Vice President, Workplace Services & Real Estate

Job Type:

Vice President Workplace Services and Real Estate

The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND’s research and analysis address issues that impact people everywhere, including security, health, education, and sustainability. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, RAND has approximately 2000 people working in offices in the U.S., Europe, and Australia, with annual revenues of about $400 million. Also based at the RAND Corporation is the RAND School of Public Policy.

RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. Our research is sponsored by government agencies, international organizations, and foundations. We also rely on philanthropic support to pursue visionary ideas; address critical problems that are under-researched; and devise innovative approaches for solving acute, complex, or provocative policy challenges. At RAND, we strive to cultivate a community that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion as central to our culture, our values of quality and objectivity, and our mission to serve the public interest. We emphasize a collegial environment that respects the contributions and dignity of all staff.

Vice President, Workplace Services and Real Estate

Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations, the VP, Workplace Services and Real Estate (WSRE) provides strategic and operational leadership of the WSRE team and responsibilities including managing about 45 staff members and contract services.

• The VP, WSRE will be expected to maintain offices that enable our people to be at their best when working and that support collaboration well. This will be enabled by high performing workplace services, space management, conference and event services, audio visual meeting support, and facility maintenance. In addition, this will be enabled by office designs, furniture and equipment, and environments that support individual productivity, teamwork, and staff interaction.

• RAND has long had a hybrid workplace and launched an innovative flexible workspace environment in some of its offices before the pandemic. RAND is building on these earlier efforts and optimizing its real estate portfolio accordingly in tandem with considering future growth potential and in-office presence vs. work from home patterns. As part of managing RAND’s U.S. real estate portfolio, which includes offices in Santa Monica, the Washington DC area, Pittsburgh, and Boston, the VP, WSRE will lead these efforts from strategy through execution and will be responsible for capital projects to maintain and improve RAND’s offices in concert with mission needs.  The VP, WSRE also manage leases for specialty purposes and RAND Australia, along with advising RAND Europe on real estate and space planning.

Specific responsibilities include:

Leadership

• Collaborate with RAND’s senior leadership to understand the needs of divisions and departments across RAND and align RAND’s WSRE strategy, building improvements, resources, policies, and processes with their needs for optimal mission and organizational outcomes.
• Contribute as a senior leader to RAND’s overall management and direction by providing input on policies and practices and keep RAND’s leadership team informed of key WSRE activities.
• Collaborate with leaders across RAND to maintain a positive, respectful work environment and foster a culture of inclusion and belonging reflecting our great place to work mindset.
• Provide a supportive office environment for workplace collaboration within research teams and across RAND and for an engaging and welcoming work and graduate school experience.
• Lead Workplace Services staff. Provide guidance, performance feedback and development, training, and mentoring and lead efforts to hire new staff to develop a high-performing team.
• Develop and manage programs and plans for continuous improvement of environmentally sustainable workplace operations.
• Manage the development, maintenance, and execution of RAND policies and procedures for workplace services and real estate.
• Continuously improve operations processes to achieve sustained excellence and high customer satisfaction as well as to improve efficiency over time.
• Ensure regulatory compliance.

Workplace Services

• Develop the WSRE business plan and manage its annual budget in line with approved plans.
• Assist organizations across RAND with event planning and execution, to include internal staff events and high-profile events with external participants.
• Provide audio visual technology services and infrastructure, including hybrid and virtual meeting and event support to optimize process and technology solutions in support of RAND’s mission and periodically evaluate audio visual technology options to maintain high quality, contemporary capabilities. Collaborate with the information technology and security teams to assure effective solutions across both classified and unclassified domains.
• Ensure effective provision of office services to include visitor services, ergonomic evaluations, mail services, housekeeping, office supplies, commuter assistance, and individual workspace setup.
• Ensure offices are maintained well to provide a comfortable, safe, and attractive environment.
• Contribute to overall emergency preparedness plans and ensure facilities staff and systems are prepared to play their roles in protecting people and equipment and enabling business continuity.
• Provide high quality and cost-effective café and catering services in the Santa Monica office.
• Oversee WSRE acquisition processes to assure high ethical conformance and compliance with budgetary, audit, and client objectives.

Real Estate Services

• Direct all aspects of real estate life cycle management from strategic planning to execution in coordination with Finance and the Office of the General Counsel for RAND U.S. and RAND Australia. This includes programming, architecture and engineering, building construction and tenant improvements, moves and relocations, ongoing operations and landlord/tenant relations, and owned and leased property renewals and disposal.
• Advise RAND Europe on their real estate and workplace planning and management.

Qualifications

• Exceptional leadership, interpersonal, and teamwork skills with the ability to interact effectively with a wide variety of individuals including vendors, professional services, employees, and government officials
• A proven track record of successfully managing a broad range of office real estate, operations, and capital projects; leading teams; and change management
• Strong business and analytical skills required
• Demonstrated ability to champion diversity, equity and inclusion in its broadest sense including working with people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives across all levels
• Ability to travel approximately 20% of the time
• Experience developing and executing strategic and business plans 

Education

• BA/BS required
• MBA or similar Master’s degree would be a plus

Experience

• Proven related senior-level line-management experience in a research institute, university, professional services firm, or another for-profit entity that has significant government client relationships or a knowledge-oriented workforce
• A minimum of 15 years of related experience

Security clearance

• Current possession of a U.S. security clearance, or the ability to obtain a U.S. security clearance, is required.

Location

Santa Monica, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh offices

Salary Range: $250K - $355K

RAND considers a variety of factors when formulating an offer, including but not limited to, the specific role and associated responsibilities; a candidate’s work experience, education/training, skills, expertise; and internal equity. The salary range includes base pay plus RAND’s sabbatic pay (which provides additional compensation above base pay when vacation is taken). In addition, RAND provides strong benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, paid time-off and more.

Equal Opportunity Employer: race/color/religion/sex/sexual orientation/gender identity/national origin/disability/vet