Director, Global Real Estate Strategy

The Role

Reporting to the VP, Real Estate Strategy & Business Relationship Management, the Director, Real Estate Strategy is a strategic leader responsible for shaping and advancing Scotiabank’s global real estate strategy in alignment with enterprise priorities, business objectives, and regional operating models.

The role provides enterprise-wide strategic decision support through portfolio analysis, external market intelligence, financial modelling, scenario development, and executive-ready recommendations. The Director leads work related to portfolio optimization, enterprise location strategy, market entry and exit considerations, site selection, acquisitions, dispositions, lease strategy, capital planning, and long-term location planning across Scotia’s global footprint.

As a trusted advisor to senior leadership, the Director translates complex real estate, market, financial, demographic, and business data into actionable strategies that support sustainable value creation, cost effectiveness, risk mitigation, and the Bank’s global growth objectives.

A key mandate of the role is to stand up an enterprise location strategy for Scotia globally, including at the business unit and corporate function levels. This work requires the integration of real estate portfolio insights with labour analytics, government incentive opportunities, global talent movement trends, and ongoing peer organization benchmarking data to inform where the Bank should grow, consolidate, reposition, or invest.

• Stand up and lead an enterprise location strategy for Scotia globally, including location strategy frameworks and decision support at the enterprise, business unit, and corporate function levels.
• Develop structured approaches to assess priority markets, growth locations, consolidation opportunities, and potential exit decisions, ensuring recommendations are aligned to business strategy, talent considerations, cost efficiency, client needs, and operational risk.
• Incorporate labour analytics, government incentives, global talent movement trends, market competitiveness, geopolitical considerations, and peer organization benchmarking into location strategy recommendations.
• Partner with business lines, corporate functions, HR, Finance, Strategy, and regional leaders to develop location options, scenarios, and executive recommendations that support Scotia’s global operating model and long-term growth priorities.
• Lead the development of global real estate strategy aligned to the Bank’s enterprise objectives, business growth plans, regional operating models, and long-term financial priorities.
• Provide strategic oversight of portfolio optimization, acquisitions, dispositions, lease strategy, site selection, relocations, consolidations, and market entry or exit decisions.
• Conduct in-depth analysis of market trends, demographic shifts, business forecasts, capital requirements, and operating costs to identify opportunities for value creation and risk mitigation.
• Develop executive-ready business cases, scenarios, and recommendations to support strategic real estate decisions and capital investments.

• Establish and lead a global market intelligence capability that provides forward-looking insight into real estate markets, emerging cities, sub-markets, supply and demand dynamics, cost trends, labour considerations, and competitive benchmarks.
• Translate external market data and vendor research into Bank-specific strategic insight that informs growth planning, location strategy, portfolio repositioning, and risk management.
• Monitor economic, demographic, geopolitical, regulatory, and real estate trends to identify emerging opportunities and risks across the global footprint.
• Provide senior leadership with clear market options, strategic implications, and recommended courses of action.

• Act as senior relationship owner for external global market intelligence vendors and advisory partners.
• Define intelligence requirements, data standards, deliverables, and governance expectations to ensure outputs align with Scotiabank’s strategic…