Head of Workplaces

The Role

The Head of Workplaces owns the strategy, standards, and long-term vision for Abridge’s physical workplaces across San Francisco, New York, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. This leader ensures our offices support company growth, deliver an exceptional employee experience, and reflect thoughtful investment in design, infrastructure, and operations.

This role requires a strong facilities and real estate background, including hands-on experience with building systems, construction, lease negotiations, and vendor management. The ideal candidate pairs that technical grounding with strong design judgment, financial discipline, and the ability to lead people and align senior stakeholders around consequential decisions.

The Head of Workplaces directly owns real estate strategy, executive alignment, design direction, and major investment recommendations. They partner with the Facilities Manager on infrastructure and operational priorities while building the systems, standards, and management capacity that enable daily operations and employee-facing services to run independently.

This role leads the Facilities and Workplace Experience functions, currently comprising one Facilities Manager, two Office Managers, and two Workplace Experience Coordinators.

What You'll Do

Real Estate & Facilities Strategy

• Own portfolio strategy, including capacity planning, site selection, lease negotiations, renewals, and long-term capital needs, informed by company growth, office utilization, and team requirements.

• Apply deep facilities expertise to evaluate technical recommendations, infrastructure needs, and the long-term implications of real estate and investment decisions.

• Partner with the Facilities Manager on building conditions, infrastructure priorities, and maintenance planning, ensuring technical recommendations inform scope, budgets, and timelines.

• Develop investment recommendations that balance employee experience, cost, flexibility, and operational reliability.

Workplace Design & Delivery

• Set the vision and design standards for new offices, renovations, and major investments, with an approved scope and budget that support the intended outcome.

• Lead project delivery in partnership with Facilities, IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and external specialists, involving them early enough to shape key decisions.

• Ensure permitting, safety, accessibility, and operational requirements are incorporated into project planning, with support from qualified experts and clear escalation of unresolved concerns.

• Manage scope, budgets, schedules, and material changes through documented approvals, ensuring completed spaces are ready for occupancy and ongoing use.

Team Leadership & Workplace Operations

• Lead and develop the Facilities and Workplace Experience functions, establishing clear ownership, decision authority, and escalation paths as the team grows.

• Empower the Facilities Manager and Workplace Experience team to lead their respective operations, providing resources, technical guidance, and senior stakeholder support.

• Own operating and capital budgets, vendor accountability, and service standards, using employee feedback and operational data to prioritize improvements across offices.

• Ensure clear ownership of workplace safety, emergency preparedness, and business continuity in partnership with relevant functions.

Stakeholder & Executive Partnership

• Build trusted relationships with executive leadership and cross-functional partners, proactively managing expectations around design preferences, shifting priorities, and competing requests.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for the Workplace team on complex or sensitive stakeholder situations, representing the team’s recommendations and securing clear decisions.

• Align stakeholders early on space strategy, workplace investments, and major initiatives, including the intended standard, required resources, and tradeoffs.

• Establish an agreed framework with executive leadership for approving design, scope, and budget, resolving conflicting direction, and revisiting decisions when circumstances change.

• Represent Workplaces as a strategic business function that enables company growth, with accountability grounded in approved decisions and available resources.

What You’ll Bring

• Experience leading a multi-office workplace portfolio through growth or significant change.

• A strong, hands-on background in facilities, building systems, construction, and vendor management, complemented by experience in commercial real estate transactions and financial planning.

• A record of delivering workplace projects with disciplined management of scope, budget, schedule, and operational readiness.

• Strong design judgment that balances aesthetics, functionality, accessibility, maintenance, and cost.

• Experience developing teams and managers who operate with clear accountability and meaningful autonomy.

• Credibility with senior leaders and the ability to communicate clear recommendations, navigate disagreement, and secure decisions under ambiguity.

This role requires in-office presence 5 days a week in San Francisco.

How we take care of Abridgers:

• Generous Time Off: 14 paid holidays, flexible PTO for salaried employees, and accrued time off for hourly employees

• ... and much more!