Estates Engineering Shift Leader - WC2E 9DD
Permanent Contract
4 days on/4 days off ‘continental shift’ pattern (42.12 average weekly hours)
£56,247.62 per annum
Based in: Covent Garden, London
Prior to commencing your application, please review our application guide here.
The Royal Ballet and Opera continues to lead the way in opera, ballet, music and dance both live on stage and through multiple digital platforms, from live streaming to worldwide cinema screenings. Our Covent Garden theatre has been at the heart of London and British cultural life for three centuries. We are home to two world-class Companies: The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera .
The Royal Opera House describes the place we work, not who we are. The whole is always more than the sum of its parts – we may be a House, but three quarters of our audiences experience what we do outside this building. While our Covent Garden theatre is the nerve centre, the impact and influence of the organisation can be felt in every corner of the country, and around the world.
The role:
We are now seeking to recruit an Estates Engineering Maintenance Shift Leader based within the Estates and Facilities Department. We have just brought the Estates Engineering Maintenance team in-house, so this is an exciting time to join the department and play a key role in the new structure of the team.
In this role you will lead your own shift team and third-party specialist contractors in the delivery and implementation of the planned preventative maintenance and emergency reactive maintenance across Royal Opera House properties.
What you’ll bring:
* Extensive relevant experience with shift maintenance experience in commercial properties.
* Mechanical/Electrical/Building Services qualification or proven competence through practical experience.
* A detailed knowledge of the working practices and demands of a large complex public building and/or listed building.
* Good working knowledge of statutory compliance within a medium to large, diverse, and complex estate.
* Ability to react quickly to situations, to be reliable and resilient, to perform consistently under pressure and to respond positively to changing circumstances.
* People management skills to supervise team members to ensure they have the requisite skills and knowledge and are competent and supported through training and coaching to achieve consistently high standards of performance.
We value the diversity new hires can bring to our workforce. A working knowledge of our repertoire is not essential, but the ability to learn quickly is.
How to apply:
The Royal Ballet and Opera is one of the UK’s leading arts organisations and our aim is to inspire imagination, ignite emotion and make the extraordinary for everyone. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion underpin all that we do. We want our people to be representative of the diversity in the UK. We understand the creativity and innovation that diversity can bring and strive to create an inclusive environment in which everyone can thrive.
We encourage applications from people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and skills to join our teams. We particularly welcome applications from those who are from a global majority background and/or those who are disabled, as they are under-represented within our organisation.
We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means that we are actively working to ensure that candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will endeavour to offer an interview to candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they meet the essential criteria for the role, though sometimes due to the volume of qualified candidates with declarations this is not possible.
The RBO is also committed to safeguarding and protecting all children, young people, and adults and we implement robust safer recruitment practices. Due to our safeguarding promise, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check before commencing employment with us, which will be indicated in the advertising.
A full job description can be found here .
For more information about working with the Royal Ballet and Opera, please review the info pack here.
For a list of potential reasonable adjustments, please review this guidance document. If you have any access requirements for your application, please contact the RBO Recruitment Team on
If you are applying as an internal candidate, you might find this guidance document helpful.
Closing date for applications: 11:59pm, Thursday 12th February 2026.
Interviews will be held the week of 23rd February 2026.
To ensure a fair process, late applications will not be considered under any circumstances.
Applicants must have work authorisation for the UK. No agencies.