About WS Development

Massachusetts-based WS Development is a mixed-use developer with a singular mission: creating places people want to be. With an approach that values art, science, innovation and, above all else, people, WS strives to engage each community it serves with best-in-class installations and activations. Established in 1990, WS is a vertically-integrated company that conceptualizes, owns, operates and leases more than 100 properties that range from cutting-edge urban spaces to lifestyle and community centers. With over 22 million square feet of existing space and an additional nine million square feet under development, it is one of the largest privately-owned development firms in the country.

WS is where great ideas and great people come together to design, build, and operate some of the best loved real estate projects in the country. We live at the intersection of entrepreneurship and establishment. We have the infrastructure of decades supporting a culture of free-thinking excellence.

We expect every WS employee to feel welcomed and valued irrespective of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, marital status, parental status, cultural background and life experiences. Or for any other reason.

Overview:

With continued expansion, we are excited to add a Director of Asset Strategy and Experience who will oversee a portfolio of WS staffed properties. This new role will be responsible for inspiring and achieving excellence in everything from day-to-day operations to cross-property experiences that amplify our customer’s experience on property. This role requires an entrepreneurial spirit to identify new opportunities that will propel the portfolio forward, leverage best in class examples across multiple properties, and cultivate and grow talent within the organization in roles that include operations, marketing, and general management. The Director of Asset Strategy and Experience will have approximately 6 direct reports and an organization of XX. It is vital that a candidate possesses the ability to pivot and to make decisions in a rapidly evolving environment. The Director of Asset Strategy and Experience will report to the Vice President of Asset Strategy and Experience.

What to expect:

This is a wide-ranging role that will require you to exercise your leadership skill, your strategic planning, and your ability to execute tactically across a wide range of initiatives. No two days will be the same. The Director of Asset Strategy and Experience will be instrumental in guiding a subgroup of our premier assets by synthesizing best practices across properties, identifying areas for process improvement, diving into data to inform decisions and strategic initiatives, and solving for pain points that hold our teams and properties back from excellence.

• Lead and partner with the General Managers as a visionary to identify not just how our properties remain the best in the market, but the best in the region and nation. What programs and initiatives differentiate us? How should we develop our land? Consider trends in technology, consumer expectation/service, fulfillment, etc. in order to continue to evolve our WS offerings, enabling us to lead the industry.
• Lead the General Managers in studying and creating systems to ensure that tenant relationships are our first priority and a differentiator. How do we best support tenant initiatives? How do we best drive tenant sales? How do we best communicate successes and opportunities across the properties so we are learning across properties?
• Lead strategic project initiatives (ex. cross property farmer’s market).
• Think about and implement team growth and retention strategies that enable us to retain and grow our best talent, while also identifying new opportunities (roles and humans) that best serve the needs of our growing business.
• Responsibility for achieving excellence at each of your portfolio properties
• Responsibility for the operating budgets at each of your portfolio properties

Immediate Opportunity/Initial Success:

There are unlimited opportunities to create value in this role. One of the most critical and rewarding opportunities will be establishing yourself as a partner to the teams you lead and working closely with them to identify areas where we can leverage our best ideas across more properties and areas where we can make process improvements. You will work closely with other senior level partners in the cross functional organization and learn about their priorities so that we can further align cross functional efforts for seamless outputs, specifically driving sales for tenants at WS properties.

Potential for Growth/Longer Term Success:

As our organization grows, so does our stage as a world leader in real estate portfolios. Our portfolio is growing and the Director of Asset Strategy and Experience is an integral piece in helping us grow by inspiring our teams to achieve excellence in every sense. From supporting leasing to construction and marketing, our Field Teams touch every part of what makes WS properties “Places people want to be,” and by ensuring that we are supporting the teams and keeping our eye on what is possible in the future, we will continue to solidify WS as an industry leader.

Requirements

• College degree required with MBA or other advanced degree preferred
• 10-15 years of experience in real estate, retail, hospitality, or another consumer-focused industry
• Experience working in a fast-paced, rapidly evolving workplace
• Enthusiasm, curiosity, tenacity, entrepreneurial initiative, and a strong work ethic
• Ability to provide both strategic guidance and day-to-day tactical direction on a wide variety of cross functional topics
• A proven leader, passionate about hiring great people, leading great people, and developing great people
• Orientation toward innovation and trying new things
• Comfort with ambiguity and adaptability to change
• Consistent focus on optimization and improvement (both self-improvement and the work)
• High ethical standards and integrity
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Demonstrated success working in a collaborative manner with cross-functional teams
• Experience working in a complex cross-functional environment involving management of a wide variety of stakeholders
• Ability to derive joy from and celebrate the more frequent small wins with just as much enthusiasm as the intermittent large wins (your team’s wins are your wins and you will need to be inspired by that)
• Desire to laugh and have fun