Technical Director, Real Estate Development, Tenant Fit-out

About Us

The We Company’s mission is to elevate the world’s consciousness. Our global platform reimagines and positively impacts how we work, live and grow through three distinct business lines: WeWork’s mission is to create a world where people work to make a life, not just a living; WeLive’s mission is to build a world where no one feels alone; WeGrow’s mission is to unleash every human’s superpowers. Through design, technology, and hospitality we are creating a community that helps people live life with purpose and have a meaningful impact in the world. The We Company began in 2019 with more than 400,000 members. In less than ten years, we’ve built a global network of 400 locations across 100 cities and nearly 30 countries, and we’re just getting started.

Role Overview & Responsibilities

As Technical Director, you will be at the nexus of product development and delivery, helping to craft the best workplace product possible for our members.  It is the responsibility of the Technical Director to work closely with internal and external design teams to ensure that we partner with the best consultants to design, detail and build the best spaces suited to satisfy business needs. Not only will you ensure proper roll out of new products and product lines to your project, but you will also seek out opportunities to innovate our brand by taking lessons learned back to HQ.  Harnessing and supporting this information exchange life-cycle is key to succeeding in this role and to our objective of producing the best workplaces in the world.

The position requires a proven track record of exceptional design thinking, an understanding of our brand at its deepest level, and demonstrable expertise across many design disciplines. The Technical Director must ensure that the designs produced speak with a singular aesthetic voice and are responsible for clearly and effectively communicating this voice across all mediums. Particularly important to the role are the oral and written communication skills to articulately express the rationale behind the design decisions.

• Be a Positive Influence - Become a positive influence by always carrying yourself in a professional manner. Be optimistic and help others do so as well. This applies to our team, our consultants, and other parts of the business. You are a leader representing the Design Department, always be solutions oriented. 

• Feedback - Proactively gather feedback from regional teams on a regular basis to feed into standards regionalization and product development initiatives.  Work to establish a regular method of collecting information from internal stakeholders (Community, Sales, Ops). Conduct periodic project walkthroughs, providing a feedback loop to team, consultants, contractors and to inform product development. 

• Adapt -  Work closely with HQ to take global initiatives and adapt them to your projects. Adapt global standards based on regional constraints. Be a key member in enhancing the product to better suit regional cultural expectations, sourcing/product availability, GM/community/operations requests, lessons learned, etc. Bridge and adapt tenant design to the building in order to minimize base building impact and optimize tenant fit-out.

• Develop - Guide creation of new space types based off requests from regional leaders in collaboration with global Development peers. 

• Police - Review drawings and advise on code related issues - filing status and approvals, fire/egress strategy, ADA.  Deep understanding of regional specific needs for product variations (e.g. city mandated recycling), etc. Regularly perform high level QA/QC of drawing sets.  Review quality of designs as a whole, and quality of documentation produced by consultants. Ensure regional product aligns with global direction of WeWork product, through constant open communication with HQ. Closely manage and control design costs. Lead value engineering exercises as needed to ensure on-budget delivery.

• Consultant Strategy - Work on an overarching consultant strategy - using pipeline and source, onboard, track, provide ongoing check-ins/feedback to consultants.  Coordinate new consultant RFPs to align with strategy. Vett consultants and RFP responses, interview, and follow through to execution of MCA.

• Mentor - Act as a mentor to other team members (provide guidance, feedback, and direction on product design methodology).  Work to onboard new team members to the global and regional vision and strategies. Create and present onboarding content for new starters and coordinate and run cross-functional training sessions if needed.

• Communicate - Espouse excellent and efficient communication skills. Communicate new standards, update documentation and provide strategies for teams to implement.  Be able to effectively communicate the rationale behind design decisions through strong oral and written communication skills to internal and external parties. Communicate closely with the delivery and design team to ensure project is executed to the highest design standard while maintaining project schedule and budget.

• Innovate - Run initiatives at Product Development level to improve both process and product for the Tenant Fit-out team. Support technical improvements both in the product as well as the process we use to document our design, by working alongside other design teams as applicable.

• Tools + Workflow - Ensure teams are mastering and leveraging the latest technologies to enable success at scale.  Oversee the teams updating Revit templates and other documentation to suit local needs. Continually work to optimize workflow, streamlining processes and enabling efficient and rigorous work.

• Reporting - to the VP of Project Delivery,  Real Estate Development, Tenant Fit-out

Qualifications:

• 12+ years of experience of all phases of the design process from schematic design through the bid process and construction administration

• Masters in Architecture, Interior Design or MEP Engineering

• Unparalleled design and technical acumen and alignment with WW Design Direction

• Impeccable and concise communication and presentation skills, verbal and written

• Be a self-starter, with the ability to work independently in a fast paced environment

• Open to feedback, with an optimistic and positive attitude 

• Experience mentoring and guiding a team

• Strong time management skills and demonstrated ability to consistently meet deadlines

• Highly resourceful problem solver and quick learner

• Be familiar with construction industry best practices, building & ADA codes

• Experience in ground-up construction

*Portfolios must be submitted for consideration*