Workspace Experience and Operations Lead

What this job involves: This is a single-site leadership role with full accountability for the performance, resilience, and long-term value of a major international banking client’s flagship corporate headquarters.

As the Owner’s Representative on the ground, you are the ultimate accountable person for everything that happens within the building—operationally, financially, and strategically.

You will operate with a landlord mindset, treating the asset as if it were your own investment. Your mandate is to protect and enhance its value through proactive lifecycle management, rigorous risk governance, and strategic capital planning—moving decisively beyond reactive facilities management toward Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Net Operating Income (NOI) optimization.

You are the eyes, ears, and voice of ownership on site: ensuring statutory compliance, safeguarding business continuity, managing cyber-physical risks in critical systems, and driving decisions that align physical asset performance with the banks physical asset strategy on the balance sheet.

What your day-to-day will look like: On-Site Asset Stewardship As the primary point of accountability for the site headquarters, you own the health and performance of all base building elements: structure, façade, roof, common areas, and critical MEP infrastructure (HVAC, power/UPS, fire & life safety, vertical transport, BMS/OT networks).

• Ensure all systems are engineered for reliability, resilience, and efficiency—not just functionality.
• Validate condition assessments and performance data to reflect real-world asset deterioration.
• Enforce compliance with building codes, fire safety, and environmental regulations—exceeding minimum standards to achieve industry best practice.

Risk Ownership & Operational Resilience You are the primary risk owner for the site. Foster a “see it, own it, fix it” culture where risks are surfaced early and managed decisively.

• Lead development and testing of Business Continuity Plans (BCP) tailored to the building’s criticality.
• Act as gatekeeper for Operational Technology (OT) security, ensuring BMS and IoT devices meet cyber-hygiene standards to prevent breaches.
• Drive the Risk Acceptance Process: document unresolved risks, quantify business impact (e.g., “Chiller #2 failure = loss of cooling to trading floor”), and secure formal client sign-off on mitigation timelines.
• Has total authority to stop works of all partners that may result in business impact to occupiers, risk to banks reputation, or risk to the built asset.
• Has the ability and awareness to foster a speak up culture.

Lifecycle Planning & Capital Strategy Develop and execute a 10–15-year Capital Expenditure (CapEx) roadmap grounded in predictive analytics and asset performance data.

• Replace “run-to-fail” with proactive replacement cycles for major building systems.
• Oversee defect liability management and commissioning handovers from capital projects to ensure “soft landings” and protect the bank from post-completion liabilities.

Value Creation & Investment Mindset Consider the building as an income-generating asset. Identify and execute initiatives that enhance market relevance, sustainability, and valuation.

• Champion value-add opportunities: energy retrofits, ESG upgrades, space repositioning, or technology integration.
• Partner with finance teams to model ROI, cap rate impact, and NOI (NOI=Total Revenue−Operating Expenses) uplift from capital investments.
• Maintain awareness of Hong Kong office market dynamics to help benchmark the asset against market trends and performance to help identify areas of strategy change for the building.

Financial Oversight & Executive Reporting Lead annual budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting for the site—with a focus on asset health, not just cost control.

• Deliver Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) to bank leadership, reporting on NOI, valuation trends, liquidity, and project ROI.
• Provide technical and financial intelligence to support regional strategy, renewals, or disposition decisions.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Min. 10 to 15 years in property, asset, or corporate real estate management, with hands-on experience managing a single, mission-critical headquarters or Grade A tower.
• Proven track record in base building operations, lifecycle planning, and capital project oversight for complex assets.
• Direct experience acting as the landlord representative or owner’s agent.
• Good understanding of MEP systems, critical environments, and BMS/OT architecture.
• Grasps ISO 55000 asset management principles.
• Fluency in real estate finance: NOI, Cap Rates, NPV, TCO modelling, and balance sheet impacts.
• Demonstrated ability to manage operational resilience, cyber-physical risk, and statutory assurance in high-profile buildings.
• A natural integrator: able to influence engineers, vendors, finance teams, and C-suite stakeholders.
• Diplomatic yet decisive—comfortable making tough calls when asset integrity or business continuity is at stake.
• Comfortable presenting to senior stakeholders – natural coach and leader – helping teams through ambiguity and able to cut through challenging operational structures.
• Awareness of when change is needed, can create such structure, challenge the ‘norm’ and improve every day.