Real Estate Manager (International Projects)
Linklaters · Warsaw, Poland
For Linklaters Office in Warsaw, we are currently recruiting for the Real Estate Manager role.
Work arrangements:
Model work: Hybrid
Contract: Employment contract with 3- month probation period
Business travels: Worldwide as required (initially Europe monthly)
Your role
You will join Linklaters in a strategically important role within the Premises function, supporting the delivery of major workplace projects across the firm’s international office portfolio. The Premises team is responsible for ensuring that Linklaters’ offices meet the firm’s operational, technical and workplace requirements, while creating high-quality environments that support the business and its people.
As Real Estate Manager, you will lead the planning and delivery of major workplace and office fit-out projects across a global portfolio of 30 offices in 20 countries. This is a newly created, standalone role reporting directly to the Global Head of Premises, with a particular focus on relocation, fit-out and refurbishment programmes across the portfolio. You will act as Linklaters’ representative, bringing together and directing multi-disciplinary external project teams, while managing the full project lifecycle from early feasibility and design through construction and final handover.
In this role, you will be responsible for overseeing multiple projects at the same time, typically managing two to three programmes concurrently, with accountability for scope, timing, delivery programme and overall cost. Working closely with specialist external advisers, including external project managers and other consultants, you will ensure that each project is delivered efficiently and to a high standard, aligned with the firm’s strategic priorities and operational needs. The role offers strong international exposure and will involve regular travel, initially mainly within Europe.
Key responsibilities
Project leadership and governance
- Lead projects from initial brief and feasibility through to completion and post-occupancy review, ensuring they meet with agreed objectives.
- Assemble and manage multi-disciplinary professional teams (e.g. project and cost managers, architects, engineers, relocation specialists etc.).
- Help prepare clear, concise internal approval papers and business cases to secure governance and budget approvals.
- Lead project meetings to ensure projects meet scope, time & cost objectives.
Stakeholder and steering group management
- Act as the primary point of contact between external project teams and Linklaters’ internal stakeholders.
- Guide local Linklaters’ steering groups on decision making, options appraisal and risk, providing practical, commercially-sound advice.
- Facilitate workshops and presentations to senior stakeholders to agree briefs, design principles, budgets and programmes.
- Build strong relationships with internal clients, ensuring their needs and
Design and construction management (client-side)
- Manage project teams through the entire design and construction process, ensuring Linklaters’ design, technical, brand and operational requirements are fully incorporated.
- Review and challenge design proposals to ensure they are functional, efficient and aligned with the firm’s standards and strategic workplace objectives.
- Lead value engineering reviews to optimise cost, programme, quality and sustainability outcomes, while maintaining core project objectives.
- Monitor progress against programme, budget and quality benchmarks, and drive timely resolution of issues, risks and changes.
- Oversee procurement strategies, tender processes and contractor appointments from a client-side perspective, working closely with internal procurement or legal teams where relevant.
Additional requirements
- Liaise with internal technology, audio visual, security and other specialist teams to ensure their requirements are captured, coordinated and delivered.
- Ensure projects meet the firm’s sustainability objectives.
- Working with the professional advisors, ensue projects comply with all local statutory requirements.
- Manage projects across multiple jurisdictions, adapting to different design standards, regulatory environments and procurement / contracting approaches.
- Provide regular project updates (programme and budget).
Handover, acceptance and post-completion
- Accept completed projects on behalf of Linklaters, ensuring full compliance with the brief, specifications and quality standards.
- Ensure complete and accurate as-built drawings, operations and maintenance manuals, warranties and statutory approvals are provided at handover.
- Coordinate training for facilities, technology and local operations teams to support effective operation of the new space.
- Support post-occupancy reviews and the resolution of defects during the defects liability period.
Apply if you have:
- Significant project management experience, ideally gained on the client side or in consultancy, with a strong track record of leading office fit-out, refurbishment, relocation or new-build projects from feasibility through to completion.
- Proven experience delivering complex projects in occupied office environments, including managing business continuity, phasing, operational risk and the practical challenges of office moves.
- Strong international project experience, ideally across Europe, with a good understanding of how real estate, design, procurement and contracting approaches vary across jurisdictions.
- A strong understanding of commercial office real estate, workplace design and fit-out, together with a sound grasp of construction delivery and the ability to work effectively with technical advisers and external consultants.
- Strong commercial and financial management capability, including ownership of project scope, programme, timelines and cost, as well as budgeting, cost control and value optimisation.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the credibility and judgement to act as a trusted adviser to senior leadership and guide complex relocation, fit-out and refurbishment decisions.
- Experience working in a professional services environment, or in similarly complex stakeholder-led organisations, with an understanding of the high standards of communication, collaboration and service this requires.
- A good appreciation of how workplace technology, security and furniture procurement should be integrated into office and workplace projects.
- A collaborative, pragmatic and highly organised approach, with the ability to lead multiple workstreams and deliver effectively in a fast-paced, international environment.
- Willingness to travel internationally when required, initially mainly within Europe.
Nice to have
- Professional qualifications in commercial real estate, project management, cost management or a related discipline.
- Membership of a relevant professional body, such as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
- Project management certification, such as PRINCE2, Project Management Professional (PMP) or International Project Management Association (IPMA).
- Understanding of leasing transactions, including experience assessing leasing options and identifying suitable premises as part of a broader workplace strategy.
- Knowledge of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems at a level that enables you to challenge advisers and make informed project decisions.
- A degree in estate management, project management or a related field.
Key relationships
- Members of the global Operations Team, office COOs and managers, partners and project steering group members.
- Technology - networks and AV teams.
- Environment – sustainability initiatives and their impact on fit-outs.
- External consultants (project and cost managers; designers; engineers etc.).
Linklaters and the Team
Linklaters are a people business. Being best in class in the eyes of our clients means that our people