Net Zero Program Manager Lead

About this role

Net Zero Program Manager Lead

New York, NY

Job Description Summary

The Net Zero Program Manager Lead combines Net Zero subject-matter leadership with day-to-day program management of the client's decarbonization portfolio. The role shapes the roadmap, guides technical and investment priorities, and converts strategy into an executable pipeline of projects.

Job Description

Working with Account Executives, client leaders, project teams, and Sustainability specialists, this position maintains control of scope, schedule, budget, risk, dependencies, decisions, and performance. The successful candidate brings credible sustainability and building-decarbonization expertise together with the project-delivery discipline to move initiatives from concept through implementation and verified results.

Key Responsibilities

Program Delivery and Governance

• Lead day-to-day management of a portfolio of Net Zero and decarbonization projects across multiple sites and workstreams.
• Translate program objectives into defined scopes, work plans, milestones, ownership, and measurable outcomes.
• Maintain the integrated program roadmap, master schedule, governance calendar, and project pipeline.
• Establish meeting cadences, decision rights, escalation paths, and accountability across internal teams and service partners.
• Drive action-item closure, resolve cross-project dependencies, and escalate decisions that require executive direction.

Schedule Cost Risk and Change Management

• Manage schedule baselines, critical-path activities, milestones, resource constraints, and recovery plans across the portfolio.
• Maintain program-level visibility into approved budgets, commitments, actuals, forecasts, variances, and future funding needs.
• Partner with finance, procurement, and project teams to reconcile cost information and support annual and multi-year capital planning.
• Maintain risk, issue, assumption, dependency, decision, and change logs with clear owners, due dates, and mitigation actions.
• Apply change control to material changes in scope, schedule, budget, or expected outcomes and elevate variances with recommended corrective actions.

Reporting and Performance Management

• Produce standardized weekly and monthly reporting on schedule, cost, milestones, risks, decisions, and program performance.
• Develop executive dashboards and governance materials that convert detailed project information into concise, actionable insights.
• Define and maintain program KPIs for project delivery, capital deployment, energy, emissions, savings, and other agreed outcomes.
• Coordinate source-data collection and validation across project, sustainability, engineering, finance, and data teams.

Net Zero Strategy and Project Execution

• Serve as a Net Zero subject-matter lead for Account Executives and client stakeholders, advising on decarbonization pathways, building systems, electrification, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and emissions-reduction priorities.
• Own and maintain the portfolio decarbonization roadmap, including asset-level opportunities, equipment-replacement strategies, capital requirements, implementation timing, and expected energy and carbon outcomes.
• Establish evaluation and prioritization criteria that balance carbon impact, financial performance, operational needs, asset strategy, regulatory requirements, and delivery readiness.
• Guide initiatives from opportunity identification through feasibility, business case, approval, design, procurement, implementation, commissioning, measurement and verification, and closeout.
• Partner with engineering and technical specialists to validate assumptions and ensure projects meet agreed scope, schedule, budget, quality, and performance requirements.

Stakeholder and Vendor Coordination

• Coordinate client stakeholders, C&W account teams, project managers, engineering, sustainability, facilities, procurement, finance, utilities, landlords, consultants, and contractors.
• Facilitate governance meetings, working sessions, budget reviews, and executive updates; document decisions and required actions.
• Support scopes of work, RFPs, vendor evaluations, contracting, and supplier performance management as required.
• Hold internal and external teams accountable for agreed deliverables and communicate effectively with both technical and executive audiences.

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Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, construction or project management, sustainability, business, real estate, or a related discipline.
• Seven or more years of progressively responsible experience spanning program or project management and Net Zero, energy, sustainability, engineering, or building decarbonization.
• Demonstrated command of scope, schedule, budget, forecasting, risk, change control, governance, and executive reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to develop decarbonization roadmaps, evaluate energy and carbon opportunities, and translate technical strategy into executable projects.
• Experience developing integrated schedules, budgets, milestone plans, dashboards, and decision-ready reporting.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams in a matrixed organization and influence outcomes without direct authority.
• Strong analytical, communication, facilitation, and client-service skills, including experience presenting to senior leaders.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint and experience with enterprise project, program, or reporting platforms.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience delivering Net Zero, energy-efficiency, electrification, renewable-energy, building-performance, MEP, or capital-improvement programs across a large commercial real estate portfolio.
• Experience developing business cases and evaluating projects using financial, operational, energy, and carbon criteria.
• Experience in financial services, corporate real estate, or another large global enterprise environment.
• PMP or comparable program-management credential; relevant credentials such as LEED AP, CEM, or CMVP are a plus

Ability to travel 25%

Cushman & Wakefield also provides eligible employees with an opportunity to enroll in a variety of benefit programs, generally including health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life, and disability insurance programs, and paid and unpaid time away from work.

In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, Cushman and Wakefield provide eligible employees with competitive pay, which may vary depending on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, total hours worked, job type, business line, and applicability of collective bargaining agreements.

The compensation that will be offered to the successful candidate will depend on factors such as whether the position is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the geographic area in which the work will be performed, market pay rates in that area, and the candidate's experience and qualifications.

The company will not pay less than minimum wage for this role.

The compensation for the position is: $ 144,500.00 - $170,000.00

Cushman & Wakefield is an Equal Opportunity employer to all protected groups, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. Discrimination of any type will not be tolerated.

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position at Cushman & Wakefield, please call the ADA line at 1-888-365-5406 or email. Please refer to the job title and job location when you contact us.