Senior Head of Property in Lichfield

In this strategic and operational leadership role, you’ll be responsible for maximising the value, performance and sustainability of the property portfolio. As Head of Property, you’ll lead Portfolio Management, Facilities Management, and Feasibility & Construction, developing and delivering a clear long-term strategy to ensure every asset is commercially productive, fit for purpose, and aligned with both business and community needs. Acting as a key partner to the Executive and Senior Leadership Team, you’ll balance strategic vision with hands-on delivery to unlock value across the estate in support of wider Society goals. This is a varied and high-impact role, combining strategy development with a strong focus on execution. You’ll drive estate productivity through retail performance optimisation, redevelopment opportunities, and the disposal or repositioning of under-performing assets.

You’ll also lead and integrate multi-disciplinary teams into a high-performing function, building capability in asset strategy, commercial negotiations, and data-led decision making, while embedding robust governance and performance frameworks. You’ll play a central role in supporting growth by leading acquisition strategy and securing high-quality sites aligned to strategic priorities, alongside overseeing lease negotiations and investment cases to maximise returns. You’ll ensure the consistent delivery of best-in-class facilities management across the estate, maintaining safe, compliant and customer-focused environments while driving cost efficiency and supporting sustainability and net-zero ambitions. Leveraging scale and fostering partnerships, you’ll help deliver innovative asset strategies that strengthen commercial outcomes while supporting community engagement and co-operative values.

We are looking for someone who can bring significant experience in property leadership roles within retail, multi-site or consumer-facing organisations, and a broad external network. The ideal candidate will bring a proven track record across acquisitions and disposals, estate management and optimisation, and facilities management, alongside a deep understanding of property markets, lease structures and asset valuation. You’ll demonstrate a strong commercial mindset, with the ability to maximise asset value and deliver sustainable returns. This will be underpinned by experience in developing and executing portfolio-wide property strategies, as well as robust financial acumen, including investment appraisal, ROI and cash flow optimisation. You’ll be adept at balancing short-term performance with long-term value creation.

As a leader, you’ll have a track record of building and leading high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams, and will be confident influencing at Executive and Board level. A skilled negotiator, you’ll be comfortable navigating complex stakeholder environments and driving alignment across diverse groups. The successful candidate will also bring experience of delivering transformation, including estate programmes, cost optimisation initiatives and improvements to property systems and data. You’ll be comfortable operating in a large, complex and evolving organisation, bringing both strategic perspective and hands-on delivery focus. Personally, you’ll demonstrate high integrity and values aligned to a co-operative ethos. You’ll be a strategic thinker with a strong bias for action, combining commercial drive with a pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach. An excellent communicator and relationship builder, you’ll bring energy and resilience, with the ability to manage complexity and lead through change. Above all, you’ll be a positive and dynamic individual who inspires and motivates colleagues and teams.

Everyone is welcome here. We’re happy to make reasonable adjustments so that all our candidates can show us how they’ll perform their role. There is a section in the application form where you can provide any additional information. Please use this section to include any reasonable adjustments you need, and we’ll do our best to support you through our recruitment process.

In addition to our competitive salaries, our colleagues also benefit from:

• Fantastic colleague discount - Reward ££’s and discounts across our Retail and Funeral businesses.
• Retail discounts - our hub offers colleagues access to hundreds of exclusive retail discounts, savings on days out and holiday discounts.
• Colleague Dividend - We pay a share of our profits to eligible colleagues as a thank you for their contribution to our success.
• Colleague recognition - we celebrate our colleague’s achievements both personally and professionally.
• Personalised learning and development - with easy access to a wide range of training programmes.
• Paid time for volunteering - we encourage our colleagues to spend three days per year taking part in volunteering, fully paid for by us.
• Enhanced family friendly policies - to help you feel fully supported during any significant life events.

Wellbeing

• Annual health check kit and virtual GP – Finger prick blood test kit, that is sent to Square Healthcare for your personal healthcare report, and access to a virtual GP 7 days a week 8am to 8pm for you and your family.
• Colleague assistance programme – to support you and your family when you need it the most.
• Healthcare Cashplan - your wellbeing is important, so you’ve got the opportunity to contribute into a voluntary plan that helps pay towards a range of healthcare expenses.
• Company sick pay – We offer company sick pay to colleagues so that you can focus on getting better and returning to work in full health.
• Life Assurance - after an initial qualifying period, you’ll get free life assurance cover, that pays your nominated beneficiary if you die while you’re working for us.
• We’ve got you – our colleague wellbeing campaign, making wellbeing benefits and resources accessible and relevant to the role that you do.
• Give as you earn - helping you support charities which mean something to you.

Financial Wellbeing

• iTrent Financial Wellbeing (Wagestream) - offers something for all our colleagues, whether you want to track your finances, save some money, or access up to 50% of your earned pay flexibly in a way that suits you.
• The Money Co-op - Free access to support all aspects of your financial wellbeing, such as savings and loans at competitive rates.
• Salary Sacrifice schemes:

• Electric Vehicle scheme – Option to purchase your EV through salary sacrifice.
• Share Incentive Plan (SIP) – option to buy shares within the Society, where they will attract interest and £10 worth of matching shares.
• Cycle to Work scheme – Option to purchase your bicycle and accessories through salary sacrifice.
• Holiday buy - colleagues can buy up to a week extra of annual leave each year.

To find out more about all of these plus many more reasons to join us, please visit Rewards and benefits - Central Coop (careers.coop).

OurCoop is the UK’s largest independent co-operative Society, with more than one million Members and 13,000 colleagues operating in communities nationwide. It was formed by bringing together Central Co-op, The Midcounties Co-operative and Chelmsford Star Co-op to create a stronger, member-owned organisation rooted in shared co-operative values. The Society trades nationally through its family of businesses while remaining deeply rooted in local communities. Its footprint spans Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Bedfordshire in the South and West; the Midlands including Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire; the North including Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire; and the East of England, including Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. OurCoop and its family of businesses are trading names of Central England Co-operative Limited.