Manager, Lease Audit & Recovery

Federal Realty is a best-in-class owner, operator, and redeveloper of retail real estate in some of the nation’s most desirable markets. As a leading publicly traded REIT with a long-standing reputation for quality and performance, the company offers the stability of an established industry leader together with a collaborative, entrepreneurial culture where strong contributors can make a visible impact and build meaningful careers.

The Manager, Lease Audit & Recovery owns the end-to-end resolution of Common Area Maintenance (CAM), real estate tax, insurance, and other recoverable expense disputes across the portfolio. This role is the escalation point and process owner for tenant billing disputes — from intake and research through analysis, negotiation, settlement, and system correction — ensuring every dispute moves through a defined workflow with clear ownership, documented lease support, and timely closure.

Success in this role depends on strong lease interpretation of operating expense, exclusions, tax, gross‑up, exclusion, cap (cumulative, compounding, non-cumulative), base year, administrative fee, and audit‑rights language to determine what is properly billable, and defends that position with tenants, tenant auditors, and internal stakeholders. The Manager also serves as the day‑to‑day operational lead for both the internal Lease Administrators and the co‑source lease administration team — setting priorities, providing technical guidance and lease‑interpretation support, reviewing quality across both groups as it relates to dispute resolution, and holding the vendor to agreed service levels.

This role offers the opportunity to lead a critical function within a respected real estate organization, influence key operational processes, and work closely with cross‑functional stakeholders across the business. It is well suited for a candidate who enjoys combining technical lease administration expertise with team leadership, process improvement, and business partnership.

• Serve as the primary owner for CAM, real estate tax, insurance, and other recoverable expense disputes raised by tenants, tenant representatives, and third‑party lease auditors – managing the workflow from intake to closure.
• Ensure dispute handling and reconciliation practices comply with lease terms, company policy, and applicable accounting and internal control requirements.
• Prepare clear, well‑supported written responses, reconciliation backup, and settlement proposals; negotiate resolutions directly with tenants and their auditors within delegated authority.
• Establish and enforce turnaround standards and response deadlines, including lease‑mandated audit and dispute notice periods, so the company preserves its contractual position.
• Track root causes of disputes — lease abstraction errors, expense pool misclassification, gross‑up methodology, pro‑rata share calculations, cap and base‑year application, exclusions — and drive corrective action to prevent recurrence.
• Act as the day‑to‑day operational lead for the co‑source lease administration partner, assigning work, setting priorities, and clarifying requirements and expected outputs.
• Review co‑source deliverables for accuracy and completeness, including lease abstracts, dispute research packages, reconciliation backup, and system data entry.
• Provide technical guidance and lease‑interpretation support to Lease Administrators, resolving questions on ambiguous or non‑standard language and setting consistent treatment across the portfolio.
• Coordinate with Legal on lease interpretation questions, default and audit‑rights matters, and settlement documentation.
• Advise Leasing and Asset Management on the recovery implications of proposed lease language, and recommend standard language improvements based on dispute history.
• Participate in due diligence and system onboarding for acquisitions and dispositions as it relates to recovery provisions and open disputes.
• Identify opportunities to streamline processes, improve controls, and implement best practices that enhance team effectiveness.
• Build strong cross‑functional relationships and collaborate effectively with Operations,…