Working Full time: 37.5 hours per week
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly motivated and technically skilled Senior Estates Officer (Mechanical Bias) to join the Estates & Facilities team. Reporting to the Head of Estates, the post holder will take a lead role in the operational management and technical delivery of Estates Engineering Services across the Trust.
The role is focused on ensuring the safe, efficient, and compliant operation of engineering systems and infrastructure, supporting the delivery of high-quality patient care. The post holder will provide specialist expertise in mechanical discipline, acting as a senior technical authority and Authorised/Responsible Person where appropriate.
You will lead a team of estates staff and contractors, ensuring that all planned and reactive maintenance, statutory compliance, and engineering performance requirements are met. The role requires strong leadership, sound technical judgement, and the ability to manage complex issues in a busy healthcare environment.
This is a key operational role, with responsibility for maintaining critical services, supporting capital developments, and contributing to the resilience and continuous improvement of the Trust’s estate.
The Senior Estates Officer will lead the day-to-day operational delivery of Estates Engineering Services, ensuring a safe, reliable and compliant healthcare environment.
Key responsibilities include managing planned preventative and reactive maintenance, prioritising work based on clinical risk and service impact, and providing technical leadership in either mechanical or electrical disciplines.
The post holder will oversee critical systems such as HVAC, medical gases, water systems, HV/LV distribution, standby generation and building management systems, acting as a senior escalation point for complex faults and service interruptions.
They will ensure compliance with statutory legislation, HTMs and relevant standards, and undertake condition surveys, asset validation and performance reviews.
The role includes leading the technical delivery of capital and minor works, acting as Authorised/Responsible Person where required, and managing estates staff and contractors to ensure safe and effective service delivery.
The post holder will also participate in the on-call rota and act as the first-line Estates lead during incidents, supporting emergency and major incident response.
The Trust’s services are provided from three locations:
- The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 473 general and acute beds.
- Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 60 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility.
- Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.
The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust employs 5,964 staff (headcount) to provide care and treatment to a population of over 400,000 people living in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire.
The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. Due to its location on the border with North Wales, the Trust also works closely with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
The Trust treats patients from England and some parts of Wales. During 2024/2025, there were approximately 643,000 patient attendances (inpatient, A&E, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery
See Job Description for further details.
Recruitment selection processes are based on competence (see Person specification) and values. An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page.
If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the ‘essential’ criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer ‘YES’ to the question: ‘Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?’
Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.
The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.
If a DBS is required for your role, you are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee applies which is payable to the DBS Service. Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs will be deducted from their salary over the first three months of employment.
New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.
The Trust will not sponsor where the starting salary does not meet immigration rules
Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.
Good luck with your application.
