About Sotheby's
Sotheby’s is an auction house founded in London in 1744. Its specialists work across fine art and collecting categories including jewelry, watches, handbags, wine, design, and classic cars. The house connects collectors through live and online auctions, private sales, and fixed-price purchases. Its work spans specialist research and cataloging, client services, marketing, technology, finance, and operations, supporting the preparation, sale, and movement of objects across its international network.
Sotheby's is hiring an Assistant Vice President, Global Program Manager in London to manage and execute cross-functional initiatives across Global Real Estate, Security and Facilities. The role translates strategic priorities into plans, coordinates stakeholders, tracks delivery and governance, supports senior leadership communications, and drives continuous improvement.
Role & Responsibilities
- Manage key initiatives across the global real estate portfolio from initial planning through operational readiness and ongoing use.
- Translate priorities and strategic decisions into actionable project plans with milestones, responsibilities, timelines, and supporting documentation.
- Coordinate site acquisition, design, construction, occupancy planning, operational transition, and post-opening integration, as applicable.
- Track concurrent initiatives, identify risks and dependencies, resolve roadblocks, and escalate issues when necessary.
- Coordinate with Facilities, Security, Logistics, IT, Client Experience, Marketing, Events, Programming, Global Fine Arts, Luxury, Finance, Legal, Procurement, and other teams as required.
- Serve as a central coordination point so stakeholders understand project objectives, responsibilities, deadlines, and decisions.
- Facilitate working sessions and align stakeholders with differing priorities and expertise.
- Follow up with project owners and contributors to ensure commitments are met, issues addressed, and decisions made promptly.
- Keep relevant stakeholders informed of project progress, decisions, risks, changes, and upcoming milestones.
- Prepare project updates, presentations, briefing materials, and decision documents for senior leadership and working teams.
- Synthesize complex or fragmented information into clear summaries, recommendations, decisions, and next steps.
- Structure meeting agendas, document decisions, assign actions, ensure timely follow-through, and raise issues requiring leadership input with sufficient context.
- Establish and maintain governance structures, project trackers, action logs, decision records, and reporting tools.
- Monitor milestones, budgets, dependencies, and operational-readiness requirements while maintaining accountability for owners, deadlines, and next actions.
- Support a regular operating cadence, including monthly management meetings, quarterly business reviews, budget planning sessions, and project-specific working groups.
- Develop and track key performance indicators, identify gaps or recurring execution challenges, and recommend improvements to project processes and ways of working.
- Identify opportunities to improve coordination, communication, documentation, and accountability across the function.
- Develop repeatable tools, templates, and processes to strengthen project delivery and operational consistency.
- Apply lessons learned from completed initiatives to improve future planning and execution.
- Encourage collaborative problem-solving, practical innovation, and continuous improvement across project teams.
Skills
Workplace
This position is based in London, England, UK.
Explore jobs in England or in the UK.
Culture
Sotheby’s describes its culture in terms of client service, specialist knowledge, curiosity, collaboration, and ethical conduct. Its careers materials emphasize working across disciplines and encouraging employees to explore internal opportunities.
About Cerulean
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