Facilities & Operations Manager – School Campus in Harrow

The role: The Facilities Manager is responsible for the provision of first-class cleaning and laundry and support services throughout a busy boarding school. In addition to the domestic housekeeping aspects of the role, you will be responsible for overseeing the running of the School’s Reception, facilities co-ordination and messenger functions. You will lead operational teams, manage service standards and procurement of relevant services, and work closely with Boarding House Masters and Matrons, and operational colleagues to ensure services meet the needs of the School.

The skills: This role is an excellent opportunity for a candidate with experience of managing multiple operational or support service functions within a complex organisation, who relishes the opportunity to innovate and influence how facilities services are structured and delivered over the next 12-18 months. You will have departmental budgetary and procurement experience and will have managed and motivated teams to deliver to high standards. It is a busy job that will present competing priorities in our unique, vibrant and historic site, so your pragmatism and willingness to adapt to changing operational demands will be valued. Your strong verbal and written communication skills will enable you to build positive, productive relationships with colleagues, contractors and suppliers.

The Benefits Include:

• a competitive salary;
• automatic enrolment in the School’s pension scheme;
• free lunch on working days;
• free parking;
• use of the School’s sports facilities such as the swimming pool, gym, and running track;
• subsidised membership of the tennis, golf, angling and social clubs.

The environment: Harrow School is one of the world’s most famous schools. Founded in 1572 by a local yeoman farmer, John Lyon, under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I, it is located on a 324-acre estate encompassing much of Harrow-on-the-Hill in north-west London. Around 830 boys aged 13 to 18, who come from all over Britain and across the world, live in the School’s thirteen boarding houses, and there are about 120 academic staff and over five hundred support staff.

Applications will be processed as they are received and interviews may take place before the closing date, so early application is recommended. Equality, diversity and inclusion are values that are important to us at Harrow. We believe in diversity of thought and actively welcome everyone regardless of their background to bring their valuable and relevant skills to our community.

Harrow School is committed to promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to adhere to and ensure compliance with the School’s Safeguarding and Child Protection policies and procedures at all times. In the event of a successful application, candidates will be required to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including, but not limited to, reference checks with past employers, an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check (including Children’s Barred List information) and prohibition checks. No member of staff will be able to start until these checks are complete and this process takes, on average, a month. Please plan accordingly.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore all convictions and cautions, reprimands and final warnings (including those which would normally be considered as “spent” under the Act) must be declared, subject to the DBS filtering rules. It is a criminal offence for any person who is barred from working with children to attempt to apply for a position at Harrow School. Please refer to the School's Recruitment, Selection and Disclosure Policy for more details.