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.
Responsibilities
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.
Scope of Work
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.
Building a Best-in-Class Corporate Real Estate Function
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.
Ideal Candidate Profile
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.
Compensation and Location
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