Global Real Estate – Capital Projects Manager

BCG is committed to hiring and developing top talent.  We are experiencing high levels of growth and are therefore seeking an experienced Capital Projects Manager to join our expanding Global Real Estate team. 

About the Team
Global Real Estate (GRE) is BCG's in-house Corporate Real Estate function which supports the organization and our offices with all operational and strategic real estate aspects around BCG's occupied office portfolio.  We have a large global footprint with over 86 offices in 42 countries.  Our small but diverse team of 9 employees is highly collaborative, strategic, and solutions-oriented.   Whilst we are located in various regions (Dusseldorf, Madrid, London, DC and Boston) we still work very closely with each other.   We learn from, and challenge each other daily.  We act as internal Real Estate Consultants to our internal clients to assist in establishing proactive strategies with our offices worldwide. 

POSITION SUMMARY:

GRE is seeking a Capital Projects Manager to partner with our offices to provide expertise in the design and delivery of real estate projects.  BCG has a portfolio of more than 3.4m sqft in 6 of the 7 continents, with significant real estate activity as we grow and migrate toward a new workplace strategy.  Within our North and South America regions we will see a build out pipeline of approximately 20 projects ranging from full fit out, to pocket construction and expansion activity on a yearly basis. 

The adaptation of our portfolio calls for an ability to coordinate and support the design and delivery of specific projects, working with our local leadership to envision a new approach to workplace occupancy and workplace design with a primary goal of building additional flexibility to support our workforce.  The objectives of our GRE function are to create the right balance between efficiency and effectiveness; driving down our occupancy costs but delivering suitable workplace solution to support our talent and mobile workforce.

The GRE function acts as a strategic advisor and tactical support network to our local office teams who are responsible for the local delivery of projects.  The specific role played will depend upon the local resource base and the level of maturity of the real estate in that location.  BCG has elected to retain a small GRE global function, relying on vendor relationships for leverage and expertise.

BASIC JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

This role will be responsible for the coordination and delivery of a range of workplace delivery projects around North America and the world, teaming with other members of GRE and our office senior management in an effort to merge the interests into a single solution design culminating in a cost effective, dynamic and well executed project. 

The candidate will act as a thought partner and subject matter expert to define and implement continuous improvement across related real estate disciplines.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Advising the GRE portfolio managers and the local teams regarding building feasibility analysis, test fits, local project delivery norms and capital requirement estimates
• Providing expertise when building the capital program for future years
• Monitoring capital spend across projects, aligning with internal and external benchmarks to propose changes to BCG standards
• Continuously improving the BCG workplace delivery toolset such that local teams and vendors understand the BCG approach to workplace design
• Analyzing past projects to develop and share knowledge regarding our build out cost, vendor effectiveness, key metrics, forecast workload etc
• Developing vendor relationships to bring expertise to our team, deliver leverage to the function and the local operating teams, while holding our vendors to a high standard at market competitive pricing.

Workplace design and delivery

• Provide early input to the development of business cases for new workplace solutions
• Provide internal and external benchmark data to deliver budget estimates early in the development cycle
• Influence local senior leadership to incorporate the workplace strategy and develop designs with the local team to deliver workplace designs that meet the metrics defined by GRE workplace strategy
• Direct the completion of budget approval and assist in preparation of business cases for capital build outs
• Monitor the progress of design to ensure that budget, quality and timeline expectations are met
• Monitor the progress of construction activity with the local project manager, receiving regular reports on progress and troubleshooting if necessary
• Maintain framework and other pricing agreements with strategic vendors; supporting the local teams in attaining these rates and services
• Steer and guide the delivery process to bring the best practices from other projects to each new workplace delivery project
• Complete  key performance indicators for our strategic vendors relating to completed projects
• Ensure accurate information related to BCG's workplace portfolio is maintained through the capturing of project related information at handover e.g. seat count, plan layouts, meeting room mix etc

BASIC JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• A minimum of a Bachelors degree (or equivalent);  Master's degree preferred in one of the following fields: Architecture, Interior design, Project Management or related Engineering field
• 7-10 years of relevant work experience in the corporate commercial sector
• International experience of working with professional services firm preferred
• Advanced skills in creating MS PowerPoint presentations and MS Excel spreadsheets
• Experience preparing multi-work stream status reports and managing project issues/risks, and ability to communicate complex technical issues effectively to non-technical users

KEY COMPETENCIES:

Technical and functional expertise

• Strong interior design and architectural skills
• Management of third party vendors to execute the design and project delivery
• Experience with workplace strategy solutions
• Proven experience and demonstrated excellence in corporate interior design, workplace strategy initiative, projects management and possess strong influencing skills
• Ability to apply strong business skills and judgment to complex and diverse situations
• Problem solving, analytical skills and decision making
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills that allow the understanding of the business problem driving the solution
• Appropriately seeks advice and counsel for decisions including key stakeholders

Communication, interpersonal and teaming skills

• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal; ability to interact with all staff levels within the organization
• Strong presentation and facilitation skills with small and large groups
• Ability to team effectively and partner across multiple functions with all levels of employees
• Ability to work well independently as well as part of a team
• Ability to anticipates and resolve conflicting differences by seeking collaborative approaches and by pursuing agreeable solutions

Leadership, impact and change

• Ability to successfully influence across an organization effectively leading change, originating ideas and championing and gaining commitment
• Ability to manage strategy development, work priorities and processes to ensure clear client focus and input
• Recognized for high quality and high impact result for self and team within organizations strategic direction
• Consistently challenges traditional way of doing things in a respectful and collaborative manner – moves beyond the obvious

Work management, organization and planning

• Strong project management and organization skills – translating large, complex issues/objectives into effective work plans
• Demonstrate solid judgment about priorities and timing
• Ability to focus on the most critical issues that have the highest impact on the organization and business needs
• Track record of negotiating appropriate and cost-conscious priorities, resources, time and budget
• Ability to juggle multiple initiatives and short and long term priorities
• Work effectively with significant ambiguity and fluctuating priorities and constraints

Work environment:

• Must be able to perform successfully in a fast-paced, intellectually intense, service-oriented environment and to interpret rules and guidelines flexibly to enhance the business and in keeping with BCG’s values and culture.
• Experience working successfully within a complex matrix structured organization is essential.
• It is necessary to have the ability to understand and manage complex reporting relationships and incorporate multiple cultures.