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Senior Portfolio Manager, Global Estates (GE)

Employer
British Council
Location
London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
14 Mar 2021

The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. 
 
We work in two ways – directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK. 
 
These connections lead to an understanding of each other's strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. This builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.
 

Context

This role is a member of the GE Senior Leadership team, helping the Director of Global Estate to provide specialist commercial real estate management of property transactions across the global estate.  The role works across the specialist teams within the Global Estates Function ( Strategy & Planning, Standards & Performance , Capital Projects and Facility management (FM).

Across the global estate there is a continuous need to strategically review the British Council’s occupancy and associated lease arrangements to ensure that modern working environments are provided and costs are minimised. The sale of owned assets is also part of the remit.

The role of the Global Estates function is to ensure that the British Council estate properly projects the British Council brand and values, works hard for the business and provides a modern, welcoming and functional place in which to work and do business. 

Role Purpose:

As the Senior Portfolio Manager, Global Estates (GE) you will lead on the development and implementation of all property transactions relating to the British Council Global Portfolio of properties.   This includes undertaking property acquisition, sales and/or leaseback, leading negotiations (or overseas negotiation where appropriate) with landlords regarding leases at inception or renewal and to manage the ongoing relationship with landlords and managing agents throughout the lease.

The role will also contribute to the development and implementation of real estate strategies for all global properties through identifying and realizing commercial opportunities to drive forward on value and improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of the global estate. You will oversee estate projects as work priorities and resources require, particularly those leading from a property transaction. These estates projects may include supporting the business during the bid process for new business, as well as the implementation of transaction led multi-site initiatives.  You  will strategically partner the business, leading and aligning GE property transactions with the business strategy through building and leveraging the senior leadership network within British Council, the wider Government departments and our professional services partner.

Main opportunities and Challenges for this role:

You will have 3 direct reports and an indirect influence (through leading and overseeing property transactions) on our professional service partners and colleagues within the Global Estate team.

This is a challenging role that requires commercial astuteness, excellent negotiation skills, tenacity and the ability to navigate through complexity to ensure that tangible outcomes are capable of being defined and delivered.

Most of the property transactions occur overseas and are supported or undertaken by our global professional services partner, so the challenge is to achieve commercial results through others, remotely, whilst keeping internal British Council clients/stakeholders bought in to the changes. Some transactions need to be negotiated directly, supported by market information provided by GE’s partner.

There is a huge opportunity to deliver a more fit for purpose and affordable future estate for the British Council.  The British Council operates within a complex mix of cultural activities, grant-funded programmes and commercial business operations.  Underpinning all of this is the need for our estate to be functional, efficient and have high impact.  Our Global Estate strategy and Portfolio management plans need to take account of these requirements, while reflecting the unique contextual issues and constraints operating in each geographical region and country, whether these are legal, commercial, climatic or cultural. 

An increasing requirement for this role will be the strategic business partnering work with internal stakeholders and clients, advising them of estate implications/solutions relating to business development/contract strategies/bid work and supporting them with contract mobilisation plans.

Key skills and experience that we are looking for you to bring includes:

  • Educated to graduate degree level or with equivalent professional experience in a property-related discipline, supported by full membership of and accreditation with a relevant professional property institute (e.g. RICS)
  • Significant commercial track record relating to occupational management and client-side property transactions across multiple geographical markets globally.
  • Experience in leading occupational property transactions, negotiating with landlords and brokers, globally
  • Knowledge of real estate service lines and experience of delivering multiple transactions at any time.
  • Thorough understanding of the real estate and project management lifecycle and principles.
  • Understanding of lease administration, lease audit, lease compliance and financial reporting from the landlord and tenant perspective.
  • Strong vendor management and commercialism skills, particularly in relationship to alliances/partnerships with service providers.
  • Experience of managing service provision through both in-house staff and professional partners.
  • Sound understanding of real estate legislation and leave events.
  • Ability to commission and manage multi-disciplinary professionals and to think and act strategically, commercially, and corporately to develop and convey a clear and innovative vision and to enthuse staff and stakeholders.
  • You will be a driven and self motivated individual who always wants to improves processes and be capable of quick, broad analysis of opportunities with commercially savvy approach.

To apply for this role, please click the ‘apply’ button today

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