Director, Design Management – Workplace Design

Job 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 – Workplace 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.

Shape the Future of Work at American Express

The Director, Workplace Design will be responsible for defining and delivering the environments where colleagues spend most of their workday.

This leader will drive the vision, strategy, and execution of workplace environments across the headquarters program, ensuring spaces support productivity, flexibility, innovation, wellbeing, and collaboration while reflecting the American Express brand and culture.

The role extends beyond traditional office design. The successful candidate will help define how workplace environments enable business performance, team connectivity, employee engagement, and evolving hybrid work practices for years to come.

Responsibilities Include

• Partner with the Design Integration Lead to ensure workplace environments align with the broader architectural, hospitality, amenity, and campus-wide design vision.
• Partner with the Workplace Strategy team to transform future-of-work strategy and organizational priorities into differentiated workplace design solutions, scalable standards, and experience frameworks that establish the headquarters as a benchmark for the future of work while advancing business performance and the colleague experience.
• Advocate for workplace user requirements while balancing program-wide design standards, operational objectives, and executive design direction established through design governance processes.
• Collaborate with the Design Lead to establish workplace design guidelines, planning principles, and performance standards that can be consistently applied across the headquarters program.
• Translate business, workplace strategy, 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 workplace and executive 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 workplace 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 grow…