Leasing and Asset Management Director

Job description

Director, Leasing and Asset Management

Position Summary

We are seeking a senior, owner-side real estate professional to lead leasing strategy and asset operations for a premier Manhattan office asset.

The role is weighted toward leasing, while also serving as a key owner representative across asset management and building operations. The successful candidate will set the leasing vision, manage external leasing brokers, evaluate transaction economics, and ensure that leasing decisions support occupancy, NOI, tenant experience, capital planning, and long-term asset value.

Key Responsibilities

Leasing Strategy and Execution

• Lead owner-side leasing strategy for the office asset, including positioning, target tenant mix, pricing discipline, renewal strategy, vacancy planning, and broker direction.
• Manage and challenge external leasing brokers, setting clear mandates, monitoring pipeline quality, and ensuring marketing activity supports the ownership strategy.
• Review and recommend business terms for new leases, renewals, expansions, contractions, restructurings, and early terminations.
• Evaluate effective rent, TI, free rent, leasing commissions, escalations, credit, term, downtime, and other economic considerations.
• Build and maintain leasing assumptions, rollover forecasts, scenario analyses, and recommendations that connect leasing decisions to NOI, valuation, financing, and business-plan objectives.
• Maintain strong relationships with tenants, brokers, market participants, and service providers to identify risks and opportunities early.
• Develop recommendations for large vacancies, tenant retention, amenity positioning, prebuilt programs, capital improvements, and leasing-related investments.

Asset Management and Operations

• Serve as a key owner representative across leasing, asset management, property management, engineering, construction, and tenant-experience initiatives.
• Support annual business planning, budgeting, reforecasting, capital planning, and performance reporting.
• Identify operational, leasing, and capital issues that affect occupancy, cash flow, tenant satisfaction, or asset value, and drive solutions through completion.
• Work with property management and engineering teams to align building operations, tenant improvements, capital projects, and leasing commitments.
• Review operating performance, lease abstracts, rent rolls, tenant receivables, concessions, capital expenditures, and major vendor or project decisions.
• Help establish clear operating rhythms, decision-making protocols, reporting standards, and accountability across internal teams and external advisors.

Leadership and Communication

• Present concise, fact-based recommendations to senior leadership, clearly explaining alternatives, risks, economics, and required decisions.
• Coordinate effectively across internal teams, ownership, lenders, joint-venture partners, brokers, attorneys, consultants, and tenants.
• Take initiative in identifying problems before they become urgent and in advancing decisions without requiring extensive direction.
• Build a collaborative, accountable working relationship with the CEO and other senior leaders as the organization evolves.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of commercial real estate experience, with significant owner-side office leasing, asset management, or operating experience.
• Strong preference for experience with Class A Manhattan office assets; Lower Manhattan experience is highly valued.
• Strong understanding of lease economics, including effective rent, TI, free rent, commissions, operating expense recoveries, tenant credit, renewal probability, and leasing-related cash-flow impact.
• Experience linking leasing strategy to asset value, NOI, capital planning, refinancing, and broader business-plan objectives.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage competing priorities in a complex operating environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make clear, structured recommendations to senior decision-makers.
• High degree of ownership, judgment, initiative, and follow-through.
• Advanced Excel and financial-analysis capability required; experience with leasing, asset-management, property-management, or business-intelligence systems is preferred.