Associate Vice President

What this job involves: JLL is seeking an exceptional Associate Vice President to lead transformational real estate engagements within our Government, Education and Non-Profit Advisory group. JLL's Government, Education and Non-Profit (GEN) Advisory group is the premier advisor to public sector leaders navigating complex real estate decisions. We are seeking an exceptional Associate Vice President who thrives as both a strategic counselor and a hands-on doer, someone who can lead multidisciplinary project teams, personally produce sophisticated analysis, and help elected officials, governing boards, and university executives make confident decisions that shape communities for generations.

What your day-to-day will look like:

• Build lasting client trust:Guide client leadership through complex real estate decisions by preparing analysis, drafting communications, and developing key materials. Translate data into strategic implications and actionable recommendations. Earn credibility through rigorous analytical work, consistent delivery, and candid counsel that advances institutional mission while deepening long-term partnerships.

• Communicate for executive audiences:Distill complex financial structures, market dynamics, and transaction alternatives into clear narratives for C-suite executives, governing boards, and elected officials balancing political realities, budget constraints, community impact, and institutional mission.

• Navigate public sector complexity:Anticipate how stakeholder interests, procurement rules, public scrutiny, and political dynamics influence decisions. Guide clients toward approaches achieving objectives within constraints.

• Design strategic project approaches:Create engagement structures answering clients' real questions. Define analysis frameworks, set decision milestones, sequence work strategically, and ensure projects generate insights driving action.

• Direct project teams:Manage multidisciplinary teams including Associates, Analysts, subject matter experts, and subconsultants. Set clear expectations, provide technical direction, and ensure contributions integrate into coherent deliverables while setting quality standards through your own analytical work.

• Lead strategic meetings:Run working sessions, executive briefings, and stakeholder alignment meetings. Design agendas advancing decisions, facilitate productive dialogue, capture commitments, and drive follow-through.

• Leverage AI strategically:Use AI tools to accelerate research, preliminary analysis, and drafting. Apply strategic and technical judgment to validate, refine, and interpret findings, transforming AI-assisted analysis into actionable client guidance.

• Transform analysis into insights:Analyze data and models, validating inputs, extracting insights and synthesizing findings. When the financial model shows a 12% unlevered IRR, explain what that return means relative to other options, risk profile, and institutional requirements. When market analysis reveals trends, interpret implications for phasing, sizing, and positioning.

• Answer the "so what" question:Connect data to decisions, findings to actions, analysis to recommendations. Every deliverable must clarify: "What should we do differently based on this finding?"

• Synthesize across complexity:Integrate insights from financial feasibility, market positioning, legal structure, procurement strategy, stakeholder dynamics, and organizational capacity into unified recommendations.

• Present clear options:Offer strategic alternatives with straightforward analysis of trade-offs, risks, implementation needs, and implications. Provide explicit recommendations with clear rationale when appropriate.

• Structure and explain transactions:Create and interpret deal structures, financial models, and due diligence materials. Help clients understand public-private partnerships, ground leases, lease/leasebacks, tax-exempt financing, and revenue-sharing arrangements. Explain how structures allocate risk, create value, and align with institutional goals.

• Support negotiations:Develop negotiation strategy through direct analytical work. Advise on positioning and tactics, interpret proposed terms, and provide real-time counsel. Answer "should we accept this term?" not just "what does this term cost?"

• Lead feasibility assessments:Conduct and guide highest and best use studies, development feasibility analyses, and portfolio optimization. Connect market demand, financial returns, institutional capacity, and mission alignment into implementation recommendations.

• Identify opportunities:Spot potential engagements within client relationships based on institutional priorities, emerging challenges, and portfolio evolution. Build relationships positioning JLL as trusted advisor.

• Lead proposal strategy:Drive compelling proposals and RFP responses. Define project approach, articulate value, develop fee structure, and coordinate team contributions demonstrating understanding of client challenges.

• Contribute thought leadership:Write white papers, case studies, and conference presentations advancing industry practice. Document innovative approaches and present at conferences building firm visibility.

• Maintain project discipline:Ensure rigorous project setup, budget monitoring, scope management, invoicing accuracy, and documentation through both oversight and direct execution. Administrative excellence protects project economics and enables scalable growth.

• Share knowledge:Document methodologies, analytical frameworks, and strategic approaches. Contribute to practice knowledge, mentor Associates on technical and strategic capabilities, and elevate team expertise.

• Drive innovation:Stay current on emerging transaction structures, financing mechanisms, procurement innovations, and public sector trends. Bring fresh thinking to client challenges and question conventional approaches when better alternatives exist.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Real Estate, Business, or related field; MBA or Master's in Real Estate preferred

• 7-10 years of progressive experience in commercial real estate advisory, real estate finance, public-private partnerships, or strategic consulting

• Demonstrated success leading complex advisory engagements where your strategic counsel influenced major institutional decisions

• Exceptional ability synthesizing complex information into clear strategic insights and actionable recommendations

• Superior communication skills with proven ability presenting to C-suite executives, governing boards, and elected officials

• Strong financial analysis capabilities interpreting sophisticated models, valuations, and feasibility studies

• Deep understanding of public sector real estate challenges: constrained capital, complex approvals, procurement requirements, mission-driven decision-making

• Knowledge of transaction structures: P3s, ground leases, tax-exempt financing, alternative delivery methods

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with federal, state, or local government consulting including understanding of public sector procurement, budgeting cycles, and regulatory frameworks

• Deep knowledge of higher education real estate strategy including campus planning, auxiliary enterprise development, and academic space programming

• Track record working within complex bureaucracies, building consensus among diverse stakeholders, and navigating political dynamics

Location: This is a hybrid role with a preference for candidates based in Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington DC, Miami, or Denver. Regular in-office presence is expected to develop relationships and foster team collaboration. no relocation assistance will be available.

Travel requirements: 25%-35% in US - location varies by client

Work schedule: 8a-5p Hybrid - expectation to be in office 3 days/week

Why This Work Matters: This work shapes lives at scale. $500M civic campus redevelopments, statewide portfolio consolidations, flagship university P3 transactions . When you restructure a medical campus, optimize a government portfolio, or design a university real estate strategy, you free public dollars for community needs, create social infrastructure that changes lives, and enable access for thousands of students. JLL's national platform connects you to specialists across capital markets, sustainability, project management, and operations, giving you the resources to tackle the most consequential public sector real estate decisions in the country. Working at JLL's scale matters for both impact and career. You'll lead transformational engagements, collaborate with specialists across capital markets, project management, sustainability, and operations to deliver integrated solutions. And you'll build your reputation advising on the most significant public sector real estate decisions in the country. The AVP role sits at the center of this work: translating complexity into impact, turning analysis into action, and helping public sector leaders make decisions that shape their communities' futures.