Process & Operational Excellence Manager – Real Estate

About the Role: The Process & Operational Excellence Manager- Real Estate is responsible for optimizing and re-engineering RAKEZ’s end-to-end leasing and real estate portfolio management processes across a diversified asset base spanning land, warehouses, office space, labour accommodation, and retail. CORE RESPONSIBILITIES: Real Estate Process Optimization & Value Stream Design - Own the end-to-end mapping and re-engineering of leasing and portfolio management value streams across all asset classes- land, industrial/warehouse, commercial/office, labour accommodation and retail. - Map current-state (“as-is”) real estate and leasing processes, quantify inefficiencies, and design optimized “to-be” processes that eliminate non-value-add activities, manual handshakes and rework. - Optimize the full lease lifecycle - enquiry, availability and space planning, offer, contracting, activation, billing, renewal, amendment, termination and handover. - Drive improvements in asset utilization, occupancy, vacancy management and revenue realization across the portfolio. - Standardize processes for allocations, sub-leasing, fit-outs, handovers and asset lifecycle events across the estate. Real Estate Systems & Technology Enablement - Act as the lead business process stakeholder in defining requirements for a fit-for-purpose real estate / asset management system, translating business ambition into functional and process requirements. - Assess the current SAP RE-FX (RFEX) leasing capability against business needs, identify gaps, and shape the roadmap toward an integrated real estate management platform. - Partner closely with IT, who are accountable for solution delivery, to ensure the Process team’s “to-be” processes and value streams are correctly embedded in the target system. - Define data models, master data governance and process controls required for accurate real estate and lease data. - Ensure seamless integration of real estate workflows with SAP ERP (finance, billing) and Salesforce CRM (customer and leasing front-end). Productivity & Turnaround Time (TAT) Improvement - Establish TAT baselines and targets for key leasing and real estate processes (e.g., lease activation, renewal, amendment, handover) and drive improvement. - Reduce manual touchpoints and handshakes across leasing and portfolio workflows through automation and process simplification. - Build TAT and productivity trends month-on-month, call out anomalies, and recommend corrective actions. - Conduct DILO (Day in the Life Of) studies for real estate and leasing teams to build elemental work-content estimates and identify optimization opportunities. Data, Reporting & Decision Support - Build baseline metrics and dashboards for portfolio performance, occupancy, yield, lease TAT, revenue leakage and asset utilization. - Conduct profitability and cost analysis of real estate operations, and present findings and recommendations to senior management for real estate planning and investment decisions. Process Re-Engineering & Continuous Improvement - Apply Process Re-engineering and Lean Six Sigma methodologies to customer journey improvement. - Build and sustain a continuous improvement culture within the real estate and leasing functions, and coach stakeholders on process improvement principles. - Benchmark real estate operating models and best practices across leading developers and asset managers. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE & SKILLS: Educational & Professional Qualifications - Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Real Estate, Business, Data Science, Operations Research or a related field; equivalent areas with suitable experience considered. - A master’s degree (e.g., Real Estate, Business, Engineering) is a plus. - 6 to 10 years of relevant experience, including substantial hands-on real estate process/operations experience. Real Estate Domain Expertise (Essential) - Proven real estate process optimization experience gained at leading real estate developers, asset/property managers, REITs, developers of economic/industrial zones, or top-tier consulting firms. - Strong understanding of the leasing lifecycle, portfolio and asset management, and real estate operations across multiple asset classes (land, industrial, commercial, residential/labour accommodation, retail). - Hands-on experience with real estate / property management systems (SAP RE-FX, Yardi, VTS, MRI, Planon, Archibus, IWMS or equivalent), including requirements definition and implementation. Process, Technology & Analytics - Working knowledge of SAP ERP and Salesforce CRM, and adept at applying agile methodologies to transformation projects.