Building Safety Manager in Manchester

We offer a competitive salary of £59,800 per annum, 32 days annual leave plus bank holidays, a total of 40 days paid holiday per annum which is equivalent to 8 weeks. Opportunity to further increase annual leave with service or through the holiday purchase scheme. Immediate entry to our Pension scheme (matched contributions up to 10%). A great flexible working environment, with a range of family friendly policies. Health cash plan with financial benefits and the option to extend to your family. Cover includes dental, optical, physiotherapy, 24HR private GP access and much more. Paid leave for absence including sickness, maternity, paternity, and adoption leave. Access of up to £150 annually through the ‘Learning for life’ scheme. Access to a wide range of discounts and cash back offers, ranging from retail and automotive to holidays and cycle to work scheme. Develop your career with support and access to training and qualifications.

About The Role

The purpose of this role is to be responsible for ensuring the organisation complies with the Building Safety Act 2022 and associated regulations for all higher risk buildings (HRBs). The role provides end to end operational assurance that each occupied HRB is safe, well managed and supported by a robust safety case, resident engagement strategy and golden thread of information. You’ll be based at our Head Office in Didsbury, with a strong on-site presence across our key apartment schemes at Trencherfield Mill (Wigan), Stanley Park Grand in Handforth, and our Fusion site in Salford. This is a varied, site-based role where you’ll spend time across multiple locations depending on business needs. While your main focus will be at Trencherfield Mill, Handforth and Fusion, you’ll also need to be flexible and travel to other sites across the organisation when required.

Job Responsibilities

• Property Management – develop and maintain a management system for contractor access control, ensuring that all work carried out is in accordance with contract conditions, service level agreements (SLAs), quality assessment programmes, due diligent processes and health and safety practices in line with legislation. Support access provision in the case of out of hours emergencies. Develop, maintain and update the Safety Case report, ensuring evidence for each building is accurate, validated and recorded in the golden thread. Ensure all building documentation (plans, surveys, structural reports, fire strategies) is complete and up to date. Monitor and track all building related actions (fire, structural, servicing, compartmentation) escalating risks as required. Lead routine building safety reviews, inspections and assurance checks across all HRBs.
• Property Investment – provide input into capital and planned investment programmes relating to fire, structural, cladding and compliance. Review and validate investment proposals to ensure they address safety case risks and regulatory requirements.
• Health & Safety and Security – ensure compliance with the Building Safety Act, Fire Safety Act, Fire Safety (England) Regulations. Lead on mandatory reporting to the Building Safety Regulator and ensure building registrations are met. Act as the day-to-day accountable person for building safety risks, ensuring all hazards are identified, assessed, controlled and documented. Maintain oversight of fire risk assessments, structural assessments and serious risks requiring immediate mitigation. Ensure out of hours cover is in place for HRB. Act as a first aider on behalf of Onward.
• Contractor Management – ensure those contractors delivering fire, structural and compliance works are competent, accredited and performance managed. Review contractor survey outputs, validation reports, FRA actions, and engineering assessments for quality and accuracy.
• Partnership Working – work collaboratively with partners including the Primary Fire Authority Partner, Local Fire and Rescue Services, Police Service, Local Authority and any other relevant stakeholder to ensure effective management and compliance including disaster recovery within the premises. Act as primary operational contact for the Building Safety Regulator. Work collaboratively across internal services (Repairs, Neighbourhoods, Compliance, Assets, Leasehold, Legal) to deliver joined up outcomes.
• Resident Engagement – deliver the Resident Engagement Strategy for higher risk buildings, ensuring residents are informed, involved and reassured. Oversee the building safety concerns process, ensuring concerns are logged, investigated and responded to in statutory timescales. Provide clear building safety information, support engagement sessions and management resident communications.

Essential Qualifications and Experience

• Knowledge and experience in the operation of relevant statutory regulations, including health and safety matters.
• Experience and knowledge of CDM, compliance, fire and structural safety.
• Project management skills to assist in the organisation of planned/reactive works to the premises ensuring continued use of premises as necessary.
• Experience of working in a customer-focused environment providing staff, visitors and customers with an excellent service.
• A demonstrable methodical approach to work, with sound organisational skills, within a team environment but also an ability to work on your own.
• High quality communication skills (both written and verbal).
• IT skills/experience to enable effective communication and work planning.
• Minimum of five years relevant building management experience in commercial buildings and/or complex residential properties.
• Experience of managing staff and contractors, working to contractual specification to deliver high quality performance.
• Flexible approach to the tasks required and the hours of duty. It may be necessary to be contacted out of hours in the event of an emergency.

Desirable Qualifications and Training

• Understanding of BIM protocol.
• Minimum of five years experience in residential fire safety and a detailed working knowledge of Approved Document B, LACORS, national fire safety guidance on Purpose Built Blocks of Flats and NFCC guidance on Specialised Housing.
• Membership of professional body i.e IFE, FPA, IFSM.
• P405 BOHS Management of Asbestos in Buildings.
• P901 BOHS Legionella Management and Control.
• NEBOSH National Certificate in fire safety and Risk Management or similar (training will be made available).

Professional Qualifications

• Professional qualification in a property/building related specialism i.e. Degree, BSc or 5 years relevant construction industry experience.
• Hold a recognised Building Management or Fire Safety qualification (i.e. CIOB Level 6 Building Safety Management, BSC Fire Safety and Risk Management) or be willing to work towards it.
• First Aider Qualification.

About Onward

Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the Northwest, with 35,000 properties across the region. We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own, which is why we’re committed to building 500 new homes each year. We embrace diversity and strive for diverse teams to create an inclusive culture which enables Onward to thrive and be representative of the communities that we serve. We want to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be part of our recruitment processes and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. If candidates have any concerns or questions in relation to the role at any stage of the recruitment and selection process they can contact the HR team.