Senior Manager, Strategic Consulting

Cushman & Wakefield•San Diego, CA

1d•$140,250 - $165,000

About The Position

The Strategic Consulting Senior Manager leads complex consulting engagements from framing through executive delivery, setting strategy, delivery approach, and quality standards to ensure analytically rigorous, actionable outcomes aligned to client objectives. As a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, the role guides decision‑making, manages ambiguity, and owns engagement governance, staffing, risk, and cross‑functional coordination. Senior Managers also strengthen the consulting practice by developing talent, advancing methods and standards, and contributing to business development and client growth. Senior Managers apply their expertise and experience to begin specializing in one of three practice areas: Workplace Strategy: Develops workplace strategies aligning real estate, people, and business objectives, defining future‑state models and implementation roadmaps. Transformation Strategy: Advises clients through complex real estate transformations, guiding organizational change and adoption of new ways of working. Portfolio & Location Strategy: Leads portfolio and location strategy engagements, using scenario planning to inform long‑term real estate decisions and optimize risk, cost, and footprint.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional certification required
7-10 years of relevant experience
Advanced expertise in consulting delivery and processes, including critically framing complex problems and trade‑offs, testing competing hypotheses, applying governance and risk management standards, and producing high‑quality, executive‑ready recommendations
Advanced commercial real estate and business acumen, including pricing models, margin levers, utilization mix, and portfolio health indicators, and how these shape engagement‑level and portfolio‑level trade‑offs
Advanced understanding of how Workplace & Transformation and Portfolio & Location capabilities integrate to deliver cohesive, enterprise‑level client solutions
Advanced analytical capability, including research design, assumption testing, and analytical methods, as well as guiding analyses and translating complex, multi‑source inputs into defensible, executive‑ready narratives using AI, analytical, and presentation tools
Advanced experience leading end‑to‑end engagements, including managing scope, governance, scheduling, staffing, and quality, while facilitating executive and cross‑functional alignment, guiding trade‑offs, and driving decision‑making without formal authority
Demonstrated people leadership through delegation, coaching, feedback, and quality oversight to support individual performance, team effectiveness, and bench development
Intermediate business development capability, including translating client needs and value propositions into structured solution narratives, proposals, storyboards, and workplans
Applied experience developing and refining methods, templates, tools, and QA standards to improve delivery consistency, scalability, and speed
Advanced change planning capability, including designing and executing integrated engagement, communication, training, and reinforcement plans to support adoption of new ways of working

Responsibilities

Conduct analyses that address ambiguous or evolving problem statements, drawing on prior experience to shape approach.
Translate incomplete or conflicting information into structured insights and strategic options.
Test scenarios and conclusions to strengthen confidence in analytical findings.
Lead complex, multi-workstream consulting engagements from framing through executive delivery; set the engagement strategy, workplan architecture, governance rhythm, and quality standards.
Direct end-to-end engagement execution by overseeing integrated workstreams, key milestones, and dependencies; ensure delivery remains on time, on scope, and client-ready.
Define analytical and storytelling structure for major deliverables; translate complex inputs into decision-ready outputs that clarify tradeoffs, implications, and actions.
Provide senior-level direction and escalation support to resolve delivery challenges and maintain momentum across workstreams.
Serve as a primary advisor to senior client stakeholders; guide ambiguity, shape decision processes, and influence alignment toward clear, actionable outcomes.
Lead executive presentations and facilitate stakeholder working sessions and workshops to drive decisions, alignment, and ownership.
Coordinate cross functional internal and external partners to integrate inputs into a single cohesive client narrative and recommendation set.
Coach and develop Managers, Senior Associates, and Associates through structured delegation, mentorship, and performance feedback; raise analytic rigor and executive storytelling across the team.
Provide leadership oversight across teams to ensure consistent application of Cushman & Wakefield consulting practices and standards; support onboarding and capability building as needed.
Act as a role model for inclusive leadership, collaboration, and professional excellence.
Shape proposals, solution designs, and pursuit strategies by defining the client problem framing, approach and methodology, workplans, and deliverable storyboard.
Support account growth by identifying subsequent opportunities during delivery and connecting client needs to adjacent partners and service lines.
Proactively identify, escalate, and resolve risks and issues that threaten scope, timeline, or quality; implement course corrections across workstreams and stakeholders.
Set, enforce, and model quality control standards for logic, accuracy, structure, and client readiness; establish review rhythms that reduce rework and increase consistency across deliverables.
Own post engagement practice housekeeping, including archiving final work products and developing proposal ready case studies and testimonials.
Guide engagement resourcing, sequencing, and delivery decisions to balance quality, risk, and client expectations across workstreams.
Define and refine repeatable methodologies, templates, and delivery playbooks that improve consistency, scalability, and quality across engagements.
Contribute to practice thought leadership through development of points of view, insights, and internal knowledge assets that strengthen market credibility and equips teams to deliver consistently.
Lead portfolio and location strategy engagements by directing scenario modeling and multi-factor evaluations across cost, labor and market dynamics, risk, constraints, and growth considerations to surface clear tradeoffs and recommendations.
Build executive-ready business cases and decision pathways by defining evaluation criteria, governance checkpoints, and final option sets—ensuring recommendations are defensible, comparable, and ready for executive action.
Lead enterprise workplace strategy engagements by defining the diagnostic approach, prioritizing hypotheses, and integrating multi-source data (utilization, experience, business needs) and stakeholder inputs into a cohesive future-state workplace strategy.
Translate findings into executive decisions by shaping the narrative, defining the option set, and outlining an implementation roadmap (what changes, why, sequence, and ownership), that is actionable and implementation-ready.
Design and lead multi-phase change programs by defining the transformation strategy, governance model, and execution roadmap across operating model changes, stakeholder engagement, communications, enablement, and adoption mechanisms.
Drive alignment and sustained outcomes by translating business objectives into a practical transformation plans, monitoring execution, and adjusting interventions to embed new ways of working.