Group Head of Facilities

Group Head of Facilities | Midlands Based, UK Travel

A rare opportunity to build a function from the ground up.

Our client is a successful and expanding professional services organisation with offices across the Midlands and Scotland. Backed by significant investment, the business is entering an exciting phase of growth through acquisition, with ambitious plans to expand its UK office network over the next two years.

To support this next stage of growth, they are creating a brand-new Group Head of Facilities role. This will operate as a standalone function reporting into senior leadership, giving you genuine ownership of the strategy, standards and governance required to support a growing multi-site business.

This role is only suited to candidates with a background in corporate head office facilities, ideally within professional services or another corporate, regulated, or fee-earning environment. If your experience is entirely provider-side or contractor-managed rather than in-house, this will not be the right fit.

This is not a role for someone looking to run an established, well-resourced department. There is no facilities function here yet. You would be building the team, the policy, the supplier base, and the technology from nothing, ideally having done exactly this before, specifically within a business that was growing through acquisition rather than organic expansion.

We are looking for someone who treats workplace as a strategic asset, not just a service to be delivered. You will bring a track record of applying current thinking on employee experience, hybrid working, sustainability and workplace technology to solve real operational problems, backed by specific examples of solutions you have introduced rather than inherited.

Key responsibilities include:

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• Developing and implementing the Group's Facilities strategy from the ground up
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• Building and growing a dedicated Facilities team, including recruitment and structure as the function scales
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• Establishing centralised processes, governance and efficiencies across a currently fragmented, site-by-site structure
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• Leading both hard and soft Facilities Management across multiple locations
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• Managing supplier relationships, procurement and service contracts
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• Overseeing facilities budgets and capital expenditure
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• Ensuring compliance with Health & Safety and statutory requirements
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• Leading office moves, refurbishments, fit-outs and workplace improvement projects
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• Supporting the integration of newly acquired offices, including assessment of lease terms, building condition and long-term viability
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• Building strong relationships with senior stakeholders while acting as the lead for all Facilities matters
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About you:

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• Significant experience managing Facilities across a multi-site estate
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• Direct experience building, structuring or centralising an FM function or team from a genuine standing start
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• A track record of introducing new workplace technology, sustainability initiatives, or employee experience improvements that you personally designed and implemented
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• Commercial awareness with responsibility for budgets and supplier performance
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• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the confidence to work alongside senior leaders
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Kate Bard is acting as an agency and is an equal opportunties employer