Head of Facilities

About Us

King’s is a constituent College of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1441 by Henry VI as a place of education, religion, learning and research, the College comprises around 130 Fellows, 650 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 275 non-academic staff.

The College is internationally recognised as a leading academic institution, boasting among its former students and Fellows no fewer than eight Nobel laureates, including Patrick Blackett, Frederick Sanger, Sydney Brenner, Philip Noel-Baker and Oliver Hart, as well as influential figures such as Alan Turing, E.M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes and Bernard Williams. Among its most prominent living members are the novelists Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie, astronomer Martin Rees, sociologist Anthony Giddens, anthropologist Caroline Humphrey, former chair of the Bank of England Mervyn King, philanthropist David Sainsbury, molecular biologist Lesley Anne Glover, entrepreneur and computer scientist Hermann Hauser, composers Judith Weir (Master of the King’s Music) and Errollyn Wallen, the first black woman to have a composition performed at The Proms.

The undergraduate and postgraduate community is vibrant and diverse, priding itself on a friendly and inclusive atmosphere combining academic commitment with political engagement and a lively social and artistic scene. King’s has long been leading the way in undergraduate recruitment from the state sector. The College works very hard to attract the best applicants, regardless of background, and to encourage academically outstanding students from underrepresented communities to study at Cambridge. In 2018 it launched a transformational Student Access and Support Initiative designed to improve equality of access and opportunity, and to help combat entrenched social and economic disadvantage.

The Role

The College is seeking an outstanding individual to lead the care of the physical environment at King’s College enabling and coordinating key areas of work including maintenance and buildings management, health and safety, gardens and IT, while integrating the College’s sustainability and physical accessibility ambitions.

Key Responsibilities

Buildings & Maintenance

• Working closely with the Clerk of Works, provide leadership, management, and development to build a strong working culture in care of the College’s historic and contemporary estate.
• To work closely with the Head of Capital works on project delivery, ensuring operational expertise are factored into the project design, development, and handover.
• Represent the department with the College’s governance processes, including on the Buildings Committee and other Committees, where requested, to provide specialist input and advice on building and maintenance-related matters.
• Support and implement the objectives of Accommodation Network UK (ANUK) standards.
• To ensure effective contractor management and adherence to CDM throughout college maintenance works.
• Provide technical guidance and expertise to the maintenance team.
• Lead the college in driving improvements to the physical accessibility of the College for all its community and visitors.

Decarbonisation& Sustainability

• To lead on progressing the decarbonisation of the College through liaison with consultants, contractors, and College officers. Prioritise recommendations arising from College Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme and administer activities to deliver efficiencies against said scheme. Focus on consumption monitoring and energy conservation, recycling and waste management and emissions measurement and targeting strategies. Support and contribute to the development of the College’s environmental strategy, implementation plans and implement agreed environmental improvements to the College estate.

Health & Safety

• To work with the Health and Safety Advisor to lead for College-wide health and safety and to comply with any procedures as required by the College to ensure the health and safety of the College community.
• To work with the Health and Safety Advisor to maintain a positive and proactive health and safety culture across the whole College.
• Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of developments in the construction industry and buildings health and safety legislation to ensure that all work undertaken by internal staff and external contractors is carried out in accordance with approved building health and safety standards, and CDM regulations.
• Lead, with the Health and Safety Advisor, the ongoing development of the College’s Incident Response Plan and departmental Disaster Response Plans
• Ensure the maintain of all paperwork associated with Health & Safety compliance, including but not limited to asbestos, legionella, Portable Appliance Testing, Electrical Testing.
• Ensuring the welfare of all operational teams in your care, in line with Health and Safety legislation including the completion of appropriate risk assessments and safe operating procedures.

Gardens

• To work with the Head Gardener to ensure the establishment and continuous maintenance of gardening and horticultural work to the highest standard within the College grounds, and to ensure the most cost effective methods of attaining these aims within allocated budgets.
• To work with the Domus Bursar and Head Gardener to develop and deliver the biodiversity strategy for King’s landholding.
• To work with the Head Gardener to continue growing the educational and engagement value of the work of the Gardens team for the College Community and public benefit.
• To support the Head Gardener and Domus Bursar in the delivery of the strategy for King’s College Gardens as developed by the Head Gardener, Domus Bursar, First Bursar and key members of the Garden’s Committee.

Information Technology

• To work with the Head of IT to develop, implement, and maintain the College’s information technology systems to support the objectives of the College through the provision of a comprehensive computing, business systems, and website service.
• To work with the Head of IT and Domus Bursar in the development and delivery of the mid-term IT strategy and delivery plan.
• To work with the Head of IT to ensure seamless AV provision for teaching and events across the College.

Operations

• Ensuring that the College estate is effective as a busy contemporary college in a rich historic setting, making decisions that appropriately balance both considerations.
• To work closely with the Head of Housekeeping and other key stakeholders on developing appropriate systems and processes for managing the requirements of Accommodation across the college.
• To work closely with the Head Porter and other key stakeholders on the access and security requirements across the college.
• To look after the utilities for the College estate, seeking efficiencies through changes in operational and cultural practice where possible.
• To manage the College’s Sports facilities including the Gyms, shared Boat House, and shared sports grounds.
• To lead on the facilities management of all key college activities with internal and external partners, including but not limited to the May Ball, Student Welfare events, conferencing and sporting events such as the Cambridge Half Marathon.
• As a member of the Domestic Bursar’s team, contribute to the development of the wider College operational plans and approach.

Finance

• Work with Heads of Department to assess and forecast financial performance, including comparison with actuals to budget, and managing to deliver agreed financial outcomes.
• Leading technical tender processes, adhering to the College’s procurement and financial control models.

The Person

An ideal candidate will demonstrate:

Knowledge & experience

• Experience in large complex estate hard and soft Facilities Management.
• Professional and regulatory qualifications appropriate to the skills required, e.g. CIOB, BIFM, HNC.
• Knowledge of Building, Premises, Health & Safety (including CDM Regulations) and Fire legislation.
• Relevant NEBOSH/IOSH qualified.
• Experience of managing budgets.
• Buildings and Facilities Management in an Historic setting (desirable)
• Experience of leading decarbonisation of operations through data-informed cultural change (desirable)
• Procurement and contract management.
• Understanding of the benefits of CAFM within complex estate management.
• Leadership of IT service provision in a complex estate (desirable)
• Management of gardens or grounds maintenance teams to the highest standards (desirable)

Personal skills & abilities

• Office skills, including computer keyboard and use of word processing, excel. Ability to process, file and create reports from existing data. Ability to be patient, tactful and diplomatic. Ability to cope with a varied and demanding workload. Ability to lead, manage, and deliver change in a complex organization (desirable) knowing when to apply expert knowledge and when to be led by others. Confident in complex stakeholder engagement. A team player yet able to work independently. Flexible yet well organised in approach to work and able to cope with a varied and demanding workload. Ability to effectively liaise with relevant contractors and suppliers. An interest in sustainable buildings/historic buildings management (desirable).

Remuneration and Benefits

Remuneration

The post is offered at a full-time salary of £60,000 per annum.  The post holder will join the College’s auto-enrolment pension scheme with generous additional contribution options on completion of probationary period.

Hours of Work

The post is permanent and full time.  The nature of the work is such that the hours of work are not fixed. The College’s working hours are 37.5 per week and it may also be required to work such additional hours as are necessary for the proper performance of the duties.  Subject to the demands of the role and in accordance with the Agile Working Policy, the post holder may be able to work from home for part of the week.

Benefits

The College does not have a cap on the amount of holiday that you are able to take each year.  All staff working over a mealtime are eligible to take a free lunch or dinner in the servery.

The College offer enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay as well as generous sick pay for those who have more than 6 months’ service.  This is in addition to the Flexible Working Policy.  More details on all of these are available in the Staff Handbook.  Staff are eligible to use the Tax-Free Childcare Scheme introduced by the government to replace Childcare Vouchers.

Probationary Period/Notice

There will be a six-month probationary period.  Upon successful completion of the probationary period, the notice period will be six months.

How to Apply

Please download the application form from https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/about/work-at-kings and send your completed form by email via the button below. The College postal address is: Human Resources, King’s College, King’s Parade, Cambridge CB2 1ST

If you would like an informal conversation with the Domus Bursar, Polly Ingham, about this role, please contact bursars-ea@kings.cam.ac.uk

Closing Date

Please submit your application by 5pm on Monday 15 April. Interviews will be held on 2^nd & 3^rd May.