Salary: £47,389 to £50,253 with progression to £56,535 per annum
Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.
Closing Date: 29 June 2026
The Role
Are you an experienced facilities professional ready to lead a large operational team and shape a high-quality service across a vibrant university environment? We're looking for a proactive and customer-focused Building Facilities Manager to work within our Estates & Facilities Service that looks after a large and complex estate with the strategic objectives of facilitating academic priorities, improving the condition and functional suitability of our buildings, improving the quality of the campus environment, ensuring effective utilisation of space and delivering 'full life cycle' value for money.
We're looking for a confident and forward thinking individual with a strong background in facilities management. This is a key leadership role responsible for delivering a high-quality, proactive, customer focused cleaning, portering and mail service across multiple sites. You will ensure services are safe, effective, efficient, and continuously improving - supporting the operational needs of a dynamic university environment. This is an opportunity to shape service delivery, drive innovation, and make a real impact on the campus experience. You will be responsible for ensuring that systems, working procedures and appropriate resource are available to meet the needs of university activities across various locations.
To apply please attach your CV and cover letter that demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria for the role as outlined in the Person Specification of the Job Description.
For an informal chat please contact Lynne Edis, Deputy Director of Estates (Facilities) at
[email protected] or 07814 116 559.
Key Accountabilities
- Lead the review, monitoring and enhancement of the Building Facilities service to ensure it meets the evolving needs of the University
- Develop, implement and maintain service level standards and a customer in consultation with stakeholders ensuring these are aligned with operational capability, budget constraints and optimal use of resources
- Benchmark the service against peers and external service providers, evaluating alternative strategies for service provision in pursuit of more effective and cost-efficient methods of work to demonstrate best practice
- Effectively manage and motivate the team ensuring appropriate resource and clear objectives to meet Service Level Standards
- Ensure all employment related processes including are correctly managed and adhere to current legislation and University regulations
- Lead the development and delivery of training and development within the service to ensure statutory compliance, the identification of training needs and the promotion of best practice
- Establish and maintain effective communication links with Schools, Services and colleagues within Estates & Facilities through regular meetings, providing proactive and collaborative solutions to challenges relating to the service
- To develop and ensure maintenance of up-to-date operating procedures for the Building Facilities Team, ensuring that changes to procedures are communicated in a timely and effective manner
- To produce an annual planned maintenance schedule in consultation with Team Leaders, Schools, Services and other Estates & Facilities teams to ensure the coordination of cleaning and portering with maintenance and improvement projects and events on campus
- To be responsible for the procurement and financial management of the service including the purchase of contracted out services for the University where there is no in-house provision ensuring that University Financial Regulations and statutory regulations are adhered to
- Oversee financial planning, budgeting, and procurement, ensuring value for money and compliance
- Coordinate planned maintenance schedules alongside wider estates activities and events
- Prepare budgets and supporting planning statements, manage the annual budgetary allocation and monitor the financial position of the section against budget. Produce standard reports on expenditure, forecasts and management information at regular intervals throughout the financial year
- Ensure that relevant Health & Safety policies, legislation and appropriate codes of practice are followed in relation to the service provision ensuring that the resource and financial implications to ensure statutory compliance are reported and budgeted for
- Ensure that safety inspections, audits and training are carried out and ensure that all H&S records relating to the service including H&S training records are kept up to date, all staff made aware of any changes to legislation & policy and risk assessments regularly reviewed and revised
The Person
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- IT literacy with the ability to analyse and produce meaningful data relating to service performance, budgets and benchmarking data
- Proven problem-solving skills
- Administrative and organisational skills to enhance the customer experience
- Experience of matching service level standards to available resource, reviewing and modifying systems and procedures to maximise the level of service provided
- Effective communication skills with the ability to sell ideas and strategies to a diverse range of colleagues and customers and influence stakeholders at all levels
- Experience directing a large operational team through considerable change
- A clear understanding and ‘hands on’ experience of planning, organising and delivering excellent customer service is a major element of this post with the ability to ‘flex’ the service to meet ever changing demands
- Strong understanding of service delivery, resource planning, and performance management
- Experience working with budgets, financial reporting, and procurement processes
- Solid knowledge of Health and Safety legislation and compliance requirements
Attributes and Behaviour
- Thinks on both operational and strategic levels and can be instrumental in transferring objectives into actions
- Recognises the need for change and promotes the benefits to others
- Encourages and supports a free flow of communication and information across the Building Facilities Team and beyond and will choose the communication tools appropriately given the size of the team and the complexity of the relationships required across the University
- Recognises urgency and take decisive action as required with the effective use of resources available. He/she will develop objectives and KPIs to ensure that the needs of the University are met and that performance can be measured
- Understands the value of learning from mistakes and experimental processes to build a culture of continuous improvement and will be involved in the support and development of others
Qualifications
- Educated to degree level or possess relevant experience of working in a highly demanding facilities management role
- Significant knowledge of legislation relating to facilities management including health and safety
Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.
We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.
At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.
In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.
Requisition ID: 29451
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