Director – Construction Management

At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. As part of Team Amex, you'll experience this powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career.

Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.

About Global Real Estate & Workplace Experience (GREWE)

Global Real Estate and Workplace Experience (GREWE) is a global team at American Express (Amex) responsible for the full lifecycle of planning, execution, and operations of Amex real estate. GREWE supports over 75,000 Amex colleagues and contractors in over eight million square feet of property located in 59 countries. Our real estate portfolio consists of large full-service campuses, office buildings, sales offices, airport lounges and data centers. The global GREWE team is comprised of ~100 Amex full time staff that leverage ~5,000 contractors and is part of the broader Global Servicing Group organization which delivers shared business services to colleagues across the enterprise. GREWE’s key priorities include: 

GREWE Vision: Provide the world’s best workplace experience for every colleague, at every site, every day

GREWE Mission: Enable profitable growth by anticipating business needs and co-creating flexible, vibrant, inspiring environments at a competitive cost

Strategic Priorities:

Portfolio: Best buildings in the best places at the most competitive costs

Environment: Tailored spaces that inspire innovation and strengthen connections between colleagues, customers, and brand

Hospitality: Frictionless experiences for colleagues across moments that matter

Operations: Operational excellence to deliver enterprise value, accelerate time to market, reduce disruption, and mitigate risk

 Global Leadership and Governance Responsibilities

A summary of key responsibilities include:

This position will lead the delivery of large-scale, complex construction projects. The role requires full lifecycle project leadership with a strong emphasis oncost control, schedule management, risk mitigation, andteam leadership. The successful candidate will be responsible for guiding internal and external teams to ensure that capital projects are delivered safely, efficiently, and to the highest quality standards. Leading construction contract negotiations, managing budgets, change orders, schedule adherence and contingency utilization.

This position will be responsible for all aspects of construction through each stage of major capital projects. With a focus on reducing cost, managing schedule and implementing a robust risk management process. The role will support the Project Team and leads the construction team – a mix of internal/external partners to ensure all aspects, quality control, constructability and safety of the project are achieved along with cost and schedule management. 

The candidate will have strong technical knowledge, leadership and team development skills. They must have strong contract and stakeholder management skills and proficiency in collaborating across large complex project teams of engineers, architects and other professions to ensure the project is designed and executed effectively.

Other deliverables include:

• Construction Lead on Projects at all stages, Design, Execution and Handover.
• Determines the scheduling of different phases of a project base on established deadlines
• Manages the construction budget and collaborated with the Project Controls lead on Change Control and reporting
• Responsible for safety and quality control during construction phases
• Oversees all onsite and offsite construction to monitor compliance with AMEX requirements and building and safety regulations
• Coordinate all construction activities and logistics with relevant project teams and partners as required
• Communicates regularity with Project Lead, Project Controls and Design Lead and aligned on communication to Key Partners at all stages of design, construction and hand over.
• Facilitates the Construction planning, tracking and reporting against key project Deliverables
• Understand Key Performance indicators and puts plans in place to meet and identify areas for improvement.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable culture across project teams and external partners.
• Promotes proactive communication, problem-solving, and ownership at all levels.
• Provides leadership and supports the Project Delivery team to ensure the project focus on cost an schedule objectives, identify and militate risk and adhere to key financial procedures
• Manages the coordination and logistics between base building and interior fit-out to deliver a world class facilities for American Express
• Provides thought leadership and direction on construction means, methods, concepts

Executive Engagements

This role will have frequent interaction with the SVP of GREWE and the President of Enterprise Shared Services, and on occasion with other AXP executive committee members.  This leader will demonstrate the ability to interact with these senior executives with ease, and also dive deep into details when necessary, interacting with project team members at all levels.  The role is expected to frequently present to the GREWE SVP.

Major Duties & Responsibilities:

• Lead construction deliverables for GREWE large property development projects at all stages. This includes strategic planning, budget, schedule, pre-construction activities, quality and safety deliverables at all stages of projects
• Leads the development of pre-construction and construction planning & strategy for projects: across base building and interior fit-out to deliver world class facilities for American Express
• Act as the senior client representative during construction, ensuring contractor performance and accountability.
• Provides thought leadership and direction on construction means, methods, concepts & foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement
• Delivers project status reviews by monitoring schedule, cost, submittals & RFI.
• Brings on world class talent and design expertise (internal/external) as appropriate
• Works with the Director of Project contrils to ensure a robust approach to monthly cost reporting with Developers and CM’s across projects.
• Manages and reports on cost and change control throughout construction in alignment with the change control governance model
• Lead value engineering & identify cost saving opportunities to bring forward to AMEX leadership for decisions.
• Supports the facilitation of cost risk assessments at key milestones of the project and manages contingency spend in collaboration with Project Leadership
• Establishes robust approach to monthly schedule reporting with Developers and CM’s across projects.
• Manages project schedules and provide weekly/monthly reporting to the Project Controls and Project Leadership
• Maintain rigorous safety, compliance, and reporting standards throughout construction.
• Manages and reports on key construction risks and provides mitigation strategies though the established Risk Management system.
• Supports the facilitation of Cost Risk Assessments (CRA’s) across projects to identify and drive decisions on contingency
• Supports the facilitation of Schedule Risk Assessments (SRA’s)
• Meets routinely with key GREWE and workplace partner stakeholders to keep transparency into priorities across teams and address points of friction in our service delivery.
• Meets routinely with other discipline partners (i.e. hospitality, operations, safety and sustainability) to find synergistic goals and co-create strategic value-additions on a global scale.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 10+ years’ experience in construction management for major commercial or corporate real estate projects
• 10+ years’ experience managing major CM’s, GC’s and construction trades as third-party vendors to major corporations
• 10+ years’ work experience construction management supporting commercial or corporate real estate portfolios, with a clear understanding of the project process.
• Deep knowledge of cost, schedule and risk on major capital projects.
• Lead constructability reviews and establish robust approach to construction quality.
• Ability to translate complex project data into and compelling business cases, analyses and program plans, tailored various stakeholder groups
• Proactive critical thinking and qualitative/quantitative problem-solving skills (issue identification, problem structuring, analysis, development of recommendations)
• Exceptional Project Management skills, including ability to lead teams (both Internal & External) build dashboards, presentations and track metrics, and assemble project information into clearly written report that document findings and recommendation and communicate progress.
• Exceptional organizational skills and ability to focus on details while not losing sight of the big picture
• Ability to easily partner with and influence senior leaders across the AXP organization
• Strong team player, ability to take direction and remain flexible and adaptable to changing priorities
• University/Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Construction Management or equivalent. 
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or equivalent

Preferred Qualifications:

• Engineering, Construction Management
• Primavera, Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite (Project, Excel, PowerPoint, Word). 

Salary Range: $130,000.00 to $205,000.00 annually + bonus + equity (if applicable) + benefits

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:

• Competitive base salaries 
• Bonus incentives 
• 6% Company Match on retirement savings plan 
• Free financial coaching and financial well-being support 
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits 
• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need 
• 20+ weeks paid parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, offered for pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy 
• Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location) 
• Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program 
• Career development and training opportunities

For a full list of Team Amex benefits, visit our Colleague Benefits Site.

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including, but not limited to, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.

We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.

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Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S. is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for this position