Job Summary

This role could be based in Hong Kong or Singapore. When you start the application process you will be presented with a drop down menu showing all countries, please ensure that you select a country where the role is based 

Corporate Real Estate & Services (CRES) is part of our GCOO function. With an annual budget of circa USD0.8bn, the CRES function manages a portfolio of nearly 1,200 buildings worldwide, spanning headquarter locations, branches, and offices across over 50 unique markets. CRES is a globally managed function, integrating individual country CRES teams, together with specialist groups covering Workplace, Asset Management, Technology, Data & Analytics and Sustainability.

The CRES function focuses on supporting the needs of the Group’s businesses, through managing a diverse portfolio and delivering superior services every day for the Group’s colleagues, clients and communities. Services provided by the function are broad in nature reflecting the key role that CRES plays across all Group businesses in its markets – spanning areas such as security, health and safety and wellness through to workplace experience and effectiveness, resiliency of data centres and delivery of the Group’s sustainability commitments. 

Within CRES, the Office Strategy Director will work as a key member of the Asset Management team which ensures that our global portfolio of assets, products and services continues to meet the needs of our business to deliver on our strategy. The team is accountable for driving strategic planning to enable business growth and transformation across our asset classes, maximising the value of our real estate portfolio and remaining agile and flexible to deliver on the evolving needs of the organisation.

The Office Strategy Director orchestrates efforts from a cohort of professionals to achieve the desired objectives, highlighting opportunities and risks, and agreeing priorities to formulate and maintain a portfolio roadmap. Working across our matrix structure, and leveraging our supply partner relationships, the Strategy Director maintains a clear course of action, laying groundwork through early and often communication across the organisation, and holds all parties to account on key deliverables to assure the success of the portfolio planning initiatives. This role will also produce concise executive narratives that enable timely and informed decision-making.

The successful candidate combines expert communications and dynamic learning to formulate a deep understanding of our organisation, relevant market factors and priority initiatives. This requires advanced financial acumen and a highly strategic lens, whilst requiring a strong foundation in programme management skills and an action-orientated, highly organised approach. 

Key Responsibilities

Strategy
•    Reporting to the Head of Office Portfolio Strategy, the role holder plays an integral role in delivering the office vision and strategy to ensure it is well understood by our partners who help delivery every day for our colleagues and clients as well as aligning priorities across a matrix organisation in country, region and group level.
•    Advises and supports efforts across the CRES function in developing and driving the Bank’s office real estate portfolio strategy to capture optimisation and support targeted growth opportunities, enabling delivery of sustainably higher returns.
•    Responsible for implementing and maintaining regular cadence and operations (e.g. processes and playbooks) to produce a forward-looking portfolio strategy (from ‘plan on a page’ to full metroplans), synthesizing clear business and function demand across a multi-year horizon, with a clear roadmap covering short- and long-term actions, in partnership with our retail strategy function.
•    Partners with colleagues within CRES and the Asset Management function, our key partners, as well as cross-functional SMEs; aligning organisational capacity to anticipate and meet demand in driving and executing our Global Portfolio Strategy from vision to business case stage.
•    Coordinates and drives efforts across our network of CRES Heads and other relationship managers to integrate mid to longer-term space demands from the businesses and functions (aligned to their strategic objectives, corporate plan targets and plans) into a cohesive portfolio strategy and roadmap.
•    Ensures that the overall property portfolio strategy, and components such as individual strategies and plans are in alignment to overall Group objectives, balancing business demand with a need to create structural expense savings and support improved efficiencies.

•    Coordinates clear prioritisation and agreed planning outcomes on a regular basis across the function, engaging various teams with matrix reporting structures to agree and action on such priorities.
•    Produces updates and agendas for our governance forums at a regional programme steering committee and portfolio review level, to ensure the documentation of agreed priorities, progress and key risks and opportunities.
•    Leads formal reviews of strategy or planning outputs across the function to maintain alignment of all key efforts with portfolio strategy, leveraging the expertise of the function and our supply partners to ensure risks, opportunities are identified and plans are compliant with our standards and principles.

Business
•    Optimise the Bank’s real estate portfolio to provide best-in-class colleague and client experience, keeping focused on cost to support targeted re-investment, and to continue to grow the priority business areas.
•    Partner with colleagues within the function to agree a stakeholder engagement plan, which ensures that the Portfolio Strategy continues to anticipate and adapt to evolving client needs, efficiently and effectively.
•    Support workforce and space planning at a business and organisational level, so that this is predictive, forward-looking and aligned to enterprise goals, coordinating efforts around this as part of the broader metro area strategies and portfolio roadmap.
•    Facilitate cross-functional collaboration by aligning stakeholders demand across different departments/teams, breaking siloes, de-conflicting and driving decisions. 
•    Lead transformation initiatives within the portfolio, ensuring that the strategy remains responsive to internal and external change (org restructuring/business model shifts/technology advancements impacting or advancing business strategy and delivery).

•    Lead formal reviews of strategy or planning outputs across the function to maintain alignment of all key efforts with business objectives and known risks and opportunities.

Processes
•    Orchestrates our real estate portfolio strategy, in deep partnership other SMEs; focusing on speed to value, enabling the Group to realise value from the Portfolio strategy sooner, with data-led and strong execution discipline. 
•    Oversees various portfolio strategy related processes including but not limited to project, design, experience, technology, finance, data & insights, risk management are interlinked and connected to provide an end-to-end delivery model to ensure procedure, and standards are effectively implemented across CRES.
•    Provides formal strategy reviews to ensure that the efforts of the various teams within CRES are in service of portfolio strategy and the group’s wider objectives. Challenge submissions against existing standards, principles and market best practice identifying risks and opportunities and ensuring compliant and best in class planning is adhered to across the function.
•    Drive and deliver simplification or at times improve the ways of working whenever possible to improve output collectively with key CRES and cross functional stakeholders. 
•    Lead and ensure monthly / quarterly reports & dashboards & insights are produced correctly and prepared with global consistency to support Line Manager to present to various stakeholders and to review materials to support discussions and decision making at respective forums. 
•    Support line manager on value-driven prioritisation of projects and investments based on potential value to the business, impact to end-clients, contribution to the Corporate Plan and business transformation initiatives.
•    Support line manager to develop and implement of a range of metrics, to assess portfolio strategy performance and including consideration of operational efficiencies.

People & Talent
•    Inspire and motivate colleagues in the team and wider Property Function, ensuring the delivery of the collective agenda.
•    Set an example and build the appropriate culture and values. Set appropriate tone and expectations from their team and work in collaboration with risk and control partners.
•    Influence with peer and partner teams to drive required outcomes, including setting and prioritising execution activity in internal Property and Supply Partner teams 
•    Promote risk awareness and compliance culture. Lead through example and build the appropriate Conduct culture and values.
•    Strengthen the performance culture and reinforcement of accountabilities.
•    Feed into the review of team structure and capacity plans.
•    Provide strategic thought leadership, coaching, recognition and motivation through positive reinforcements and frequent feedback sessions.

Risk Management
•    Supports the risk management of the strategy delivery end-to-end (close partnership to achieve effective governance and risk management for delivery).
•    Improve risk mitigation capability, to understand their needs and challenges, enabling earlier anticipation of execution risk or scope risk.
•    Identify and report key risks and ensure where outside of risk appetite, that these are escalated to the appropriate body for risk acceptance.

Governance
•    Adhere to the Bank and CRES’ governance frameworks including quarterly performance review.
•    Responsible to ensure Supply Partner governance standards are met and performance of supply partners is meeting agreed service level standards in view of office strategy and planning.

Regulatory & Business Conduct
•    Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct. 
•    Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct.
•    Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

Key stakeholders
•    Develop strong partnerships and proactive discovery of upcoming projects that impact the Country spend, while creating value by influencing stakeholders to make decisions when considering the wider business. 
•    Key stakeholder interactions including business and functional senior leaders.

Skills and Experience

• Influencing Through Expertise
• Effective Communications
• Business Intelligence and Analytics
• Budget Management
• Risk Management
• Supply Partner Management
• Design and Project Management
• Lease and Asset Management
• Facilities Management

Qualifications

Education:

•    Preferably a bachelor’s degree in Real Estate, Finance, engineering or other business-related discipline preferred. 

Training:

•    Banking, finance or project/programme professional position 8+ years ideally in Real Estate or Corporate Real Estate related fields with strong background on planning, design and delivery.
•    Previous experience leading planning and delivery of large scale office transformation programmes in a matrix organisation.
•    Essential skills include stakeholder influence, client management, change management, financial acumen, real estate development knowledge, and strong communication, analytical, and purpose driven leadership abilities. 
•    Bank training i.e. mandatory and developmental – role specific, and regulatory/compliance bank wide and role specific.

Membership:

•    Active membership or chartership with an industry recognised professional association is preferred

Languages:

•    English (Must); other languages is a plus

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.