Job summary
Would you relish the chance to be able to support lifesaving and life changing treatment for close to 1 million people?
Has the time come in your career when you want to contribute more than just profit for your stakeholders - and actually make a big difference for our communities?
Would you enjoy the opportunity to support one of the largest single site acute teaching hospitals in England?
We would like to offer you the chance to work as our Head of Estates Operations. This is a unique opportunity for an experienced operational leader to work closely with our senior leadership team, to expand, develop and strategically enhance the day-to-day operations of our estates across multiple sites.
This is an exciting role, with responsibility for a team of 150 colleagues, working in a fascinating and dynamic environment where every day is different, and you can say categorically you are making a difference. In this role, you will be part of a significant multi-disciplinary team, saving lives and helping the quality of life of thousands. You will get a sense of belonging and worth that will be difficult to match.
We are committed to your career development and offer a supportive, flexible, and collaborative working environment where you can continue to learn and grow professionally.
Main duties of the job
Attached you will find the person specification document which provides more detail about the essential and desirable skills and experience needed for this role. We highly recommend you review this document and use it when completing your application as these criteria are used by hiring managers as guidance during shortlisting.
For an overview of the main duties of the role please see the 'Job Description and Main Responsibilities' section below. To understand the day-to-day responsibilities in more detail please read the full job description document attached.
About us
As one of the largest acute teaching Trusts in England, we offer learning and development opportunities to help you achieve the career you aspire to. UHS is rated 'Good' by the CQC and in the latest national NHS Staff Survey, we were in the top 10 acute trusts for staff engagement and for staff recommending the hospital as a place to work or receive care.
Specific to this role is the suitability for agile working which is a mixture of on-site and remote working. In addition, we are open to discussing flexibility in the hours that you work. Please talk to us at interview about the flexibility you need, and we will explore what's possible for the role and service. UHS employees are able to access a range of NHS discounts, are entitled to a minimum of 35 days paid holiday (pro rota), and we offer a generous pension scheme.
Southampton is an attractive place to live and work situated on the south coast, with an international airport and direct trains to London. The New Forest National Park and beaches of the Jurassic coast are also right on our doorstep. The city offers living costs 20% lower than London and 14 schools rated outstanding by Ofsted.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key Responsibilities include:
1. Be responsible for the provision and management of strategic and day to day operational Estates building and engineering maintenance services across multiple sites.
2. Provide expert specialist and professional building and engineering expertise as the subject matter expert to internal and external stakeholders.
3. Support the needs of patients, visitors, and staff - ensuring the environment is presentable, safe and the capacity for patients and colleagues is not affected.
4. Provide professional leadership, management and support to the Estates team and UHS colleagues.
What we're looking for
5. Bring a track record of senior level management in the engineering and/or building construction industry, including leadership and ownership of contractors and in-house teams to deliver a compliant service.
6. Have a collaborative and collegiate external focus to facilitate greater working across the healthcare community, keeping the patient at the heart of all that we do.
7. Demonstrate and live our UHS Values and share our vision and direction for the division and UHS in a spirit of collaboration and compassion.
With your excellent communication skills, your focus will be to provide professional leadership and senior engineering expertise; you will work across UHS, and beyond, to ensure our services meet the demands of our patients, visitors, and stakeholders, ensuring the environment is able to support the incredible work that takes place at UHS.
As always, you will live and demonstrate behaviours that meet our Trust Values: Patients First, Always Improving, Working Together. You will inspire, develop, and support every one of us to live these values - every patient, every colleague, every day.
Additional Information:
Teams Stakeholder Session: 22nd May 2024Final Panel Interview at UHS : 5th June 2024
For an informal call, please contact Jane McCartney in the Senior Appointment Team on or Chris Mctaggart, our senior recruiter on .
Person Specification
Qualifications / training required
Essential
8. Demonstration of relevant engineering, construction and / or engineering building services training. Professional knowledge acquired through a Building Services; engineering degree or equivalent + specialist knowledge acquired through post graduate courses and experience to masters level equivalent.
9. Specialist training, such as that required to hold the position of 'Authorised/Responsible Person' and/or 'Senior Operational Manager', under the Department of Health's Technical Memorandum (HTM) 00: Policies and principles of healthcare engineering.
10. Excellent IT skills - MS Office Suite (Projects, Excel, Powerpoint and Word), AutoCAD, CAFM systems. Good knowledge of the operational use and potential of maintenance systems such as PLANET FM and MiCAD etc.
11. Membership of an Appropriate Professional Engineering Institution, competent to Incorporated Engineer or on to Charted Status)
Desirable
12. Master degree or equivalent specialist knowledge in healthcare design and construction delivery
13. Business/management qualification
14. NEBOSH General Certificate
15. Charted Engineer status
Previous or relevant experience necessary
Essential
16. Considerable previous experience at a senior level in the engineering and/or building construction industry including site supervision of contractors and in-house teams, working to complex programmes and delivery schedules.
17. Significant operational management experience in a healthcare or similar complex estate environment. Understanding of best practice strategies and methodologies for effective asset management, including PPM.
18. Effective service performance management of both in-house maintenance teams and external Consultants & Contractors to appropriate standards and specifications.
19. Management of professional level staff across building services disciplines.
20. The ability to manage delegated budgets, expenditure and cost control on delegated maintenance services
21. Good working knowledge of Engineering, Construction Design & Management Regulations.
22. Significant experience operating at head of service level
23. Managing strategic and operational change. Including the impact on assets, resources, services & staff and developing new ways of working
24. Reporting to and working at Committee level
25. Proven contract and project management experience delivering project on time
26. Highly developed technical/ knowledge
27. Awareness of the wider DH/NHS environment, ability to interpret policy and consider impact on asset, estate and FM services
28. Experience of Reading and interpreting CAD drawings
29. Experience in procuring and delivering contracts
Values/Behaviours
Essential
30. Patients First
31. Always Improving
32. Working Together