Director - Corporate Real Estate Governance (India & APAC)

About the role

As a Director - Corporate Real Estate Governance, you will make an impact by leading enterprise-wide governance, compliance and risk oversight across Cognizant's Corporate Real Estate portfolio in India and APAC. You will help ensure standardized governance, financial control, regulatory compliance and risk management across CRE programs, capital projects, vendors and transformations in the region.

In this role, you will:

· Establish and maintain the Corporate Real Estate governance framework aligned with Legal, Ethics & Compliance, ESG and Enterprise Risk standards.

· Own CRE policies, standards, approval matrices and delegations of authority in line with statutory and Bill of Authority requirements.

· Ensure consistent governance across CREWS sub-functions, including Facilities, EHS, Security, Food & Beverage, Transport, Business Resilience, Design & Project Management.

· Provide independent governance oversight for construction, design, refurbishment and capital works programs, embedding governance checkpoints across the full program and project lifecycle.

· Validate approvals, compliance and readiness prior to financial commitments, go-live milestones and handover, including statutory safety documentation and compliance readiness.

· Identify, assess and mitigate legal, financial, operational and compliance risks while owning CRE risk registers, issue management and remediation tracking.

· Govern CRE commercial and financial models, including cost-plus, fixed fee and hybrid models, while validating KPIs, fee-at-risk constructs and penalty/bonus mechanisms.

· Partner with Finance and FP&A to ensure transparency, auditability and control of CRE spend.

· Establish third-party governance standards, risk classification and compliance requirements, and ensure vendor adherence to third-party risk, ethics and anti-corruption standards.

· Provide governance oversight for major CRE transformations, outsourcing and operating model changes, ensuring compliance is embedded without impeding business execution and enabling smooth transition from project delivery to steady-state operations.

· Consistently demonstrate the Cognizant Way to Lead, which means operating with Personal Leadership (building trust, collaboration and inclusion), Organizational Leadership (driving vision and purpose, demonstrating a strategic and enterprise mindset, and creating and communicating a bold direction that inspires purpose), and Business Leadership (exemplifying client focus, managing ambiguity with accountability and results, and operating with financial acumen).