Job Description
Position Details
Estates
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £45,585 to £54,395 with potential progression once in post to £61,198.
Grade 8
Full Time, Permanent.
Closing date: 4 th March 2024
Our offer to you
People are at the heart of what we are and do.
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham
Background
The University of Birmingham is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant City, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research. We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. Professional Services play a crucial role in this by providing outstanding support to our researchers, enable an exceptional educational experience for our students, and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. They ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence. Our Birmingham Professional programme operates across the University, supporting colleagues to network and collaborate, offering opportunities to learn and develop, contributing to the delivery of the University’s objectives, and helping everyone to understand the broader context within which we work.
Department Overview
The University of Birmingham Estates Office is responsible for both the master planning and stewardship of our extensive estate. Our team is made up of over 180 dedicated members of staff including apprentices all striving to deliver a world class university experience for the benefit of all students, staff, academics and visitors. After our staff, our physical estate is the largest single enabler for our world-class teaching, research and providing a fantastic student experience.
Specifically, the University Estates Department provide maintenance, operations, projects and grounds service to the University of Birmingham’s built environment. We operate up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all through the year to keep the University running efficiently and effectively.
Our estate is large and varied covering 672 acres, with over 200 buildings of different ages, complexities, physical condition and use, ranging from grade one and two listed properties to brand new state-of-the-art learning and research spaces. It consists of two main campus sites (Edgbaston & Selly Oak) along with properties in Stratford-upon-Avon, Ansty (near Coventry), Coniston (in Cumbria), and Dubai. The total gross internal area of the estate is over 500,000 m 2 and 74% of the non-residential estate is in building condition A and B. We typically spend circa £9m on energy and water each year.
We are committed to sustainability and have achieved a 20% reduction in CO 2 four years ahead of target and we generate 75% of our own energy via on site combined heat and power plants. Furthermore, we continue to reduce our carbon footprint by 3,000 tonnes per year on average and maintain more than 9,200 trees.
Role Summary
This is a strategic and proactive role to lead, manage and deliver a coordinated asset and condition improvement programme which will enhance and improve the overall condition of the Estate, ensure statutory compliance and improve accessibility.
The role will reduce backlog maintenance by identifying, minimising and controlling risks to both the physical infrastructure and those who use the University Estate. It will work collaboratively with project leads across multiple teams to ensure project deliveries are on time and to budget. The position will lead on Condition Management and Accessibility audits; and manage condition information within associated systems.
Main Duties
This role will work closely with the Deputy Director of Estates (Development) and Associate Director of Estates Operations to take a strategic and proactive approach to develop, lead and deliver a coordinated asset and condition improvement programme that supports the Estates Office Backlog Maintenance plan. This is currently valued at £7m per year. The position involves coordinating both Estates Office Project Management and Operations team resources to ensure effective and efficient programme management to enable delivery against agreed budgets, timescales and meeting Estates quality and H&S requirements.
- To agree projects with the Backlog Maintenance Group that are to be taken forward based on priority risk rating of emerging projects with regard to overall programme, annual budget and strategic objectives. To chair and minute bi-weekly Backlog Maintenance meetings to review emerging projects and formally track progress.
- To provide analysis of the Backlog Maintenance Programme in conjunction with the Backlog Maintenance group to ensure a cohesive approach to overall programme management, project delivery and links with the University’s Net Zero Carbon and Sustainability strategy.
- To maintain a priority risk-rated emerging items log with cost and programme estimates to allow development of Backlog Maintenance Programme.
- Provide detailed reports on Backlog Maintenance projects showing progress against programme to Estates senior management and University Capital programme group and Executive Board. This will include overview of outstanding risks and justification for budget increases.
- Ensure Fire Risk Assessment actions are reported on, correctly actioned, and fed into the Backlog Maintenance project list. Ensure that the associated FRA database is kept up to date accordingly.
- Co-ordinate condition survey and accessibility audits by agreeing a programme of surveying the University’s c200 buildings and liaising with building users and Estates Maintenance Officers to gain access and keep surveys to programme. To manage the costs associated with the surveys and ensure survey data is entered into the University’s IT Condition Survey application.
- To be the expert user of the University’s IT Condition Survey application and be able to generate cost plans, scenarios and future condition views to help inform the University’s Capital Programme of new buildings, refurbishment, disposal, demolition and opportunities for net zero carbon investment.
- From time to time, to act as Project Manager for Backlog Maintenance projects taking responsibility for managing design, construction, commissioning and hand-over ensuring compliance with Health and Safety, CDM Regulations, quality and budget management.
- Actively manage equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
- Support the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
- Any other duties commensurate with the grade.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
- Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification plus substantial work experience in a relevant technical and/or management role in a specialist area. A higher degree may also be held. Where no equivalent qualification is held a proven track record of extensive and substantial work experience in a series of progressively more demanding and relevant roles will be required.
- Proven technical specialist knowledge and understanding in a relevant technical area (specialists will require advanced technical expertise).
- Professional qualification and understanding of condition surveying of buildings or M&E assets would be beneficial.
- Membership of a relevant institution or professional body regarding construction, buildings, building services or surveying would be beneficial.
- Evidence of literacy and numeracy.
- Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
- Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
- Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.
Roles at this level will either be technical specialists operating at a very high specialist level as expert contributors or experienced functional/technical professionals with a broader knowledge across their discipline with managerial responsibility for the delivery or ownership of a service.
Planning and Organising
- lead and manage a technical/IT/specialist team to deliver a service, balancing short term delivery with longer term planning horizons;
- determine priorities and allocate resources to meet planned objectives and requirements;
- monitor performance standards, taking appropriate actions to ensure service delivery is uniformly excellent
- ensure health and safety of the area and equipment/hardware;
- carry out project work including planning and delivering programmes of work to budget and deadline;
- advise on future requirements of, for example, equipment, apparatus, furniture and fittings, space;
- make a major contribution to the development of policies and procedures to ensure that all legislative and University requirements are met within the laboratories/workshops and work areas.
- make significant contributions to the design/development/application of services, techniques, specialist equipment or materials;
- design, plan and deliver programmes of specialist work;
- operate as a high-level specialist – initiating and developing ideas/approaches, promoting and delivering innovative solutions.
Problem Solving and decision making
- use analytical and problem-solving skills to resolve specialist and technical issues; may be one of the few able to provide solutions in a specialised field.
- provide comprehensive advice and make innovative contributions.
Organisational Understanding
- has an excellent understanding of own working area and a broad understanding of the contribution other areas make to the success of the University;
- has an excellent understanding of how the University operates, together with an understanding of how academia operates in the UK;
- demonstrates empathy with the academic endeavour and seeks to encourage others to do so.
Relationships and communication
- communicate clearly on technical or professional issues to non-specialists and senior level audiences and command their respect;
- represent the department at internal and external meetings/events/network with colleagues in other institutions to share best practice.
Informal enquiries to Mark Griffiths, email: m.griffiths.1 at bham. dot ac dot uk
View our staff values and behaviours here
We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is one of our values.
You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .