Vice President, Head of Investor Product, Advisory, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Job Title

Vice President, Head of Investor Product, Advisory

Job Description Summary

Job Description

Role Summary

The Vice President, Head of Investor Product, Advisory is the senior technology strategy executive for Cushman & Wakefield's capital markets and lending advisory business. This leader owns the strategic direction, prioritization, and product roadmap for the technology that shapes how investment sales and debt & equity brokers win, execute, and close business, and is directly accountable for ensuring engineering capacity is spent on the work that matters most.

As the primary executive liaison between the Investor business and technology, this leader ensures alignment between technology investment and business strategy, with a mandate to bring AI-driven transformation and stronger data capture into the broker's day-to-day workflow. Success requires exceptional stakeholder management at the executive level, the judgment to make and defend hard prioritization calls, and the leadership to build and grow a high-performing product organization.

This role serves as the ultimate product owner for the Investor technology portfolio, accountable not only for roadmap decisions and delivery, but also for business outcomes, user adoption, workflow transformation, and value realization. The leader will establish and scale a product-centric operating model that uses broker feedback, data, and market insights to continuously improve business capabilities and user experiences.

Principal Responsibilities

Strategy & Executive Stakeholder Management

Set and own a multi-year technology strategy and vision for the Investor business, directly tied to the goals of investment sales, debt & equity, and lending advisory leadership.
Serve as the senior executive face-off between the business and technology, building deep, durable relationships with capital markets and lending leadership, top-producing brokers, and client organizations to keep strategy grounded in what actually drives deal volume and broker productivity.
Present technology strategy, investment cases, and roadmap trade-offs to executive leadership; represent the company at industry events to build strategic partnerships.
Translate complex, sometimes competing business needs into a clear point of view on where to invest, and hold that position under pressure from multiple stakeholders.

Product Roadmap & Prioritization

Own the Investor technology backlog end to end, from intake and business case validation through prioritization, delivery, and adoption.
Run a rigorous, transparent prioritization process that ensures development capacity is consistently directed at the highest-value opportunities, not the loudest or most recent request.
Own the formal roadmap and its communication across audiences, internal and external, ensuring the business always has visibility into what's coming and why.
Partner closely with engineering and delivery leadership on sprint and release planning so roadmap commitments convert into shipped features on a predictable cadence, and course-correct quickly when they don't.
Establish and lead a formal product management discipline, balancing long-term strategic investments with short-term business needs through a transparent prioritization framework.
Define and monitor product success metrics, including user adoption, broker productivity, workflow efficiency, deal velocity, revenue impact, customer satisfaction, and ROI. Hold product teams accountable for measurable business outcomes, not just feature delivery.
Own product lifecycle management from concept and discovery through launch, adoption, optimization, and retirement.
Lead quarterly and annual product planning processes, aligning business priorities, engineering capacity, investment funding, and measurable outcomes.

Product Discovery & Customer Experience

Establish a continuous product discovery process that incorporates broker feedback, client insights, user research, workflow observation, and market intelligence to identify unmet needs and opportunities.
Develop deep expertise in investment sales, debt & equity, lending advisory, and related customer journeys to ensure solutions address real business problems rather than perceived requirements.
Validate product concepts, hypotheses, and investment opportunities through structured experimentation, stakeholder engagement, and measurable success criteria before committing development resources.
Serve as the voice of the customer within technology and the voice of technology within the business, ensuring product decisions remain grounded in user value and strategic objectives.

AI Transformation & Data Strategy

Own the strategic agenda for applying AI across the broker's point-of-sale experience, including deal sourcing, pitch preparation, underwriting support, and client-facing collateral.
Define the data capture strategy needed to power AI-enabled tools and stronger deal tracking, portfolio analytics, and reporting.
Evaluate build/buy/partner decisions for AI and data capabilities in the capital markets and lending software landscape, bringing a decisive point of view to leadership rather than just a comparison matrix.

Solution Design & Governance

Partner with business sponsors and brokers to shape solution design, ensuring data standards, integrations, and reporting are built in from the start rather than added after launch.
Guide architectural reviews, usability assessments, and integration decisions for major initiatives, ensuring solutions scale across investment sales, debt & equity, and lending workflows.
Own centralization efforts that support deal tracking, portfolio analytics, and investment sales workflows.

Vendor Strategy & Commercial Ownership

Own vendor selection strategy for capital markets, CRE lending, and investment analytics platforms, including build/buy/partner decisions, functional and technical evaluation, and stakeholder rating and assessment.
Own the full commercial lifecycle: business case development, ROI modeling, the funding and approval process, and negotiation through final agreement.
Own ongoing vendor relationships, including business reviews, contract and billing management, escalation management, and SLA performance.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

Build, lead, and grow a high-performing product organization dedicated to the Investor business, including product managers, product owners, business analysts, and delivery partners. Establish consistent product management practices, coaching, governance, and career development frameworks that create a world-class product culture.
Define and govern the Investor product operating model, including product strategy reviews, roadmap reviews, OKRs, quarterly planning, release governance, and portfolio investment decisions.
Define career paths and mentor developing talent, including business analysts and delivery managers who support the Investor product agenda.
Own workforce planning for the function, deciding when to hire, upskill, or bring in specialized outside capacity.

Qualifications

Education & Experience

Bachelor's degree required; MBA or advanced degree a plus.
10+ years of progressive experience in product management, including 5+ years in a senior leadership role owning technology strategy and a significant product portfolio.
7+ years of IT or technology leadership experience.
Direct experience in capital markets, investment sales, or CRE lending strongly preferred, with deep familiarity with deal management, investment analytics, and debt/equity platform workflows.
Track record of presenting to and influencing senior executive audiences.

Targeted Competencies

Demonstrated ability to set technology strategy and defend prioritization decisions to senior executives and skeptical stakeholders.
A strong, informed point of view on applying AI and data to real broker and business workflows.
Proven people leadership, including hiring, developing, and retaining product talent.
Demonstrated expertise building and scaling product management organizations, product operating models, and outcome-driven product cultures.
Proven experience establishing product KPIs, measuring adoption and business value realization, and using data to drive product investment decisions.
Strong product discovery and customer research capabilities, with experience translating user needs into prioritized roadmap investments.
Excellent commercial judgment, able to structure vendor deals, defend budget requests, and own ROI outcomes.
Solid business judgment, collaboration, and critical thinking skills.
Excellent analytical, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
Excellent oral and written communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior executives.
Microsoft Office 365, including Project, Visio, and SharePoint.

Cushman & Wakefield also provides eligible employees with an opportunity to enroll in a variety of benefit programs, generally including health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life, and disability insurance programs, and paid and unpaid time away from work. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, Cushman and Wakefield provide eligible employees with competitive pay, which may vary depending on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, total hours worked, job type, business line, and applicability of collective bargaining agreements.

The compensation that will be offered to the successful candidate will depend on factors such as whether the position is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the geographic area in which the work will be performed, market pay rates in that area, and the candidate’s experience and qualifications.

The company will not pay less than minimum wage for this role.

The compensation for the position is: $ 216,750.00 - $255,000.00

Cushman & Wakefield is an Equal Opportunity employer to all protected groups, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. Discrimination of any type will not be tolerated.

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position at Cushman & Wakefield, please call the ADA line at 1-888-365-5406 or email Accommodations@cushwake.com. Please refer to the job title and job location when you contact us.

INCO: “Cushman & Wakefield”