VP - Engineering

VP - Engineering

Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO) is a fully integrated equity real estate investment trust and one of New York City's preeminent office and high-street retail landlords. Vornado's portfolio is concentrated in the nation's key market — New York City — comprising approximately 26.7 million square feet in 60 premier properties, including iconic assets such as 1 Penn Plaza, 888 Seventh Avenue, and the PENN District.

Vornado is consistently recognized as the industry leader in sustainability, holding the distinction of being the largest owner of LEED-certified property in the United States, with more than 27 million square feet of LEED Gold or higher certification, and has achieved ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year with Sustained Excellence seven times. Through its Vision 2030 program, Vornado is committed to achieving carbon neutrality across its portfolio by 2030.

The company's Board of Directors and senior management regard Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) as among its highest strategic priorities.

Position Summary:

The Vice President of Engineering is a senior leadership role with primary accountability for the portfolio-wide deployment of energy management tools and technologies, and for providing expert engineering support to Vornado's development projects. Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President – Chief Sustainability Officer, with management support from the Senior Vice President, Field Operations. This executive drives the implementation and integration of building energy management platforms, automation systems, and data-driven performance tools across Vornado's approximately 26.7 million square feet of commercial properties, in direct support of the company's operational optimization strategies including Vision 2030.

This role demands a technically fluent engineering leader with deep expertise in building energy management systems and technology deployment, a strong grasp of development project workflows, and the ability to translate sustainability strategy into scalable, portfolio-wide operational solutions.

Position Responsibilities:

• Managing all aspects of new construction from conceptualization through completion, acting as Owner's Representative and overseeing design and construction aspects for due diligence on new acquisitions.
• Oversight of Engineering consultants to drive best-in-class design
• Support bid/buy procurement of all MEP/FP/IT trades
• Support trade coordination, construction, testing & commissioning, and turnover to operations
• Review energy modeling results and impacts to LEED or other green building certifications.
• Early-phase MEP design reviews for constructability and operability, so systems are designed to be maintained by Vornado's own team post-occupancy
• Value engineering participation, commissioning oversight, and smooth construction-to-operations handover with full documentation transfer
• Supporting the leasing team during lease negotiation and managing the successful completion and close-out of construction projects to ensure tenant occupancy

Existing Building Improvement Identification & Capital Planning

• Systematic MEP condition assessments across the portfolio to identify aging or end-of-life equipment
• Supporting and/or managing all aspects of major renovation projects from conceptualization through completion, acting as Owner's Representative and overseeing design and construction aspects for due diligence on new acquisitions.
• Manage a portfolio-wide retro-commissioning (ReCx) program — retro-commissioning is performed on existing buildings to bring them back to the functionality of the original design intent, or even better, while identifying energy conservation measures with strong payback periods.
• A rolling five-year capital improvement plan prioritized by code compliance urgency, equipment risk, energy savings, and Vision 2030 alignment
• Piloting emerging smart building technologies and measuring post-project performance to validate returns

Portfolio Wide Energy Management

• Lead the end-to-end deployment of portfolio-wide energy management systems and technologies — including BMS/EMS platforms, interval data analytics, and AI-driven…