How to Apply to Regency Centers

8 min read Last updated April 20, 2026
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Regency Centers uses Dayforce HCM as its sole ATS; apply at jobs.dayforcehcm.com/regency, not through aggregators or email.
  • The company is a pure-play grocery-anchored REIT — Publix, Kroger, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Sprouts — and screens hard for candidates fluent in that specific format.
  • It is intentionally lean (~480 employees managing ~480 properties), so generalist range and ownership instincts matter more than narrow specialization.
  • Six regional offices (Jacksonville HQ plus Atlanta, Dallas, SF, NYC, DC, Boston) all run real talent pipelines; geography is a meaningful filter when applying.
  • Interview cycles are deliberate (four to eight weeks), and culture skews collegial, long-tenure, and stable rather than transactional.
  • ESG fluency and a multi-year Nareit Leader in the Light track record mean sustainability experience is a genuine differentiator, not decoration.
  • Lisa Palmer's CEO tenure since 2020 has reinforced disciplined capital allocation and a nine-year (and counting) dividend-increase streak — candidates who understand REIT capital discipline win interviews.

About Regency Centers

Regency Centers Corporation (NYSE: REG) is the preeminent national owner, operator, and developer of grocery-anchored shopping centers in the United States. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, the S&P 500 real estate investment trust controls roughly 480 properties concentrated in suburban, affluent, and infill markets where its anchor tenants — Publix, Kroger, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, H-E-B, and Sprouts — drive consistent foot traffic regardless of macroeconomic cycles. The modern Regency was forged by the 2017 merger with Equity One, which scaled the portfolio to its current footprint of approximately $13 billion in enterprise value and a market capitalization in the $5 billion range. The company is led by CEO Lisa Palmer, who was promoted to the top role in January 2020 after serving as the company's Chief Financial Officer, making her one of the few women to lead a public REIT of this scale. For a portfolio of nearly 500 properties spanning every major U.S. metro, Regency runs remarkably lean — roughly 480 employees in total. That ratio defines the culture. Teammates wear multiple hats, decisions move through small rooms rather than committees, and seniority is earned by ownership rather than headcount. Regional offices in Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., and Boston complement the Jacksonville headquarters, with each office staffed by tightly integrated teams covering Investment Sales, Asset Management, Leasing, Development, and Property Operations. The company explicitly prizes its 'one team' identity; you will see the same individuals attending capital markets calls, walking sites with brokers, and reviewing tenant mix decisions. Regency's investment thesis is unusually disciplined for a public REIT. It refuses to chase enclosed malls, big-box power centers, or non-grocery formats — the entire portfolio is purpose-built around necessity-based retail and the daily-needs merchant ecosystem (dry cleaners, restaurants, urgent care, fitness, services) that surrounds a high-volume grocer. This focus has produced one of the most stable dividend records in the sector, with a streak of annual dividend increases now in its ninth consecutive year as of 2025 and portfolio occupancy consistently above 95% leased. The company is also a recognized ESG leader, having received the Nareit Leader in the Light Award multiple times for its sustainability disclosures, green-lease program, and emissions targets. Culturally, Glassdoor reviewers describe Regency as stable, collegial, and slow-moving — a 'country-club feel' relative to faster, more aggressive operators — which is a feature, not a bug, for candidates who value long tenure, deep market knowledge, and the chance to compound expertise over a career.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Start at regencycenters

    Start at regencycenters.com/careers (note: the legacy /about/careers URL returns 404; use the canonical /careers path that redirects to /regency/careers).

  2. 2
    Click 'See Open Positions' which routes you to the Dayforce HCM candidate portal

    Click 'See Open Positions' which routes you to the Dayforce HCM candidate portal at jobs.dayforcehcm.com/regency. All applications are processed exclusively through Dayforce — no email submissions or LinkedIn EasyApply shortcuts.

  3. 3
    Filter roles by city (Jacksonville is the largest hub; Atlanta, Dallas, SF, NYC,

    Filter roles by city (Jacksonville is the largest hub; Atlanta, Dallas, SF, NYC, DC, Boston regional offices) and by function (Leasing, Investments, Asset Management, Property Management, Development, Accounting, Legal, IT, Sustainability).

  4. 4
    Create a Dayforce candidate account on first application

    Create a Dayforce candidate account on first application. The same login carries across every future role, so use a long-term personal email rather than a school or current-employer address.

  5. 5
    Expect to upload a single resume PDF and complete a structured profile (work his

    Expect to upload a single resume PDF and complete a structured profile (work history, education, EEO data). Dayforce parses the resume into form fields — review every field for parsing errors, especially dates and titles, before submitting.

  6. 6
    After submission you receive an automated Dayforce confirmation email

    After submission you receive an automated Dayforce confirmation email. Recruiter review typically takes one to three weeks given the lean talent acquisition team; do not interpret silence as rejection in the first 14 days.

  7. 7
    Initial outreach is almost always a 30-minute phone screen with a recruiter, fol

    Initial outreach is almost always a 30-minute phone screen with a recruiter, followed by a hiring-manager interview. Senior or revenue-producing roles (Leasing, Investments) progress to panel rounds with regional VPs and a final on-site at the relevant office.

  8. 8
    Offers are extended verbally first, then formalized in Dayforce as an electronic

    Offers are extended verbally first, then formalized in Dayforce as an electronic offer packet. Background check and references run in parallel through Dayforce; expect a two- to four-week start window from accepted offer.

Resume Tips for Regency Centers

recommended

Lead the summary with grocery-anchored, open-air, or necessity-retail experience

Lead the summary with grocery-anchored, open-air, or necessity-retail experience by name. Generic 'commercial real estate' framing buries you against candidates who speak the dialect of Publix-anchored Kroger-anchored portfolios.

recommended

Quantify dollars, square feet, and deal count on every bullet

Quantify dollars, square feet, and deal count on every bullet. For Leasing: GLA leased, rent spreads (cash and GAAP), retention rate, and anchor renewals. For Investments: transaction volume closed, cap rates, IRR. Regency reads underwriting memos for a living — vague verbs do not survive.

recommended

Name the merchants

Name the merchants. Listing specific national, regional, and local tenants you've executed deals with (Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Chipotle, Orangetheory, F45, Sephora, Five Below) signals you understand the merchandising mix that drives center NOI.

recommended

Surface ESG and sustainability work explicitly — green leases negotiated, LEED p

Surface ESG and sustainability work explicitly — green leases negotiated, LEED projects, EV charging deployments, GRESB participation. Regency is a multi-time Nareit Leader in the Light Award winner and screens for fluency here, not just lip service.

recommended

For Asset Management roles, lead with NOI growth, occupancy improvement, capex s

For Asset Management roles, lead with NOI growth, occupancy improvement, capex stewardship, and yield-on-cost. Mention specific software fluency — JD Edwards, Yardi, Argus Enterprise, Lucernex, MRI — by version where possible.

recommended

Keep the format ATS-clean for Dayforce: a single-column PDF, standard section he

Keep the format ATS-clean for Dayforce: a single-column PDF, standard section headers (Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications), no text boxes or graphics. Dayforce's parser is competent but unforgiving with two-column layouts and embedded tables.

recommended

Cap at two pages even for senior candidates

Cap at two pages even for senior candidates. Regency's interviewers are operators, not academics — they want a scannable record of deals, properties, and outcomes, not a CV-style narrative.

recommended

If you hold a CCIM, ICSC CRX, CRE, CFA, MAI, LEED AP, or Florida/Texas/Californi

If you hold a CCIM, ICSC CRX, CRE, CFA, MAI, LEED AP, or Florida/Texas/California real estate broker license, place it in a top-line credentials block. These are recognized currency and accelerate recruiter screening.

ATS System: Dayforce HCM (Ceridian)

Regency Centers uses Dayforce HCM, Ceridian's unified human capital management platform, hosted at jobs.dayforcehcm.com/regency. Dayforce is the same system Regency uses internally for payroll and HR, which means the candidate portal, employee onboarding, and ongoing HRIS records are a single continuous experience. The candidate portal supports resume parsing, profile reuse across applications, internal mobility, and structured EEO collection. Notifications come from a Dayforce-branded email domain — whitelist dayforcehcm.com so confirmations and interview invites do not land in spam.

  • Apply directly through the Dayforce portal at jobs.dayforcehcm.com/regency rather than third-party aggregators (Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn). Aggregator redirects sometimes drop fields and force a re-apply.
  • After uploading your resume, walk the parsed work-history grid line by line. Dayforce frequently mis-splits two-line job titles and gets month-year date ranges wrong on hybrid formats.
  • Use standard resume section headers ('Experience,' 'Education,' 'Skills') because Dayforce's parser keys off these exact strings. Creative section names ('My Journey,' 'What I Bring') reduce parse accuracy.
  • Save your Dayforce login credentials. The same account works for every future Regency role and preserves your application history, which recruiters can see.
  • Set notification preferences inside the Dayforce portal to email and SMS. The recruiter team is small and uses portal messaging as the primary communication channel.

Interview Culture

Regency interviews are structured, polite, and unhurried — a direct reflection of the company's long-tenure, low-turnover culture.

The first stage is almost always a 30-minute recruiter phone screen focused on motivation, geography, and compensation alignment. Recruiters are explicit about pay bands, which is unusual in REIT land and reflects Regency's mature HR function. The second stage is a hiring-manager interview, typically a 45- to 60-minute video call covering technical depth: for Leasing candidates, expect deal walkthroughs and merchant negotiation scenarios; for Investments, underwriting cases and market thesis questions; for Asset Management, NOI optimization and tenant-retention strategy. Senior or revenue-generating roles progress to a panel round with regional leadership and frequently a final on-site at the assigned office, where you will meet peers, an executive sponsor, and often a member of the corporate team in Jacksonville. Cultural fit is evaluated quietly but decisively — interviewers probe for collaborative instincts, intellectual humility, and long-term thinking. Aggressive transactional energy or short-tenure career patterns are red flags in this environment. Glassdoor reviewers consistently describe the process as 'respectful' and 'thorough but slow,' with full cycles often running four to eight weeks. Bring property-specific homework: pull two or three Regency centers from the public portfolio map, study their anchors and trade areas, and be ready to articulate what you would do as the Asset Manager or Leasing Agent on those assets. That preparation alone separates serious candidates from generic CRE applicants. Expect at least one behavioral round anchored on collaboration, conflict, and long-horizon decision-making; Regency interviewers are trained to value thoughtful answers grounded in concrete examples over rehearsed frameworks. Salary negotiation is professional and typically anchored to internal pay bands rather than competitive bidding, and the offer letter routinely includes a defined long-term incentive component for senior roles, which is consistent with Regency's emphasis on retention and ownership mentality across the workforce.

What Regency Centers Looks For

  • Demonstrated specialization in grocery-anchored, necessity-based, or open-air retail real estate — not enclosed malls, not pure power centers, not office or industrial pivots.
  • Long tenure in prior roles. Regency's median employee tenure is high and the company actively screens out resumes that show a job change every 18 months without a clear narrative.
  • Quantitative fluency in REIT economics: cap rates, NOI, FFO, AFFO, same-property growth, recovery ratios, mark-to-market, and tenant credit underwriting.
  • Local market knowledge for the office you are applying to. SF candidates should know the Bay Area trade areas; Atlanta candidates should know Buckhead, Sandy Springs, and Cobb sub-markets.
  • Collaborative, low-ego working style. Regency runs on small cross-functional teams; candidates who present as solo operators or who diminish past teammates struggle to advance.
  • Genuine engagement with ESG and sustainability — green lease execution, GRESB familiarity, decarbonization knowledge — not just buzzwords on a resume.
  • Polish in written communication. Asset memos, IC packages, and tenant correspondence are core deliverables; strong writing samples and clean cover letters carry weight.
  • Curiosity about the merchant side of retail. Candidates who follow Trader Joe's expansion patterns, track Sprouts new-store openings, or read industry trade press signal cultural alignment immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ATS does Regency Centers use?
Regency Centers uses Dayforce HCM by Ceridian, hosted at jobs.dayforcehcm.com/regency. The careers page on regencycenters.com/careers links out to the Dayforce candidate portal, and all applications, offer letters, and onboarding flow through the same Dayforce instance the company uses for internal HR.
Where is Regency Centers headquartered and which other offices hire?
The corporate headquarters is in Jacksonville, Florida. Regency also maintains regional offices in Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, New York City, Washington D.C., and Boston. Each regional office staffs Leasing, Asset Management, Investments, and Property Operations teams, so location-specific roles are posted regularly across all seven cities.
What kinds of roles does Regency Centers hire for?
Core open roles span Leasing (national, local, and anchor), Investments (acquisitions and dispositions), Asset Management, Property Management, Development, Construction, Accounting and Finance, Legal, IT, Sustainability, and Marketing. Revenue-generating tracks (Leasing and Investments) hire most consistently, and corporate functions concentrate in Jacksonville.
Does Regency Centers offer remote or hybrid work?
Regency operates a hybrid model with most corporate roles expected on-site multiple days per week at the assigned office. Leasing and Asset Management roles are inherently field-based, with significant travel to the assigned portfolio. Fully remote roles are rare; expect to commute to one of the seven offices.
What credentials help most for a Regency Centers application?
For Leasing and Investments: ICSC certifications (CRX, CDP, CLS), CCIM, and active state real estate brokerage licenses. For Finance and Asset Management: CFA, CPA, and Argus Enterprise proficiency. For Development and Construction: LEED AP, AIA, or PE. Industry conference participation (ICSC Las Vegas, Nareit) signals network depth.
How long does the Regency Centers interview process take?
Plan for four to eight weeks from initial application to offer. The pipeline is recruiter screen, hiring-manager interview, panel interview with regional leadership, and a final on-site for senior roles. The lean talent acquisition team and deliberate culture mean each stage has more dwell time than at faster operators.
What is Regency Centers' dividend and financial profile?
Regency has increased its annual dividend for nine consecutive years through 2025 and maintains portfolio leased rates above 95%. As an S&P 500 REIT with roughly $5 billion in market cap and approximately $13 billion in enterprise value, it is one of the largest pure-play grocery-anchored owners in the country, alongside competitors like Kimco Realty and Brixmor.
Who is the CEO of Regency Centers?
Lisa Palmer has served as President and CEO since January 2020. She joined Regency in 1996 and previously served as Chief Financial Officer before being promoted to CEO. Her tenure is associated with disciplined capital allocation, the Equity One merger integration, and continued ESG leadership.
What should I research before a Regency Centers interview?
Pull the public Regency portfolio map and pick two or three centers in the trade area where you are interviewing. Study the anchor grocer, the merchant mix, and the surrounding demographics. Read the most recent quarterly earnings supplement on the investor relations site for occupancy, rent spreads, and same-property NOI trends. Reference Lisa Palmer's prepared remarks from the latest earnings call. Familiarize yourself with the company's strategic priorities — accretive development and redevelopment, balance-sheet discipline, dividend growth, and ESG leadership — so you can connect your background to the work currently underway. This level of preparation visibly separates serious candidates from those who treat Regency as just another REIT on the application list.
How does Regency Centers compare to peers like Kimco and Brixmor?
Regency, Kimco Realty, and Brixmor Property Group are the three largest publicly traded open-air retail REITs in the United States. Regency is the smallest of the three by share count but the most narrowly focused on grocery-anchored properties in higher-income suburban infill markets, with a higher average household income in its trade areas. Kimco is larger and more diversified across formats, while Brixmor manages a value-add repositioning thesis on a broader base of community shopping centers. Candidates with experience at Kimco, Brixmor, Federal Realty, Phillips Edison, or InvenTrust translate naturally into Regency conversations.
Check Your Resume Before Applying → View open positions at Regency Centers

Related Resources

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Sources

  1. Regency Centers Careers - Open Positions —
  2. Regency Centers Candidate Portal (Dayforce HCM) —
  3. Regency Centers Corporation - Investor Relations —
  4. Regency Centers Leadership - Lisa Palmer, President & CEO —
  5. Regency Centers and Equity One Complete Merger (March 2017) —
  6. Nareit Leader in the Light Award Recipients —
  7. Regency Centers Corporate Responsibility & ESG —
  8. Regency Centers (NYSE: REG) - S&P 500 Component Profile —
  9. Regency Centers Glassdoor Reviews & Culture —
  10. Dayforce HCM Candidate Portal Documentation (Ceridian) —