Shopping Centre Manager at The Marlowes Shopping Centre
The Centre Manager is the senior on‑site leader accountable for the overall performance, governance and long‑term success of The Marlowes Shopping Centre. The role provides strategic leadership across commercial performance, operations and stakeholder engagement to maximise the effectiveness of the investment on behalf of the client. Through leading the on‑site management team and building strong relationships with occupiers and key external stakeholders, the Centre Manager promotes the Marlowes brand, supports occupier success and ensures the delivery of an excellent customer experience.
Responsibilities
The Centre Manager is responsible for understanding and upholding compliance across the centre. This means maintaining detailed, current knowledge of the statutory, lease and contractual obligations that apply to the building and its occupiers, and ensuring that health & safety, fire safety, insurance, licensing and environmental requirements are consistently met. The Centre Manager takes personal ownership of this area — identifying gaps before they become issues, keeping documentation and audit trails in good order, and holding contractors, agents and occupiers to the same standard expected of the centre itself. As legislation, lease events or the building evolve over time, the Centre Manager ensures the centre's practices are updated accordingly, and that the wider on-site team understands what is required of them.
Equally important is a strong, first-hand working knowledge of the centre and building itself, going well beyond a surface-level familiarity with the asset. The Centre Manager should be able to identify problems on site, analyse their root cause, and determine the most effective and appropriate route to resolution — whether that's a quick fix, a scheduled repair, or escalation into a longer-term capital project. This calls for confident, hands-on engagement with the building's fabric, plant and systems, along with the judgement to know when specialist input is needed. The Centre Manager is also expected to work closely and knowledgeably with contractors: briefing them clearly, constructively challenging quotations and proposed solutions where appropriate, and overseeing works through to satisfactory completion, so the centre is maintained to a consistently high standard and issues are resolved efficiently rather than repeatedly.
1. Budget – including spend and implementation
- Own the service charge budget end-to-end, including setting forecasts, monitoring performance against budget throughout the year and ensuring financial probity across all on-site activity.
- Review and challenge operational spend and performance, identifying inefficiencies and driving cost‑saving and income‑generating opportunities with the Managing Surveyor and Centre Operations Manager.
- Oversee delivery of all budgeted works and projects, ensuring spend is on time, within approved scope, and aligned with client authorisation.
- Maintain rigorous financial control and reporting, ensuring service charge reconciliations are accurate, transparent and defensible to occupiers.
2. Tenant risk – including financial risk of a tenant and risk to the good operation of the centre
- Maintain up-to-date knowledge of occupier covenant strength and financial health, flagging early warning signs of tenant distress or insolvency risk.
- Assess and manage the risk that individual occupiers pose to the centre’s income, reputation and day-to-day operation, including underperforming, non-compliant or disruptive tenants.
- Maintain strong working relationships with key advisors and consultants to ensure operational risks are identified early and appropriately managed.
- Ensure occupier activity is monitored so that any operational, compliance or safety risk arising from a tenant’s trading is identified and addressed promptly.
3. Asset management – specifically pre-void, fit-out and history
- Maintain a clear pre-void strategy for units, ensuring timely planning of marketing, refurbishment and re-letting to minimise void periods and cost.
- Oversee tenant fit-out works from approval through to completion, ensuring designs, condition and specification protect the long-term value and presentation of the asset.
- Maintain a thorough working knowledge of each unit’s history, including lease events, condition, past works and any latent issues, to support informed decision-making.
- Use asset management insight to inform capital planning, dilapidations strategy and investment recommendations, while implementing effective rates mitigation strategies for vacant units where applicable.
4. How does your centre look and feel?
- Take personal ownership of the overall visual presentation of the centre, including cleanliness, signage, lighting, landscaping and common area standards.
- Ensure the centre’s environment reflects brand standards and creates a welcoming, high-quality experience for customers, occupiers and visitors.
- Regularly walk the centre to identify presentation issues, shopfront and window compliance, and opportunities for improvement.
- Champion a consistent, positive first impression of the centre at every touchpoint, from arrival through to individual units and common areas.
5. Town and wider area – who do we know, what is happening, and what opportunities are there?
- Build and maintain strong relationships with the local council, town centre partnerships, business improvement districts and other civic stakeholders.
- Maintain awareness of wider town centre developments, planning proposals and initiatives that could affect footfall, perception or opportunity for the centre.
- Identify and pursue opportunities arising from the town and wider catchment, including partnerships, events and community engagement that benefit the centre.
- Represent the centre in relevant local forums and networks, ensuring its interests and opportunities are well represented externally.
6. Business plan – be a stakeholder in the business plan
- Act as an active stakeholder in the development and ongoing delivery of the centre’s business plan, contributing local insight and constructive challenge.
- Ensure the business plan reflects an accurate, current understanding of budget, tenant risk, asset condition and market opportunity.
- Track progress against the business plan, escalating risks to delivery and identifying opportunities to accelerate performance.
- Use the business plan as the framework for prioritising activity and resource across the centre, alongside undertaking general and administrative tasks as required by the line manager.
Professional experience and personal skills profile
- Natural people leader: motivates, develops and challenges on-site teams, setting clear objectives and building capability and succession for long-term resilience.
- Experience managing a shopping centre or complex commercial/mixed-use asset, with clear accountability for performance, risk and stakeholder outcomes.
- Building-first mindset: hands-on knowledge of building fabric, plant, condition and maintenance needs, gained through regular presence on site — equally confident operating at a building level and a people level.
- Strong budget discipline: able to take a set budget and deliver every service it anticipates in a cost-controlled, effective manner.
- Confident stakeholder and client manager, acting as an effective escalation point with occupiers, managing agents, surveyors and external partners.
- Capable of leading change and continuous improvement in a live operational environment, without defaulting to day-to-day delivery.
- Relevant professional qualification in property, facilities management, building surveying or a related discipline.
- Sound working knowledge of health & safety, compliance and risk management, appropriate to an accountable role.
- Keeps up to date with retail news and trends, using this awareness to inform decisions on occupier mix, centre presentation and commercial opportunity.
Salary Negotiable DOE
Pay: £60,000.00-£70,000.00 per year
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Experience:
- Shopping Centre Management: 5 years (preferred)
Language:
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
