Head of Operational Excellence

The Mandate

Newmark is building the operating model that matches its ambition — faster execution, sharper decisions, and a firm that scales without adding friction. The Head of Operational Excellence is the person who makes that real. This role is the firm’s accountability layer between strategy and results: ensuring that every priority the Strategy Committee approves actually lands in the business: on time, with the right people behind it, and with outcomes that move the needle. This is not a chief of staff, a PMO director, or a strategy analyst. This person drives high-impact improvement across a complex, matrixed organization and is accountable when progress does not happen fast enough.

What This Role Owns

Single-sentence accountability: Drive and govern Newmark’s operational excellence agenda — from initiative intake through execution, adoption, and measurable outcome delivery.

• Govern a live, prioritized initiative portfolio — every approved initiative has a named owner, funded budget, milestones, and adoption plan.
• Change lands in the business. Approval is not success. Adoption is success.
• Keep the CSO’s agenda operationally grounded — ensuring direction is executable and flagging when it is not.

Key Responsibilities

1. Lead and Govern the Operational Excellence Agenda

• Maintain the enterprise initiative portfolio (active, pipeline, backlog); run Strategy Committee operations including intake, pre-screen, decision memos, and post-decision tracking.
• Publish and maintain a live initiative dashboard (status, milestones, budget, blockers) updated bi-weekly; enforce accountability without owning authority.
• Audit active work decisively — rescue what can be saved, kill what is stalled.

2. Drive Workflow Redesign

• Conduct structured audits of existing workflows; develop specific redesign recommendations and own implementation: not just the design document.
• Ensure data integrity is built into every redesign; define measurable before-and-after benchmarks for every change.

3. Lead Change Management

• Build and operate a repeatable change management framework; assess change readiness before launch, surface resistance early, and measure adoption — not just deployment.
• Own internal communications on operational improvement — how change gets messaged to producers and business line leaders.

4. Drive Cross-Functional Execution

• Hold technology, finance, and operations accountable to timelines; translate strategic priorities into sequenced operating plans; resolve cross-functional conflicts before they escalate.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with Strategy Committee members, business line heads, and market leaders.

What You Bring

• Transformation execution and operational excellence experience: has led and delivered high-stakes, enterprise-wide programs in a complex, matrixed organization; owned outcomes, not just workstreams.
• Operational depth: understands systems, org dynamics, budget cycles, and informal levers; Newmark or CRE experience strongly preferred.
• Change management and workflow redesign: has built adoption, managed resistance, diagnosed root causes, and measured behavior change in practice.
• Cross-functional influence: earns credibility through knowledge and consistency, not seniority; can hold peers accountable without direct authority.
• Technology fluency: understands how CRM, workflow automation, and data infrastructure enable operational transformation; can direct and hold technology partners accountable.
• Communication and judgment: operates at the executive level and in the field; knows when to push, pause, or escalate.

This Role Is Not a Fit If...

• You prefer designing operational improvements and handing off execution to others.
• You are most comfortable in an advisory or consulting posture.
• You need positional authority to hold people accountable.

You measure success by deliverables and milestones rather than business outcomes and adoption