Senior Program Manager, Real Estate Resource

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Global Corporate Solutions and Corporate Real Estate

Reporting directly to the Managing Director and Chief Administration Officer (MDCAO), Global Corporate Solutions (GCS) brings together the functions of Corporate Security, Corporate Real Estate, Corporate Services (such as shared services, food services, printing, travel, conferences, and translation and interpretation), and Global Business Centers.

GCS’s Corporate Real Estate (GCSCR) division plays a crucial role in supporting WBG legal entities (IBRD, IDA, MIGA, and ICSID) by sourcing, developing and operating real estate worldwide. GCSCR’s primary purpose is to create safe, cost effective, sustainable, and functional real estate solutions, enabling business units to perform their work program in line with the WBG’s mission to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet.

To achieve its purpose, GCSCR led by the Senior Manager, is structured into three divisions: (i) HQ Real Estate Development and Management (GCSHQ), which covers facilities based in Washington, DC, (ii) International Real Estate (GCSIR), responsible for facilities located overseas, and (iii) Corporate Real Estate  Center of Excellence (CoE) which serves as a central hub of expertise driving operational excellence, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring the successful execution of initiatives.

GCSCR comprises approximately 100 staff, leverages over 500 contractors, and manages an annual facilities capital investment plan of about $155 million globally. GCSCR works closely with the Regions on the Bank’s more than 190 locations.

Job Description

Reporting to the Head of the GCSCR Centre of Excellence (CoE), the Senior Program Manager, Real Estate Resource Administration is responsible for working closely with division managers  and Task Team Leaders overseeing work program planning and execution, resource allocation, and performance monitoring for real estate operations (comprising leases, depreciation, operations & maintenance, and utilities expenditures or the “operations budget”) for a global portfolio of 172 properties - 12 in Washington, DC Headquarters and 160 offices worldwide across 8 regions. The role upholds strong budgetary stewardship, drives cost optimization, and promotes budget fungibility, ensuring alignment with institutional and divisional strategic priorities, while maintaining agility for evolving operational challenges. Working closely with GCSCR management, Regional Portfolio Leads, the IBRD’s Budget team (BPS), and the CGS’ Corporate Services unit, the Senior Program Manager oversees GCSCR’s budget deliverables, facilitates prioritization, and works to enhance budget transparency to support effective decision-making.

Duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

GCSCR Budget Governance and Advice

Serve as the Project Management Office (PMO) for Real Estate operations resource utilization and oversight, establish a structured, standardized approach to govern GCSCR’s budget processes and corporate deliverables, ensuring alignment with institutional and divisional strategy, while integrating effective solutions to meet operational needs.

Works closely with BPS to define an effective end-state real estate operations budget structure by defining respective roles, responsibilities and accountabilities, review and optimize workflows, map milestones and deliverables, track performance and champion continuous improvement. Oversee plan execution while ensuring ongoing compliance with relevant directives and procedures.

Acts as the GCS focal point and lead for the centralization and consolidation of the real estate operations budget. Ensure the transition is carried out transparently, balancing the need to address existing commitments with the implementation of standardized budgetary practices. Foster budget fungibility to maximize the benefits of a consolidated funding structure, enabling effective prioritization of needs and strategic allocation of resources across the portfolio.

Works with BPS to establish consistent and standard budget reporting consistent with corporate best practices and systems architecture, ensures robust and providing strategic program management advice to leadership including insights into cost reduction, redeployment opportunities, budget utilization, spending trends, variances, industry benchmarks, and cost-efficiency analysis to enable data-driven decision-making and effective budget utilization.

Budget Planning & Execution

Support annual and multi-year budget planning exercises by providing insights into historical spending patterns, future projections, and strategic funding needs. Collaborate with Regional Portfolio Leads to evaluate office needs, ensuring budget allocations align strategic and operational objectives.
Lead prioritization efforts, balancing operational needs with funding constraints while maintaining flexibility and fungibility across the portfolio to adapt to evolving business requirements.

Monitor budget execution, identifying financial risks related to budget overruns, unplanned expenditures, and cost variances. Work with leadership to implement mitigation strategies and ensure effective cost controls.
Works with BPS to provide timely updates for quarterly reviews and end of year projections, with clear explanations of favorable and adverse variances to the plan.

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

Act as the key point of contact for real estate operations budget-related inquiries and administration, providing guidance to leadership and engaging in cross-functional discussions with partner VPUs, including Budget, Procurement, HR, and IT to integrate budget considerations into strategic and operational decisions.

Partner with Regional Portfolio Leads—who serve as real estate single point of contact within their respective regions—providing budget insights, reports, actuals, forecasts, and key narratives, ensuring they remain informed on budget trends impacting their portfolio.

Facilitate regular budget update meetings, maintaining open lines of communication with all stakeholders to track milestones, resolve issues, and ensure alignment with business priorities.

Financial Flexibility & Portfolio-Wide Optimization

Promote operations budget fungibility, enabling resource reallocation as operational priorities shift, optimizes efficient and effective budget utilization across the global portfolio.

Assess and advises on trade-offs and ensure budget flexibility translates into operational agility and responsiveness to changing needs.
Leverage benchmarking tools (e.g., cost-per-seat, cost-per-area, industry standards), comparing budget performance across different regions, business units, locations, and property types, identifying cost-saving opportunities and ensuring competitive positioning.

Operations Budget Oversight

Coordinate and prepare inputs for the quarterly budget reviews, identifying trends and making recommendations.
Ensure adherence to corporate financial policies and governance structures, mitigating risks related to budget overruns and financial inconsistencies.
Monitor and control expenditures, identifying cost-saving opportunities and implementing cost control measures.
Ensure accurate and timely reporting, including the preparation of detailed financial reports and presentations for senior management.
Procurement to Payment Oversight

Oversee the end-to-end procurement to payment workflow, ensuring financial transactions are processed timely, efficiently, and in compliance with institutional directives, procedures, and guidance.

Coordinate with the GCS Global Business Center team on financial processes related to purchase orders, invoicing, payments, and accruals, ensuring timely execution, accuracy, and issue resolution. Collaborate on process enhancements to streamline operations and improve financial efficiency.

Implement controls to ensure separation of duties and maintain accountability in financial transactions. Follow up a resolve issues raised in the Quality Assurance reviews, Coordinate budget-related internal audits.

Monitor purchase requests, commitments, and expenditures, ensuring they align with approved budget allocations.

Technology & Data-Driven Decision Making

Ensure that data related to the operations budget is structured, standardized, and accurately maintained in relevant systems.
Enhance reporting tools and dashboards, providing real-time visibility into spending patterns, budget allocations, and forecasts.
Drive system enhancements that improve integration with institutional financial platforms and tools, ensuring consistency, transparency, and streamlined reporting.

Act as GCSCR’s focal point for corporate and VPU-led system implementations and enhancements impacting GCSCR.

Knowledge Management & Continuous Improvement

Identify process improvement opportunities, including project team engagement, project delivery, reporting, and communications, leveraging lessons learned to enhance operational efficiency.
Develop training materials, guidance, and best practices for Regional Portfolio Leads and other stakeholders, improving budget management capabilities.
Foster a culture of continuous learning, ensuring financial best practices and lessons learned from past initiatives are consistently applied across the organization.