Principal Specialist Jobs in Johannesburg

About the job

RE & Project FOTO Design is new approach taken towards this role.

To our business it has become clear that the two items work hand in hand.

With the emphasis on the future of our office spaces, Employee Experience, ED&I, Sustainability, Project Management, SHE Knowledge, Security, Wellbeing, Branding, Design fixtures (and many more) it’s imperative that we align all these to ensure seamless delivery of projects. From the start of the project life cycle through to post occupancy evaluation. The role will cover the areas of expertise from start to ensure best workplace design standards are in place that will cover a holistic experience for our employees and drive the above-mentioned objectives working closely with the Real Estate Lead & Service Delivery Manager for Africa as well as, DXP and other stakeholders.

The support this role brings from a RE perspective will ensure that all the requirements of the office space is met as per the above objectives but will also support the RE Lead on a day-to-day basis supports and manage Africa’s RE portfolio ensuring business needs, minimising of costs, and taking opportunities to maximise value against balanced risk is in place.

Role Purpose

We celebrate what makes us different, and there is no greater example of that than combining these objectives into one team who come from all walks of life but are united by a strong sense of wanting to create great places that have a positive impact on our people, our planet, and our pocket. The role is the interface between local projects and the global strategic vision for our future workplaces and RE, that you will support as part of the role.

A typical week might include, closing out RE Negotiations, aligning with the stakeholders prior to ensure the space aligns to RE & FOTO needs, building a capex budget to support a project by understanding the market costings / regulations. the Leading a project kick off, mobilising a space utilisation study, deploying the employee experience and workplace. As mentioned with the emphasis on combining FOTO projects the role will engage with, the DXP team and SDM closely to understand and drive these projects where any input is needed from RE.

Attention to detail in both the RE aspects of a property to the requirements of a project is crucial, A successful Real Estate, Design & Projects Manager will ideally have a background in: Design & Space planning/ Employee Experience, strong financial planning skills / RE Knowledge covering, best practices, Contract methods, service level agreement Mythology, strengths and weakness of third party delivery models, Key global and local service providers, Commercial and real estate transactions, lease administration, strategic real estate profile planning / Ability to manage suppliers, ensuring services delivered by strategic partners meet the cost and performance ( KPIs) across all projects. Experience of working remotely with projects. Balancing workload to meet deliverables and adhering to the Unilever Hybrid ways of working.

Responsibilities

• Project: Understanding the project scope and ensuring such fits into the Future of the Office (FOTO) requirements
• Project: Joining Project Meetings and leading the RE FOTO requirements through the process.
• Project: Close interaction with SDM & other relevant stakeholders on the project process and take accountability for what is in the role’s space.
• Project: Delivering corporate FOTO design standards
• Projects: Building CAPEX budgets to support business cases and delivering in target
• Projects: Deliver and assist DXP with space planning of property to ensure the property(ies) in question align with not just now but where we are driving our property portfolio and design focus to in the future.
• Project:
• Project & Design: Building of Design business cases and including such in the RE building case.
• Project & Design: Including of Mechanical / Technical / Soft Service needs by close engagement with workplace and Design (This item is understanding the aspects to deliver not by sole input of other stakeholders)
• Project & Design: Flag risks in Project area and RE
• Project & Design: Contribute into value engineering analysis.
• RE: To embrace and adopt Global real estate and delivering the RE portfolio strategic plans and to execute such plans to ensure the RE portfolio enhances our current business agenda, aligning with global and local policies and guidelines such as schedule of authorities, agile working, employee experiences and Facility and Building Services. The plans must be comprehensive covering all aspects of workplace.
• RE: Deliver transaction management service to business, for smaller value transactions through leading and managing 3rd party RE or Service Providers or self-perform for all property types (office, warehouse, manufacturing, R&D, retail) within the geographies. Also support RE Lead in more complex transactions.
• RE: To manage and report on the identified opportunities in the cluster to sell non-core assets and drive down cost within the RE Portfolio to increase efficiencies in alignment with business needs and market trends and forecast.
• RE: To support the RE operating model by ensuring data, governance, clarity on roles is documented
• RE: Ensure our critical property data in our platform is accurate and up to date through working with outsourced RE and other providers (e.g., market values, terms of leases, number of people, square meters, costs to run, etc.). Manage KPI’s that enable benchmarking with other companies, across Unilever and within local markets to identify opportunities for value creation, taking opportunities for quick win returns where available.
• RE: Work with outsourced 3rd party provider to provide and support Strategic Portfolio Planning services for applicable geographies, and work closely with Data & Analytics team to ensure strategies are locally sound but globally aligned.
• RE: Support as a change agent with key stakeholders to drive value and values vis a vis real estate principles and policies.
• RE: To further expand the key focus, the responsibilities include supporting the RE Lead in:
• RE: The overall positioning, governance of policies and process for plans creations and transactions in cluster, as well as the financial performance of the portfolio/cluster assigned
• RE: Capture the business units’ space demands and real estate market trends and thought leadership in strategy sessions with business units to monitor the delivery of the agreed solutions considering all relevant occupancy scenarios.
• RE: Support in managing occupancy costs data by understanding business units’ demands, market trends and space planning requirements to implement the best occupancy strategies and commercial options for the business (including sale/lease backs, adjustments of rent to market, etc.).
• RE: Support the creation of integrated strategic portfolio plans by geography/key business units (where applicable) to the assigned responsible clusters that look holistically at business unit plans to identify and leverage opportunities between like requirements and functions and manage them on a regular basis. This is done through working with different internal and external business partners, including 3rd party providers. These plans will include specific scenario planning of key country/city plan taking alignment with the Service Delivery Director and business stakeholders. Plans should result in strategy that ensures that the portfolio supports the growth agenda of Unilever and is aligned to broader business goals.
• RE: Track the delivery of agreed activities for portfolio in RE and Design, driving the clusters to deliver approved plans and in strategies development related to transaction.
• RE: Provide plans that optimize space for customers and employee attraction and retention aligned to EX
• RE: Provide timely and accurate market data updates and forecasts of occupancies in all systems as required by Business relating to our properties (Planon/ Rainbow and others)
• RE: Prepare integrated portfolio strategies that look holistically at business unit plans to identify and leverage opportunities between like requirements and functions.
• RE: Support in the analysis of the optimal balance of leased and owned facilities through financial analyses of alternative lease and ownership strategies, based on agreed assumptions and accounting criteria.
• RE: Prepare and support comprehensive business cases/ MOC and other documentations needed for both aspects of the role, that will be utilized to obtain consensus and approval from Business Units and Senior Management.
• RE: Develop a good working knowledge of the systems and reporting tools used across RE & Design
• RE: Reporting ETS requirements for Workplace reports – e.g., BER / Metrics reporting on offices
• RE: Establish and maintain good working relationships with the teams responsible for keeping Workplace data up to date
• RE: Work to improve reporting capabilities where needed
• RE: Manage and flag ahead of time (no less than 3 months) any renewals or exit periods of any leases
• RE: Update RE lead on all meetings via a weekly update tracker
• RE: Update RE Lead of any risks relating to any properties in the portfolio
• RE: Take accountability of the portfolio to allow for optimized growth
• RE: Ensure Degreed trainings are done
• RE: Ensure Deadlines outside of the above linked to Workday and quarterly connects are done on time
• RE: Leading external meetings with global partners / landlords / and other parties and ensuring feedback is given to RE Lead within same week and urgent items to be flagged within 24 hours

Key Interactions

Designers & Architects Space Planning Project Managers Real Estate FOTO Strategy Workplace SHE Security IT EX

Required Skills And Experience

• Strong interest in design / space planning, and a strong desire to understand the future of commercial office designs.
• The ability to work effectively with diverse groups & having strong respectful organizational skills.
• Analytical mindset with experience in conducting both quantitative and qualitative research.
• Storyteller who is confident with leading presentations and landing a narrative.
• Visualiser that can communicate complex ideas in an engaging, clear, and impactful way.
• Ability to read construction/floor plans & understand dimensioning a site. And understanding the mechanical, technical aspects of such.
• Space planner able to produce test-fit layouts and designs proposals.
• Multitasker of both Future of the Office projects and RE deliverables.
• Agile advocate who has embraced agile project delivery and agile working and able to work and adhere to Hybrid office working or on request of RE Lead when a F2F is required due to workflow.
• Knowledgeable in workplace design, planning and people’s behaviours from point of entry to full flow of day.

• Deep thinker keeping on top of trends, new ways of working and industry research.
• Energetic, action and people oriented.
• Strong Analytical and Organizational capabilities
• Experience in the engagement of stakeholders at different levels.
• Worked in a matrixed, complex organization will be an advantage.
• Financial acumen required to review strategic plans and scenarios.
• Real Estate (RE) industry knowledge including the following.
• Best practices
• Contracting methods
• Service Level Agreement methodology
• Strengths and weaknesses of third-party delivery models
• Key global, and regional service providers, and strengths and weaknesses of those providers
• Previous experience managing commercial real estate transactions
• Previous experience managing a regional lease administration program.
• Previous experience leading a strategic real estate portfolio planning program, and successful experience tying corporate real estate objectives to business objectives.
• Ability to manage suppliers, ensuring the Services delivered by Strategic Partners meet the cost and service level expectations and requirements of the Unilever business. Experience in managing Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) across geographic countries.
• Experience of working regionally, bringing understanding and insight into the needs of other regions to the development of these service operations.
• On time delivery and time management
• On time reporting

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.