About the Job:
The Environmental Risk Manager will serve as a key technical and risk-management advisor within Real Estate Services, supporting real estate debt and equity investments by identifying, evaluating, communicating, and managing environmental risks throughout due diligence, closing, construction, ownership, and portfolio management. This role requires strong environmental judgment, the ability to interpret consultant findings and regulatory issues, and the confidence to translate technical concerns into clear investment implications for senior leaders, investment teams, legal partners, asset managers, and external stakeholders.
The Environmental Risk Manager protects the organization’s long-term real estate investment interests by ensuring that environmental conditions, regulatory obligations, remediation matters, insurance considerations, and reputational exposures are understood before capital is committed and appropriately managed after investment approval. The position is less about routine engineering execution and more about environmental risk counseling, investment judgment, consultant oversight, and disciplined escalation of material risks.
What You'll Do:
- Review and interpret Phase I Environmental Site Assessments, Phase II investigations, property condition materials, consultant reports, environmental insurance policies, leases, regulatory correspondence, remediation plans, and related due diligence materials.
- Identify, quantify, and communicate environmental risks associated with real estate mortgage loans, equity investments, acquisitions, development projects, and existing portfolio assets.
- Advise investment managers, senior portfolio leaders, asset managers, legal counsel, closing teams, and other internal stakeholders on environmental risks, available mitigants, and residual exposures.
- Translate technical environmental findings into clear business implications, including potential impacts to underwriting, valuation, closing conditions, remediation costs, timing, ownership obligations, liability allocation, insurance recovery, and reputational risk.
- Manage third-party environmental consultants, outside counsel, insurers, brokers, and other technical advisors; scope work, review recommendations, challenge assumptions, and ensure deliverables meet institutional investment standards.
- Evaluate contamination issues involving soil, groundwater, vapor, underground storage tanks, petroleum releases, dry-cleaning impacts, industrial use histories, hazardous materials, asbestos, lead-based paint, mold, emerging contaminants, and other environmental conditions.
- Assess environmental insurance coverage, exclusions, deductibles, claim pathways, state cleanup funds, indemnities, lease obligations, and other financial risk-transfer tools.
- Support deal review and investment approval processes through written summaries, risk recommendations, executive-level presentations, and clear documentation of assumptions, decisions, and unresolved issues.
- Coordinate with internal teams to ensure environmental risks are accurately reflected in risk tracking systems, closing requirements, funding conditions, portfolio records, and ongoing monitoring processes.
- Help develop, refine, and enforce environmental due diligence policies, procedures, templates, escalation practices, and quality standards across Real Estate Services.
- Monitor environmental issues within the existing portfolio and advise on remediation strategy, regulatory engagement, consultant selection, cost controls, and stakeholder communication.
- Serve as a trusted internal resource and mentor on environmental risk, helping build team capability and succession strength within the environmental function.
What You'll Bring to the Role:
- Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, geology, engineering, environmental health and safety, risk management, real estate, law, or a related discipline; equivalent directly relevant experience may be considered.
- Significant experience evaluating environmental risk in commercial real estate, institutional investment, lending, development, asset management, environmental consulting, environmental law, insurance, or a closely related field.
- Strong working knowledge of environmental due diligence practices, including Phase I ESAs, Phase II investigations, recognized environmental conditions, remediation strategy, regulatory closure pathways, and environmental risk allocation.
- Ability to manage external consultants and advisors nationally, including scoping, budgeting, quality review, schedule management, and interpretation of technical recommendations.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate complex environmental issues in practical, executive-ready terms for non-technical audiences.
- Sound judgment under uncertainty, including the ability to distinguish acceptable investment risk from unacceptable or poorly mitigated exposure.
- Strong written communication, documentation, negotiation, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- High professional integrity, attention to detail, and willingness to challenge assumptions or escalate concerns when risk tolerance is misaligned.
- Experience supporting institutional real estate investors, insurance-company investment portfolios, commercial mortgage lending, private equity real estate, or long-duration asset ownership.
- Background in environmental consulting, environmental law, environmental insurance, remediation management, or owner’s-representative risk advisory work.
- Experience with underground storage tanks, petroleum-impacted properties, brownfield redevelopment, industrial sites, vapor intrusion, state cleanup programs, liability releases, and environmental insurance placements.
- Familiarity with construction or development risk, property condition assessments, capital expenditure planning, and coordination between environmental, architectural, construction, legal, and underwriting teams.
- Experience developing or maintaining risk tracking tools, procedures, reporting dashboards, or portfolio-level environmental risk analytics.
- Advanced degree, professional license, or relevant certification such as PE, PG, CHMM, CIH, JD, or comparable credential.
Skills You Will Have:
- Risk-first investment judgment: Focuses on downside protection, long-term asset durability, regulatory exposure, and reputation as well as immediate transaction execution.
- Technical translation: Converts consultant findings and regulatory language into concise business options, trade-offs, and recommendations.
- Influence without authority: Builds alignment across investment, legal, asset management, closing, underwriting, development, and external partner teams.
- Consultant leadership: Knows how to select, direct, challenge, and leverage outside experts without outsourcing judgment.
- Decision documentation: Maintains clear records of risks, assumptions, approvals, deviations, and mitigants for audit-ready investment governance.
- Professional courage: Willing to raise difficult issues early and recommend pausing, conditioning, restructuring, or declining opportunities when risk is not adequately understood or controlled.
Compensation Range:
We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed.
Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!
Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.
If you work or would be working in California, Colorado, New York City, Washington or outside of a Corporate location, please click here for additional information pertaining to compensation and benefits.
