Head of Corporate Real Estate & Workplace Strategy

M&T Bank • Buffalo, NY

4d

About The Position

Lead the Future of Workplace & Real Estate Strategy at M&T Bank This is a unique opportunity to shape how a leading community-focused financial institution designs, delivers, and experiences work. As the Director of Corporate Real Estate & Workplace Strategy, you will define and deliver the future of M&T’s workplace, impacting how thousands of employees collaborate, innovate, and serve our customers every day. You will guide a multi‑year transformation of a real estate portfolio that fuels growth, strengthens culture, defines how our employees work, and deepens our commitment to the communities we serve. About the Portfolio 1,200 properties (35% owned / 65% leased) ~8.8MM sq. ft. portfolio (56% owned / 44% leased) Locations across 28 U.S. states and 5 countries Workplace strategy has become a critical driver of organizational performance—impacting talent attraction, productivity, culture, and financial outcomes. In this role, you will: Reimagine the future of work at enterprise scale—aligning space, technology, and human-centered design. Modernize a significant and high-visibility real estate portfolio. Build and elevate a strategic function that sets the long-term operating model for how M&T works. Influence decisions at the intersection of people, technology, and real estate across the enterprise. In this leadership role, you will build and execute a comprehensive strategy that aligns M&T’s real estate footprint with business priorities and workforce trends to evolve customer and employee expectations. You will: Define and lead enterprise-wide location strategy, portfolio planning, and real estate decisioning. Modernize space planning and workplace design to elevate employee experience, collaboration, productivity, and flexibility. Leverage data, utilization of analytics, and emerging technologies to create innovative, future‑ready workplaces. You will oversee a diverse and strategically important real estate footprint—balancing cost efficiency, sustainability, risk, flexibility, and human-centered design. Your scope will include: Enterprise site selection, capital project planning, and lease strategy. Long-range real estate forecasting and portfolio design. Ensuring the portfolio supports enterprise growth, customer access, and employee engagement. This role is responsible for creating the tools, processes, and capabilities that define a best-in-class corporate real estate function and team. You will: Build and lead a dynamic organization spanning workplace strategy, space planning, analytics, real estate operations, and project management. Partner across HR, Finance, IT, Security, Risk, and business leadership to anchor decisions in data and strategic alignment. Guide risk-informed decisions that steward millions in operational and capital investments. The team you shape will be grounded in innovation, data fluency, sustainability, customer-centric design, and operational excellence.

Requirements

• 12+ years of leadership experience in corporate real estate, workplace strategy, facilities management, or portfolio management.
• A proven ability to build enterprise level‑ real estate strategies and modern workplace models.
• Deep experience transforming workplace and space planning in hybrid, flexible, or distributed environments.
• Strong financial and analytical capability (forecasting, scenario planning, ROI modeling, utilization analytics).
• Expertise in workplace design, utilization technology, and emerging workplace tools.
• Exceptional communication, executive presence, and the ability to influence across senior leadership.

Nice To Haves

• MBA or relevant advanced degree.
• Experience managing large, complex, or global real estate portfolios.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead enterprise-wide location strategy, portfolio planning, and real estate decisioning.
• Modernize space planning and workplace design to elevate employee experience, collaboration, productivity, and flexibility.
• Leverage data, utilization of analytics, and emerging technologies to create innovative, future‑ready workplaces.
• Enterprise site selection, capital project planning, and lease strategy.
• Long-range real estate forecasting and portfolio design.
• Ensuring the portfolio supports enterprise growth, customer access, and employee engagement.
• Build and lead a dynamic organization spanning workplace strategy, space planning, analytics, real estate operations, and project management.
• Partner across HR, Finance, IT, Security, Risk, and business leadership to anchor decisions in data and strategic alignment.
• Guide risk-informed decisions that steward millions in operational and capital investments.

Benefits

• M&T Bank is committed to fair, competitive, and market-informed pay for our employees.
• As an employer of choice, we are proud to offer competitive benefits ranging from medical and retirement to forty hours of paid volunteer time, each year.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed