Director of Building Services & Engineering Candidate Pack
About Us
Our Culture & Values
We are an ambitious, thriving, and professional company located in the heart of London. We started in 2009 and are now a 200+ strong team working every day to embody our values: Integrity, Development, Energy, Achievement and Support. Our head office is in Covent Garden, and we operate a 24/7 business out of nine communities across the city (King’s Cross, St Pancras, Hoxton, Tower Bridge, Victoria, Vauxhall, City, Westminster and Battersea), with nearly 5,000 total beds. We opened urbanest Battersea in September 2024, one of the world’s most sustainable student accommodation buildings, and look forward to opening our 10th and largest community, urbanest Canary Wharf in 2026. With 1,672 beds, urbanest Canary Wharf will further enhance our sector leading status when it comes to sustainable developments.
Our communities each have a unique feel with buzzing social areas and quiet study spaces for our residents, and we are proud to offer an amazing living experience for students attending leading universities such as King’s College London, the London School of Economics, University College London and New York University. We have a co-ordinated calendar of in-house events to help students discover London and truly enjoy their time with us, ensuring urbanest has a positive impact during this developmental stage of their lives. We are proud of our incredible work culture at urbanest, and we all come together at different events throughout the year to celebrate our achievements. Join us as we work towards our vision of “a living and working experience better than yesterday; even better tomorrow.”
“Great you are thinking of joining us here at urbanest. Our success to date has come from designing brilliant real estate in superb locations; working closely with university partners; and above all, creating and nurturing a diverse team of inspirational people who do their best every single day. As we have grown, so has our team, not only in terms of scale but also through individual and collective, personal development. With a business that will continue to grow significantly, we need more great people to achieve our ambitious growth plans. Take a look at our values below… we work and live by these and they form the backbone of urbanest. These values are fundamental in how we operate. Another fundamental… we are an equal opportunities employer and remain truly passionate about protecting and enhancing our inclusive culture. As a Central London business with residents from all over the globe living with us we are a real reflection of a vibrant international community.” - Mark Morgan, CEO
Values Integrity Development Energy Achievement Support
Vision A living and working experience better than yesterday; even better tomorrow.
Mission To enhance university life by delivering responsible, sustainable communities across London.
Job Description
Health & Safety: • Work closely with the Customer & Property Management Team and Senior Management, to deliver accurate and relevant reporting the Advisory Committee • Accountable for delivery of systems, policy and process (aligned to the business, statutory requirements and Urbanest’s funding requirements) in this area. Planned Preventative Maintenance: • Lead the review of all service contracts, create, manage and monitor contract list across portfolio • Planned Preventative Maintenance; refine and review of all current service contracts. Managing a team to develop an accurate and up to date record of all hardware and contracts by property (and making each General and Maintenance Manager aware). With your team, responsible for managing each service contract and maintain the hardware in each property, reporting on a quarterly basis to the Advisory Committee, effectively ‘securing’ the building services at Urbanest. • Reactive Maintenance; with your team, responsible for the delivery of exceptional customer service to residents as and when required, adding to the overall performance of the business, as measured by the Net Promoter Score. With your team, reporting volume of total jobs, open and closed jobs on a quarterly basis to the Advisory Committee and weekly with the Operations Director and Resident Strategy Director. Effectively, managing the team that delivers a key element of Urbanest customer service. • Team Management; Line manage key,
senior members of the Operation focussed on reactive and planned
preventative maintenance and Health & Safety, supervising team members, managing absence, appraisals and other activities, as necessary (for example, training). • Estate Audit; with your team refine the existing audit to assess performance on Urbanest’s properties aligned with Urbanest operational standards and also aligned with Funder requirements. • Cross Business collaboration; contribute to the overall business planning process with structured updates with the Resident and Finance Teams. Responsible with Resident team in delivering a structured plan and implementation programme for key business cycle activities, especially turnaround, mobilisation and lifecycle planning. • Procurement; working closely with your team, be responsible for the efficient procurement, tendering and appointment of prioritised FM services, products and contracts that meet the operational standards required by Urbanest. Specific focus on utilities internal cleaning, external property clean (cladding and windows) and service contracts. • ESG; To provide key inputs into how we manage our Estate in the most cost effective and sustainable way possible. • Service charge; where appropriate liaise with the Finance Team to manage the delivery of our estate management, according to Service Agreements in place. • Advise and support on ‘new build’ specification and on capital projects as and when relevant.
Title: Location: Reports to: Direct reports:
Director of Building Services & Engineering Urbanest, 101 St Martin’s Lane Chief Operating Officer
Head of Building Services, Head of Resident Maintenance & Procurement, Commissiong & Building Services Manager, Health & Safety Manager CEO, CFO, CIO, Head of Development, Operations Director, Resident Strategy Director, Group HR Director, Acquisitions and Development team, Finance team, General Managers, Maintenance Managers and other members of Customer and Property Management team
Working relationships:
Role Purpose:
1. Responsible for the effective running of Urbanest’s Plant & Machinery and broader building and engineering services 2. Ensuring Urbanest estate is a safe and secure environment to live and work in. 3. Responsible for the Facilities Management of Urbanest estate; refine, and implement the FM Strategy for Urbanest, including Planned Preventative Maintenance, Reactive Maintenance, Lifecycle and proposed Capital Expenditure. 4. Line Manage a team of senior managers within the Operation, and work closely with the Operations Director and Resident Strategy Director to make sure the living environment meets the market leading standards set by the business and contributes to the relationships with Students and Universities. 5. Work closely with the Finance Team to optimise Procurement performance in the critical areas of Utilities, Cleaning and Maintenance contracts and services, achieving targeted Operational Cost per bed requirements.
Description:
FM Strategy: • Responsible for developing and delivering the FM strategy; Health & Safety, Planned Preventative Maintenance, Reactive Maintenance, Procurement, Lifecycle and Capital Expenditure.
• Refine and implement the FM Strategy for the business (aligned with Urbanest’s operational cost per bed targets), taking the strong parts of what exists, modifying certain areas and starting afresh as required. • Present an annual FM business plan
Key Competencies/Values
Key Behaviours: • Transparent, honest and consistent approach, holds themselves and others to account on issues of integrity and fairness • Takes responsibility for delivering against own objectives and encourages others to do the same • Customer at the heart of all decision making • Relentless focus on delivering results • Displays passion and energy at all times creating a positive working environment • Focuses on the learning and development of self and others • Fosters a working environment that promotes diversity and equality
Values: • Integrity - Acting with honesty,
professionalism, and accountability, while challenging the status quo and considering the impact of our actions on others. • Development - Embracing continuous learning and growth for ourselves and the business by being curious, sharing knowledge, and striving for improvement. • Energy - Approaching work with enthusiasm, resilience, and a positive, can-do attitude that inspires others and creates a vibrant environment. • Achievement - Taking ownership, being proactive, and consistently delivering high-quality results through clear expectations and empowered leadership. • Support - Fostering a collaborative and empathetic culture where people help, listen, and communicate effectively to achieve shared goals.
Qualifications, experience and role requirement
Desirable: • Chartered Property or Facilities qualification • Project Management qualifications
Essential: • Periodic weekend and anti-social working • 10 years of experience managing a multi-site Estates function • Up to 5 years of student sector experience • Experience in Health and Safety function • Demonstrable success of working with varying stakeholders • Excellent Interpersonal skills • Demonstrable financial and commercial Acumen
Our Benefits
ESG Profile
With significant growth forecast over the coming 5-10 years, we recognise the need to develop a culture that focuses on a responsible, considerate and ambitious Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) profile across all areas of our business. To help with these key objectives and how we deliver under each we have committed to using the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals as a launchpad for our action plan and to help us drive our improvements in our performance.
Holidays - 25 days pro-rated for days works
Travel to work loan
Recruitment bounty:successful referrals
Cycle to work loan
Company pension contributions @7%
Eyecare vouchers: Specsavers
Life assurance: 4x salary
Staff parties
Annual engagement survey: have your say
Perkbox: access to discounted retailers
Financial mental & physical support
Employee assistance programme
“urbanest is committed to developing environmentally conscious properties. We recently secured one of the first major green loans in the Purpose Built Student Accommodation sector which will be used to secure a BREEAM Outstanding certification on our urbanest Battersea scheme, this being one of the most highly regarded sustainability assessment methods for infrastructure and buildings. We are also applying the low-energy Passivhaus ‘classic’ standard in design of the scheme, further embedding our commitment to delivering long-lasting and sustainable student accommodation.” - Angus Kearin, Head of Development
ISA and various workplace saving products
Long service awards: 3, 5, 7, 10 & 15 years
Training & development
Discretionary annual bonus - share in our success
Half price gym membership
Wellbeing app
Health & wellbeing programme
Everybody is Welcome!
We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer, and we are committed to promoting equality and diversity within our team. We are proud to create an environment in which all employees are treated with dignity and respect, and where you can bring your whole self to work. This was shown in our annual employee engagement survey from early 2025 where our employee net promoter score (eNPS) came in at +37, which is considered very good! Some other key scores (marked out of 10) which our colleagues awarded urbanest, in reply to the following questions…. 8.4 Everybody is treated with dignity and respect, regardless of gender, race and sex. 8.1 I believe urbanest is committed to being an ethical and responsible company.
8.2 I feel comfortable being myself when I’m at work. 8.0 I believe urbanest is an inclusive and caring employer.
“Joining urbanest during lockdown was undoubtably a unique experience. It showed the company’s unwavering commitment and support to staff and their well-being, which taught me the importance of embracing change, remaining agile, and finding strength in challenging circumstances.” - Mathanki Thirukaran, Financial Controller
“Teamwork is vital to the way we work. The people around us lots of different talents and knowhow, so don’t be afraid to ask questions.” - Barney O’Donoghue, Sales and Partnerships Manager
Further Information and Application Process For a confidential discussion to learn more about the role and opportunity, please contact Urbanest’s appointed recruitment partners Michael Hewlett and Joe Glendon. Michael Hewlett michael.hewlett@mrgglobal.com Joe Glendon joe.glendon@mrgglobal.com Applications should consist of a CV, and be sent to michael.hewlett@mrgglobal.com and joe.glendon@mrgglobal.com Closing date Sunday 29th June 2025.
“Building relationships with others ultimately adds a beam of support to what you are building for yourself. There is a lot you can create working on your own, but the greatest success comes when you create and work with a network of people.” - Farida Ali, Concierge
If you’re excited by everything you have heard so far get in touch and tell us more about you! We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Page 1 Page 2-3 Page 4-5 Page 6-7 Page 8-9 Page 10-11Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator