Vice President, Client Services & Strategy

Cushman & Wakefield • Chicago, IL

13d

About The Position

The Vice President, Client Services & Strategy serves as the strategic authority responsible for the contractual frameworks, commercial structures, and governance mechanisms that shape a large-scale integrated services portfolio. The position applies deep mastery of contracts, commercial terms, operating structures, and performance mechanisms to ensure that delivery remains aligned with contractual intent and that the account is structured for long term stability, flexibility, and value creation. In addition to providing strategic oversight, the role leads commercial operations within the portfolio, ensuring consistent execution of contractual mechanisms, disciplined governance, and alignment between operational programs and the commercial structure. Through this combined operational and strategic responsibility, the role identifies opportunities to strengthen positioning, activate contractual provisions, and guide structural decisions that improve the long term effectiveness and resilience of the account.

Requirements

• The successful candidate will have proven experience in developing collaborative relationships across all levels of the organization.
• This leader must have the passion, energy, and intellectual curiosity necessary for a fast-paced, growth-driven environment, and must be result-driven and able to manage projects to get desired outcomes.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Engineering, or related field required; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in Facilities Management, Integrated FM, or complex enterprise service delivery.
• Demonstrated expertise in large scale contract governance, pricing strategy, and commercial optimization.
• Advanced financial acumen including margin modeling, forecasting, cost structure analysis, and risk mitigation.
• Proven experience negotiating and structuring high value commercial agreements.
• Experience leading cross functional teams across operations, finance, and strategy.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment.
• Demonstrated ability to translate operational data into enterprise level strategy.
• Deep understanding of performance governance, KPI structures, and contractual compliance.
• Ability to operate in a complex, multi business unit environment with disciplined analytical rigor.
• Experience leveraging data, reporting systems, and performance metrics to generate insights that inform negotiations, pricing decisions, and risk positioning.
• Proven mastery in managing evolving contractual frameworks, sequencing commercial levers, and governing diverse cost structures to shape margin performance, risk allocation, and operational flexibility.
• Strong technical acumen preferred.

Responsibilities

• Direct a defined portion of operations as a business leader to integrate commercial strategy with execution, lead commercial and contractual governance for a strategic hard services portfolio.
• Develop mastery of all contracts, amendments, pricing structures, and performance mechanisms for all contract types for a single strategic client.
• Structure and negotiate contract modifications, commercial adjustments, and scope changes.
• Activate contractual levers to improve margin, mitigate risk, and enhance operational flexibility.
• Align operational execution with contractual obligations and financial objectives.
• Support improvement of portfolio margin, cost exposure, and risk positioning.
• Partner with Operations and Finance on forecasting, pricing strategy, and long-term optimization.
• Ensure coordinated strategy across various business units and service lines.
• Leverage data systems to inform negotiations, pricing decisions, and performance positioning.
• Provide executive level strategic recommendations regarding account health and structure.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and represent the organization in high level commercial discussions.
• Apply analytical capability with the ability to interpret complex financial, operational, and contractual data sets and convert them into strategic insight.
• Broad working knowledge of federal, state, and local labor, safety, and regulatory laws; financial governance concepts including SOX compliance, internal controls, tax exposure, and commercial insurance program mechanics, and their impact on contractual structure and service delivery risk.
• Role requires flexibility to meet business demands, including extended hours, weekends, and critical deadlines that may require sustained executive engagement.
• Maintain deep integration across all aspects of the account to ensure strategy, contracts, and commercial decisions are informed by direct understanding of operational and financial realities, organizational dynamics, labor and economics, and performance drivers.

Benefits

• Cushman & Wakefield also provides eligible employees with an opportunity to enroll in a variety of benefit programs, generally including health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life, and disability insurance programs, and paid and unpaid time away from work.
• In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, Cushman and Wakefield provide eligible employees with competitive pay, which may vary depending on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, total hours worked, job type, business line, and applicability of collective bargaining agreements.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive