Head of Corporate Real Estate & Workplace Strategy

Lead the Future of Workplace & Real Estate Strategy at M&T Bank

This is a unique opportunity to shape how a leading community-focused financial institution designs, delivers, and experiences work. As the Director of Corporate Real Estate & Workplace Strategy, you will define and deliver the future of M&T’s workplace, impacting how thousands of employees collaborate, innovate, and serve our customers every day. You will guide a multi‑year transformation of a real estate portfolio that fuels growth, strengthens culture, defines how our employees work, and deepens our commitment to the communities we serve.

About The Portfolio

• 1,200 properties (35% owned / 65% leased)
• ~8.8MM sq. ft. portfolio (56% owned / 44% leased)
• Locations across 28 U.S. states and 5 countries

Workplace strategy has become a critical driver of organizational performance—impacting talent attraction, productivity, culture, and financial outcomes. In this role, you will:

• Reimagine the future of work at enterprise scale—aligning space, technology, and human-centered design.
• Modernize a significant and high-visibility real estate portfolio.
• Build and elevate a strategic function that sets the long-term operating model for how M&T works.
• Influence decisions at the intersection of people, technology, and real estate across the enterprise.

In this leadership role, you will build and execute a comprehensive strategy that aligns M&T’s real estate footprint with business priorities and workforce trends to evolve customer and employee expectations.

You will:

• Define and lead enterprise-wide location strategy, portfolio planning, and real estate decisioning.
• Modernize space planning and workplace design to elevate employee experience, collaboration, productivity, and flexibility.
• Leverage data, utilization of analytics, and emerging technologies to create innovative, future‑ready workplaces.

You will oversee a diverse and strategically important real estate footprint—balancing cost efficiency, sustainability, risk, flexibility, and human-centered design.

Your scope will include:

• Enterprise site selection, capital project planning, and lease strategy.
• Long-range real estate forecasting and portfolio design.
• Ensuring the portfolio supports enterprise growth, customer access, and employee engagement.

This role is responsible for creating the tools, processes, and capabilities that define a best-in-class corporate real estate function and team.

You will:

• Build and lead a dynamic organization spanning workplace strategy, space planning, analytics, real estate operations, and project management.
• Partner across HR, Finance, IT, Security, Risk, and business leadership to anchor decisions in data and strategic alignment.
• Guide risk-informed decisions that steward millions in operational and capital investments.

The team you shape will be grounded in innovation, data fluency, sustainability, customer-centric design, and operational excellence.

Ideal candidates will have:

• 12+ years of leadership experience in corporate real estate, workplace strategy, facilities management, or portfolio management.
• A proven ability to build enterprise level‑ real estate strategies and modern workplace models.
• Deep experience transforming workplace and space planning in hybrid, flexible, or distributed environments.
• Strong financial and analytical capability (forecasting, scenario planning, ROI modeling, utilization analytics).
• Expertise in workplace design, utilization technology, and emerging workplace tools.
• Exceptional communication, executive presence, and the ability to influence across senior leadership.

Preferred qualifications:

• MBA or relevant advanced degree.
• Experience managing large, complex, or global real estate portfolios.

This is the role for an innovative, strategic leader who wants to define the future of work at M&T Bank—building a best-in-class corporate real estate capability and shaping a portfolio that drives long-term enterprise value while creating workplaces and experiences that strengthen our culture and support the communities we serve.

M&T Bank is committed to fair, competitive, and market-informed pay for our employees. The pay range for this position is $157,500.00 - $292,500.00 Annual (USD). The successful candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, and experience will inform their specific compensation.

Location

Buffalo, New York, United States of America