Head of Estates Freelance NEW

Venn Group

Head of Estates

Location: London

Working Pattern: On Site

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Contract: Permeant

Salary: £70,000

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Head of Estates to join a well-established healthcare organisation with a complex and diverse estate, comprising both historic and modern healthcare facilities.

Reporting directly to the Chief Finance Officer, this newly created role has been established following an organisational restructure and offers the opportunity to lead all hard FM and engineering services across the estate. The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in ensuring the safe, compliant, and efficient operation of critical infrastructure that directly supports patient care.

This is a highly visible leadership position requiring a strong engineering background, excellent stakeholder management skills, and the ability to balance operational delivery, compliance, and long-term estates planning. The organisation places significant emphasis on teamwork, community engagement, and patient experience, making this an excellent opportunity for a personable and collaborative leader.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the day-to-day operation of the Estates function, ensuring the safe and efficient delivery of engineering services across the estate.
• Oversee all planned preventative maintenance (PPM), reactive maintenance, statutory compliance, and contractor management activities.
• Ensure the reliability and resilience of critical engineering systems, including electrical, mechanical, water hygiene, fire safety, and medical gas infrastructure.
• Manage and monitor an Estates budget of approximately £8 million, ensuring effective financial control and value for money.
• Ensure compliance with all relevant legislation, Healthcare Technical Memoranda (HTMs), Health & Safety regulations, and industry best practice.
• Lead contractor procurement, contract management, and performance monitoring.
• Act as the key Estates lead for refurbishment and capital projects, providing operational and technical input throughout project lifecycles.
• Maintain robust risk management procedures, including Permit to Work systems and Estates risk registers.
• Utilise CAFM systems to monitor maintenance performance, compliance, and operational effectiveness.
• Build strong relationships with clinical teams, senior stakeholders, contractors, and external partners.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement, safety, professionalism, and exceptional customer service.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

To be considered for this opportunity, you will ideally have:

• Significant experience within Estates, Engineering, Building Services, or Hard Facilities Management leadership roles.
• A strong technical engineering background, ideally with a mechanical bias.
• Previous experience within healthcare, hospitals, or similarly complex and highly regulated environments.
• Medical Gas Authorised Person (AP) qualification, or significant experience working with medical gas systems.
• Legionella and Water Safety qualifications, with a strong understanding of healthcare compliance requirements.
• Extensive knowledge of statutory compliance, Health & Safety legislation, and engineering best practice.
• Experience managing operational and maintenance budgets.
• Strong contractor and stakeholder management experience.
• Experience working across complex estates, ideally including both historic and modern buildings.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills.
• A collaborative and approachable management style with a genuine commitment to patient care and service excellence.

Benefits:

• Private healthcare scheme
• NHS Pension
• Enhanced family leave policies
• 25% hospital staff discount
• Free on-site gym
• Blue Light Card discounts
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Interest-free season ticket loan
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Significant autonomy and influence within a senior leadership role
• Opportunity to work across a unique and complex healthcare estate supporting exceptional patient care.