Vice President of Design Jobs

Job Requirements

About the Role:

The VP, CRE Design & Delivery is a strategic executive leader accountable for the end-to-end delivery of Corporate Real Estate design and construction programs for most office and warehouse space globally, ensuring they advance Disney’s business strategies and financial objectives in a fast paced, innovative entertainment environment.

This role sets the vision, D&D strategy, and governance framework for a diverse pipeline of ground-up developments, tenant improvements, recurring capital and critical infrastructure/technology projects, enabling world-class workplaces that support Disney’s storytellers and corporate functions globally.

Responsibilities:

The VP, CRE Design & Delivery (D&D) provides portfolio-level leadership and primary accountability for the financial performance, risk profile, and operational readiness of CRE Design & Delivery projects globally, aligning strategy, capital investments, and delivery outcomes with Disney’s business goals and stakeholder expectations. This executive ensures large, complex real estate projects are delivered safely, on time, on budget, and to the company’s quality standards, requiring a results-oriented and financially savvy leader who can think strategically, build trust, and exert influence across a broad network of internal and external partners.

• Provide portfolio-level leadership for real estate D&D programs from pre-development planning through handover, setting clear strategies, expectations, and priorities that align with business and regional business objectives.

• Manage a high level of complexity and volume across the portfolios, driving on-time and on-budget delivery across every project.

• Establish program-level visibility and controls across the portfolio, incorporating emerging technology to improve forecasting, early risk detection and project delivery. Give leadership a clear, top-line view of schedule, budget and program health, and use it to anticipate issues, manage interdependencies and hold projects to a high standard of timeline and cost discipline.

• Own delivery outcomes for schedule, cost, quality, risk, and operational readiness across a large, complex portfolio of capital projects, ensuring disciplined governance and accountability for financial performance and value creation. Problem-solve to course correct projects that are at risk of going over budget or delivering late to bring them back into the cost and timing envelopes.

• Oversee design, construction, commissioning, training, and closeout/turnover activities across multiple projects, ensuring consistent processes, standards, and best practices are applied throughout the project life cycle. Identify where change management efforts are needed to support changes in office parameters (e.g., open seating) and secure necessary support (e.g., employee communications, leadership alignment).

• Establish governance and performance expectations for third-party vendors (including project managers and design consultants), working closely with Enterprise Sourcing to lead procurement strategy, contract administration, and change management activities to optimize cost, schedule, and risk outcomes.

• Coordinate closely with internal stakeholders including CRE Real Estate Strategy & Transactions, CRE Engineering, Infrastructure & Operations, Enterprise Technology, Security, Finance, Legal, Sourcing and Procurement to ensure alignment of project scope, funding, and operational requirements across the portfolio.

• Review designs and construction methodologies for constructability, risk, and execution feasibility, applying deep knowledge of design and construction practices, engineering principles, and local/regional codes and ordinances to inform decisions.

• Serve as the escalation point for cross-programmatic issues requiring executive decision making, ensuring timely resolution of risks, issues, and trade-offs while maintaining strong partner engagement and trust.

• Drive consistent reporting, risk visibility, and portfolio analytics, including Gant schedules, cost reports, cashflow projections, and Jobs-in-Progress style metrics, to inform leadership decisions and ensure transparency across programs.

• Lead and develop senior leaders and their teams, inspiring individual and business success by clearly communicating the “why” behind decisions, providing continuous coaching and feedback, and supporting career aspirations in a collaborative, innovative and values driven environment.

Drive strong collaboration and communication with colleagues across Corporate Real Estate (e.g., Operations, Real Estate Strategy & Transactions) and business stakeholders, ensuring seamless handoffs across all projects.

• Apply strong business insight and financial acumen to evaluate key business and organizational challenges, develop innovative solutions within broad company policies, and ensure capital investments support long-term strategic and operational goals.

• Partner closely with CRE Engineering, Infrastructure & Operations and internal stakeholders to develop and execute the recurring capital portfolio, prioritizing investments that maintain the physical integrity, reliability, and lifecycle performance of CRE assets while supporting ongoing business needs and established CRE engineering and infrastructure standards

• Establish a consistent process for capturing lessons learned, post-project performance, and feedback from Operations and stakeholders, incorporating those insights into future designs, standards, and delivery practices.

• Provide technical leadership and appropriate challenge throughout design and construction, ensuring solutions are constructible, maintainable, resilient, code-compliant, and aligned with CRE engineering and infrastructure standards. Engage CRE Engineering, Infrastructure & Operations throughout planning and design so that maintainability, reliability, system standards, lifecycle requirements, and operational impacts are incorporated before projects move into construction.

Work Experience

Required Qualifications:

• 15+ years of experience in real estate design and construction program management, including 7+ years leading managers and senior leaders across large, complex portfolios in fast-paced environments.

• Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, Engineering, Construction Management, or related field; advanced degree, certifications, or professional engineering/real estate licenses are a plus.

• Proven experience delivering a large volume of real estate construction programs of varying types (owned facilities, tenant improvement, ground-up, recurring capital, asset renewal, and critical infrastructure/technology projects) while balancing technical rigor with business, cost and schedule priorities.

• Demonstrated ability to manage multi-project portfolios and external delivery partners, with expertise in schedule, cost, risk, and change management at a program level.

• Experience administering consultant and contractor agreements, leading procurement strategies, and overseeing financial controls, budgets, and capital spend reporting for large capital programs.

• Ability to lead creation and management of Gantt chart schedules, detailed cost reports, and cashflow projections, and to develop conceptual budgets and timelines with limited information.

• Deep working knowledge of building and infrastructure systems, engineering principles, construction techniques, constructability, commissioning and local/regional codes and ordinances, with strong proficiency in reading and interpreting construction documents, contracts and leases and identifying technical and operational risks.

• Strong presence as a leader of internal and external project teams, with ability to drive on-time and on-budget delivery, holding internal and external teams accountable to deliverables. Proven ability to proactively identify problems and implement solutions that keep projects on time and within budget, including value engineering while meeting project goals and objectives and mitigating short-and long term risks.

• Strong executive communication skills, leadership presence, and judgment, with experience preparing and delivering comprehensive presentations to senior leadership on design concepts, budgets, construction planning, and change management strategies.

• Documented success in coordinating and managing staff assignments for multiple stakeholders, demonstrating a client service orientation and the ability to build internal partnerships and manage expectations of business units.

• Ability to escalate issues appropriately, drive timely decisions, and create, manage, and optimize consistent practices and processes across teams and geographies.

• Understanding of entitlements, financial and public relations implications of proposed plans, and familiarity with asset lifecycle, maintainability, resiliency, operational readiness, energy efficient and security considerations for corporate facilities.

• Proven experience delivering technically complex capital and infrastructure projects in occupied and operationally critical environments, including managing phasing, shutdowns, temporary conditions, business continuity and turnover to Operations.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience overseeing campus portfolios and working across multiple geographies and regulatory environments, including ownership-role exposure.

• Experience managing projects in varying asset types (e.g., office, warehouse, technical, retail, production/stages)

• Solid understanding of the different risk profiles of projects in owned vs leased facilities, and knowledge of how to mitigate risks accordingly

• Experience with alternative procurement models, commissioning programs, and advanced project controls tools or ERP platforms (e.g., SAP) supporting capital project delivery.

• Background in operational readiness and security requirements for corporate or campus environments, with media or entertainment industry experience considered a plus.

Disclaimer

PAY TRANSPARENCY

The hiring range for this position in Burbank, CA is $263,400 to $353,300 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

This position is with Disney Worldwide Services, Inc., which is part of a business we call The Walt Disney Company (Corporate).

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Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

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