The VP, Business Product & Platform Enablement is that leader. This is a newly elevated role - the accountable business voice within a co-led product organization, co-equal to technology leadership. You will define what success looks like, govern how investment is directed, build a team of business product managers embedded alongside technology counterparts, and drive the adoption and enablement work that turns platform capability into operational reality.
A role for a transformation leader
This is not a product management role, a program management role, or a technology liaison. It is a senior leadership position for someone who has operated at the intersection of business and technology - and who understands, from experience, that closing the gap between them is fundamentally a leadership problem. You will set the agenda, build the model, and be held accountable for the outcomes.
WHAT YOU WILL DO
1. Set Strategic Direction for FM Technology- As the senior business leader within the product organization, you will own the strategic vision for how FM technology serves the business - shaping the roadmap from the operations-out, not the technology-in.
- Define and maintain the business product strategy across the FM technology portfolio, ensuring every investment is traceable to a measurable operational outcome
- Partner with technology leadership to develop and govern a shared, integrated roadmap - one that reflects operational reality, client needs, and commercial priorities
- Own the business investment framework: consolidate fragmented business cases into a coherent portfolio, eliminate duplication, and ensure capital allocation reflects strategic priorities
- Lead platform strategy decisions - including build, buy, and partner options - grounded in outcome requirements, not feature preferences
- Develop the long-term vision for AI-enabled FM delivery and ensure innovation investment is directed by business outcomes, not technology trends
2. Build and Lead the Business Product Organization- You will build the business-side product team from the ground up - embedding business product managers within technology product teams and creating a co-ownership model that makes shared accountability real.
- Define the Business Product Manager role and the pairing model with technology product counterparts - designing an operating structure where business and technology share both the goal and the scorecard
- Recruit, develop, and retain a team of business product managers organized around customer personas and operational domains
- Establish clear outcome accountability for each product area: Business PMs own the business OKRs; technology PMs deliver against them
- Create the talent environment that makes FM technology an attractive destination for high-caliber product leaders
- Model the leadership behavior that makes cross-functional partnership work - setting the standard for how business and technology leaders collaborate
3. Own the OKR Framework and Governance- You are accountable for the outcomes - not just the inputs. The OKR framework is the mechanism that makes shared accountability operational, and governing it is a core leadership responsibility.
- Define and maintain the FM technology business OKR framework, covering platform stability, adoption, operational value, business-technology partnership, and innovation
- Negotiate OKR alignment with technology leadership before each planning cycle - shared goals are the foundation of the operating model, not a formality
- Constitute and lead the governance bodies that make product decisions binding: executive oversight, investment prioritization, and product council forums
- Establish the measurement infrastructure where it does not yet exist - defining baselines, tracking progress, and reporting to senior leadership on outcomes
- Escalate and resolve when technology delivery diverges from business need - holding the operating model accountable, not just observing it
4. Drive Platform Adoption and Operational Enablement- A platform that is technically capable but not operationally embedded has not delivered value. Adoption is a leadership responsibility before it is a change management task.
- Own the adoption strategy across the FM technology portfolio - shifting from deployment-led to value-led adoption, where accounts choose the platform because of what it delivers
- Ensure every deployment has a documented adoption plan with named accountability, structured support, and defined success metrics
- Partner with program management and change leadership to build the organizational capability that sustains adoption at scale
- Create a structured feedback loop from field operations into product prioritization - ensuring the voice of the operator shapes what gets built and in what sequence
- Lead the account-level inventory and standardization work that establishes a common operating baseline across the portfolio
5. Enable the Business to Tell and Sell the Technology Story- Technology investment creates commercial value only when the business can articulate it. Translating platform capability into a field-ready, client-facing narrative is part of this role's mandate.
- Build the internal narrative that helps account teams, sector leaders, and client-facing executives understand and articulate the value of FM technology investment
- Integrate technology capability into account pursuits, renewal conversations, and client QBRs - positioning platform differentiation as a commercial advantage
- Partner with sales, marketing, and sector leadership to ensure the technology story is consistent, credible, and grounded in measurable outcomes
- Brief senior leaders who are making platform decisions and ensure they have the operational context to make them well
WHAT YOU BRING
This role requires a senior leader who has operated at the intersection of business operations and enterprise technology - and who has been held accountable for outcomes that depended on both. You don't need to be an engineer. You need to be someone engineers respect and operators trust.
Required
- 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in facilities management, real estate services, or a closely related operational domain - with direct accountability for large-scale service delivery or operational transformation
- Demonstrated experience leading at the intersection of business operations and enterprise technology - you have been the accountable leader when the outcome depended on both sides delivering
- Track record of building and leading high-performing cross-functional teams, including teams that span business and technology functions
- Experience co-leading a product, platform, or technology program with a technology counterpart - you understand what shared accountability looks like in practice, and you have made it work
- Proven ability to translate operational complexity into clear product strategy and requirements - and to hold technology teams accountable for delivering against business outcomes
- Experience designing and implementing governance and operating model structures from scratch - you have built the process, staffed it, and made it durable
- Strong executive presence with the ability to influence decisions at the most senior levels of a large, matrixed organization - without relying on direct authority
- Experience leading organizational change and transformation - including building new capabilities, restructuring teams, and managing transitions without disrupting delivery
Strongly Preferred
- Experience with enterprise FM technology platforms, CMMS systems, or work order management tools in a large-scale outsourced FM environment
- Background in product strategy, product management, or a hybrid business-technology role that required you to set direction and own outcomes simultaneously
- Familiarity with OKR frameworks and how to make them operationally binding - not aspirational documents
- Experience in a professional services or outsourced services environment where technology serves as a delivery enabler and commercial differentiator
- Track record of building adoption for technology platforms in environments where the field has historically operated without structured digital tools
- Experience making the case for technology investment to executive leadership - building evidence-based business cases grounded in operational outcomes
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future
CBRE GWS
CBRE Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) works with clients to make real estate a meaningful contributor to organizational productivity and performance. Our account management model is at the heart of our client-centric approach to delivering integrated real estate solutions. Each client is entrusted with a dedicated leader and is supported by regional and global resources, leveraging the industry's most robust platform. CBRE GWS delivers consistent, measurably superior outcomes for our clients at every stage of the lifecycle, and across industries and geographies.
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