Director, Design Management – Amenity & Hospitality Design

Description

Global Real Estate and Workplace Experience (GREWE) is a global team at American Express (Amex) responsible for the full lifecycle of planning, execution, and operations of Amex real estate. GREWE supports over 75,000 Amex colleagues and contractors in over eight million square feet of property located in 59 countries.

GREWE’s purpose is to provide the world’s best workplace experience at a competitive cost, for every colleague, at every site, every day.

The GREWE Property Development team is responsible for delivering a new global headquarters from concept to completion. They lead the full lifecycle of the project—overseeing design, coordinating construction, managing stakeholders, and ensuring the building is fully prepared for operations. This team is responsible for ensuring the headquarters is delivered on time, within budget, and aligned with organizational goals and future workplace needs.

Responsibilities

Director, Design Management – Amenity & Hospitality Design

This role will operate in close partnership with the Project Engineering & Design Director (Design Integration Lead), who serves as the overall integrator of the design intent, design governance, quality assurance, and cross-project design integration.

Create Hospitality-Inspired Experiences That Differentiate American Express

The Director, Amenity & Hospitality Design will be responsible for creating the spaces that transform a workplace into a destination.

This leader will oversee the vision, design, and execution of all employee-facing amenities, shared destinations, hospitality environments, and experience-driven spaces throughout the headquarters program.

Translating colleague experience, hospitality, and amenity strategy into distinctive destination spaces that strengthen culture, foster connection, and create compelling reasons for colleagues to choose the workplace. From wellness facilities and food experiences to event venues and social destinations, this role will create environments that foster connection, wellbeing, culture, engagement, and a sense of belonging.

The successful candidate will bring a hospitality mindset to the workplace, applying principles from leading hospitality, lifestyle, wellness, and service environments to elevate the colleague experience.

Responsibilities Include

The Design Management Director serves as the owner's lead representative responsible for integrating architecture, engineering, workplace strategy, digital enablement, cost, schedule, risk, and construction delivery to ensure the project achieves its business, operational, and design objectives.

• Partner with the Design Integration Lead to integrate hospitality, wellness, food service, conference, event, and destination spaces into a unified headquarters experience.

• Ensure amenity and hospitality environments reinforce the overall project design vision and complement workplace, architectural, and public realm experiences.

• Collaborate with the Design Integration Lead to establish hospitality-inspired design standards, quality benchmarks, and user experience expectations across all amenity environments.

• Translate business, amenity, operational, and brand requirements into deliverable design solutions.
• Ensure alignment between executive vision, user needs, and project delivery objectives.
• Lead all architectural and interior design activities across concept, schematic design, design development, and construction documentation.
• Oversee amenity, hospitality, conference, wellness environments.
• Maintain design quality and design intent throughout construction and commissioning.
• Coordinate all engineering disciplines including Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Protection, Vertical Transportation, Acoustics, Security, Technology, and Specialty Systems.
• Ensure all engineering systems are fully integrated and coordinated.
• Lead design reviews, clash detection, constructability reviews, and technical risk assessments.
• Manage engineering scope, design changes, and technical decision-making processes.
• Integrate Digital and Smart Building requirements into the design process.
• Coordinate building technology, workplace technology, AV, IoT, workplace experience platforms, and smart building infrastructure.
• Support implementation of BIM, digital twins, data integration strategies, smart building platforms, and operational readiness requirements.
• Coordinate technology stakeholders to ensure future-ready amenity and hospitality environments.
• Lead design-to-budget management throughout all phases.
• Review estimates, cost plans, and value engineering opportunities.
• Evaluate cost impacts of design decisions and design changes.
• Manage scope growth and support change control governance.
• Optimize value while protecting user experience, quality, and functionality.
• Lead the evaluation of proposed value engineering initiatives, cost optimization measures, and technical modifications to ensure business objectives are achieved without compromising the approved design vision.
• Integrate all design activities into the master project schedule.
• Manage consultant deliverables, approvals, procurement dependencies, and long-lead packages.
• Monitor design critical path activities and drive schedule recovery plans when required.
• Coordinate design sequencing with construction, procurement, and commissioning activities.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate design, engineering, cost, schedule, procurement, and operational risks.
• Maintain design risk registers and participate in project risk reviews.
• Proactively address design coordination gaps, constructability issues, and technical challenges.
• Escalate critical risks that could impact project objectives.
• Lead architects, engineers, workplace consultants, specialty consultants, and vendor partners.
• Manage consultant procurement, contracts, performance, schedules, and deliverables.
• Ensure coordination across multiple design and engineering disciplines.
• Drive accountability for quality, responsiveness, and delivery performance.
• Partner with Construction Management and Project Controls teams to ensure smooth delivery.
• Review RFIs, submittals, shop drawings, mock-ups, and change requests.
• Support commissioning, turnover, and operational readiness activities.
• Champion amenity and hospitality excellence and employee experience outcomes.
• Balance operational efficiency with hospitality and user experience expectations.
• Lead design review, approvals, and change management processes.
• Prepare executive-level presentations and decision materials.
• Maintain decision logs, design registers, and approval records.
• Provide clear reporting on design progress, cost impacts, schedule impacts, risks, and key decisions.

Impact

• The Amenity & Hospitality Design Director will help create the moments and experiences that make colleagues want to come to the office, collaborate with one another, and connect with the American Express culture.

Why This Role Matter's

This leaders will shape the physical experience of the American Express global headquarters.

• The Amenity & Hospitality Design Director will focus on how colleagues connect, recharge, socialize, learn, and experience the workplace.

• This role will play a critical role in delivering GREWE's vision of: Providing the best workplace experience for every colleague, every day, at a competitive cost.

Partnership with the Project Engineering & Design Director (Design Integration Lead)

• Partner closely with the Project Engineering & Design Director (Design Integration Lead) to translate executive vision, business objectives, workplace strategy, and brand aspirations into coordinated design solutions that support the overall headquarters design vision.
• Execute design responsibilities within established program design standards, design governance frameworks, and approved design principles established for the Project.
• Collaborate with the Design Integration Lead to ensure all workplace, amenity, hospitality, base building, and specialty design elements function as a cohesive and integrated user experience.
• Lead formal design reviews with the Design Integration Lead and other key project team members to ensure consistency of design quality, user experience, materiality, functionality, and brand expression across all project workstreams.
• Support the Design Integration Lead in maintaining continuity of design intent throughout programming, design development, construction documentation, procurement, construction, commissioning, and project closeout.
• Escalate design conflicts, scope overlaps, competing stakeholder requirements, and cross-disciplinary coordination issues for resolution through established design governance processes.
• Coordinate closely with other project design leaders and consultants to ensure assigned design packages align with overall program objectives, approved standards, and project-wide design decisions.
• Participate in mock-up reviews, material evaluations, prototype testing, and design validation activities to confirm that executed work aligns with approved design intent.
• Contribute to design quality assurance processes and field verification activities to ensure constructed work reflects approved designs, standards, and user experience objectives.
• Collaborate with the Design Integration Lead during construction administration to review RFIs, submittals, shop drawings, mock-ups, substitutions, and field conditions affecting design outcomes.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for assigned design areas while supporting program-wide integration and consistency across all design disciplines.

How Will You Make an Impact in This Role?

• Serve as the owner's design leader for assigned project areas while operating within the program-wide design governance framework established for the project.
• Collaborate with the Design Integration Lead to ensure all design solutions support the approved headquarters vision, design standards, quality expectations, and user experience objectives.
• Drive excellence within assigned design scope while contributing to integrated, program-wide design outcomes across all workstreams.
• Participate in design certification and quality assurance reviews to verify that completed work aligns with approved design intent and established project standards.
• Support program leadership in preventing fragmentation across multiple consultants, delivery packages, and stakeholder groups through disciplined design coordination and governance.
• Establish and maintain design quality standards across all phases of project delivery. Ensuring seamless integration and alignment with other parts of the project.
• Lead programming, concept development, design reviews, and milestone approvals.
• Lead Target Value Design approach and as necessary guide value engineering efforts while preserving design intent and user experience.
• Direct external architects, engineers, specialty consultants, and vendor partners.
• Lead consultant procurement, selection, contract negotiations, and performance management.
• Integrate design activities into overall program schedules and construction sequencing plans.
• Oversee design reviews, decision-making, approvals, and change control processes.
• Build strong partnerships across project team, executive leadership and business units.
• Present recommendations and design updates to executive steering committees and HQ Stakeholder groups.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Architecture, Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Construction Management, or related field.
• 15+ years of progressive experience in architecture, interior design, workplace design, hospitality design, design management, or corporate real estate project delivery.
• Minimum 5 years of owner-side experience leading large-scale corporate, commercial, hospitality, or headquarters projects.
• Proactive critical thinking and qualitative/quantitative problem-solving skills (issue identification, problem structuring, analysis, development of recommendations)
• Exceptional organizational skills and ability to focus on details while not losing sight of the big picture
• Ability to easily partner with and influence senior leaders across the AXP organization
• Strong team player, ability to take direction and remain flexible and adaptable to changing priorities.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, leadership, and influencing skills.

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the United States is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.

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