Head of Global Real Estate and Workplace

About the role

Navan is seeking a Vice President, Global Real Estate and Workplace to lead the strategy, operations, and continued evolution of our global real estate portfolio and workplace experience. This role reports directly to the Chief Financial Officer and acts as a strategic partner to the executive team, ensuring that our global workplaces empower the business to scale efficiently while delivering an exceptional employee experience. The hire will shape the evolution of Navan's global footprint, balancing employee experience, operational excellence, and financial discipline to create environments that foster collaboration, innovation, and high performance. Navan operates as a lean, fast-growing company, and the ideal leader moves with urgency, makes thoughtful decisions in the face of ambiguity, and drives results through influence and execution. They bring strong commercial judgment, a bias for action, adaptability, accountability, and a customer-first mindset.

Key facts

What you'll do

Develop and execute a long-term global real estate and workplace strategy aligned with Navan's business priorities, workforce plans, and growth trajectory.

Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on portfolio strategy, workplace investments, location planning, and future capacity needs.

Translate business priorities and workforce plans into scalable, flexible workplace solutions that evolve with the business.

Continuously identify opportunities to simplify operations, improve the employee experience, and maximize the return on workplace investments.

Lead Navan's global real estate portfolio, including transactions, lease negotiations, site selection, occupancy planning, and ongoing optimization.

Balance workplace experience, operational needs, and financial performance to ensure every real estate investment supports business outcomes.

Build and manage strategic partnerships with brokers, landlords, developers, and external partners to support Navan's global growth.

Partner with Procurement to oversee workplace operations, facilities, workplace services, and office services with a customer-first mindset, ensuring employees have the environments and support they need to do their best work.

Deliver a consistent, hospitality-driven workplace experience across Navan's global offices while recognizing regional and cultural differences.

Partner closely with Finance, People, IT, Security, Legal, and business leaders to continuously evolve workplace programs as organizational needs change.

Own the global operating and capital budgets for the workplace function, driving disciplined planning, forecasting, and investment decisions.

Establish meaningful portfolio metrics to measure portfolio utilization, project delivery, financial performance, and operational effectiveness.

Lead through influence and strong vendor partnerships to deliver exceptional results within a lean operating model.

Ensure compliance with applicable regulatory, safety, and sustainability requirements across Navan's global locations.

Requirements

12+ years of progressive leadership experience spanning corporate real estate, workplace, facilities, portfolio strategy, and capital projects within high-growth, global organizations.

Demonstrated success developing and executing enterprise real estate strategies that align with business priorities and evolving workforce needs.

Deep expertise across portfolio strategy, commercial real estate transactions, workplace operations, design and construction, occupancy planning, and workplace services.

Strong financial acumen, with experience managing significant operating and capital budgets, evaluating investments, and partnering with executive leadership to make sound business decisions.

Proven ability to build, lead, and develop high-performing teams while navigating growth-stage complexities and ambiguity.

Exceptional influence and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and drive alignment among executive leadership.

Strong understanding of workplace technology and how it intersects with real estate and operational efficiency.

Commitment to fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performance workplace culture that reflects Navan's values.

Nice to have

Experience in scaling global real estate for hyper-growth technology companies.

Deep knowledge of workplace design principles and how they impact employee experience and operational efficiency.

Familiarity with sustainability and ESG considerations in real estate and workplace strategy.

Practical notes

This is a full-time position based in New York, NY.

Travel may be required to support Navan's global offices as needed.

Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship.