 50%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, Engineering, Construction Management, Business Administration, or a related field.
Five or more years of related experience.
Advanced project-management skills and expertise in the project-management business.
Expertise in client relations, client management, and consulting.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Strong organization and analytical skills.
Proficient working knowledge of accounting and financial reporting, budgeting, scheduling, and processes as they relate to corporate real estate, design, and construction.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, MS Project, Smartsheet, and Power BI.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or certification.
Two or more years of personal management experience.

Responsibilities

Partner with client CRE functions and stakeholders to identify key interactions and develop and implement program-level controls and governance across the project lifecycle.
Leverage processes for transactions, lease administration, occupancy strategy, project management, and facilities management.
Establish a way for the client or the PMO to monitor critical activities throughout the lifecycle of leased locations.
Monitor service-provider performance against agreed KPIs and SLAs; identify trends, abnormalities, and performance gaps, and escalate them to the client.
Ensure performance data is captured consistently across regions.
Oversee controls specialists and technical resources responsible for reports, dashboards, operational playbooks, process maps, and templates.
Govern and administer operational materials and a centralized global template repository to support consistency.
Engage third-party project managers to assess and support compliance with the client’s Project Management Delivery Playbook.
Track and report process noncompliance to the client, including recommendations for remediation.
Conduct data validation and quality checks on information supplied by third-party project managers; report data integrity status and recommend solutions for gaps or inconsistencies.
Develop and facilitate an end-to-end global capital planning process to capture, prioritize, and track portfolio financial requirements.
Facilitate project pipeline intake and prioritization as directed by the client.
Support scenario analysis and data consolidation to keep the capital plan aligned with changing portfolio needs.
Verify the completeness and accuracy of capital plan submissions.
Analyze monthly performance data against the capital plan and highlight variances in scope, schedule, and cost.
Support quarterly reforecasting and commercial reviews with insights for rolling and multi-year capital planning.
Drive identification and escalation of exceptions within the capital plan.
Provide independent schedule analysis, risk assessment, and ongoing schedule-management support for selected key projects.
Analyze project schedules supplied by general contractors, the client’s third-party project team, or other stakeholders.
Coordinate discussions with project teams, general contractors, and other relevant parties to validate schedule assumptions, logic, and inputs.
Prepare written assessments of the validity and accuracy of each project schedule.
Provide client leadership with aggregated reports on trends, risks, and recommended improvements to third-party project-management scheduling strategies.
Identify process-compliance gaps and provide quality assurance on project-management service delivery.
Participate in project-specific meetings as needed to remain informed and ensure local teams follow project-delivery expectations.
Travel to project sites as needed, subject to mutual approval by the client and Account Director.
Manage internal and external program relationships, including engagement of supporting internal resources.