Leasehold & Property Services Lead

We’re building thriving communities as one of the UK’s largest housing groups and a leading developer of affordable housing. We believe everyone is entitled to a good home they can afford, in a place they are proud to live. More than 100,000 people live in our homes. If you want to experience work that’s truly rewarding, join us. Because when we achieve together, customers and communities thrive.

The role

Orbit is delighted to be recruiting for a Leasehold & Property Services Lead to join us in this brand new role to the organisation, to lead Orbit’s strategic approach to third-party managed property, including managing agents, management companies, freeholders and other external management arrangements across leasehold, freehold and mixed-tenure estates. The role will provide organisational oversight, assurance and challenge in relation to third-party management arrangements, ensuring that Orbit has effective controls over performance, risk, compliance, value for money, resident experience and data quality.

The postholder will act as the central point of coordination for third-party managed property, working across Legal, Governance, Finance, Customer Services, Neighbourhoods, Development, Building Safety and other teams to ensure that responsibilities are clearly understood, issues are escalated appropriately, and Orbit can evidence effective governance and regulatory oversight. This role can be based from any of our offices - Coventry, Stratford-upon-Avon, Norwich, Erith or Kent, and will be an agile working role, with travel included across all of our office bases. This role is part of Regulatory & Governance where you'll help us give colleagues the support and expertise they need to be brilliant. This role is known internally as Third Party Management Lead.

What you'll achieve

• Lead Orbit’s strategic framework for third-party managed property, ensuring there is clear organisational ownership, governance and accountability across leasehold, freehold and mixed-tenure arrangements.
• Act as Orbit’s lead relationship owner for key managing agents, management companies, freeholders and other third-party management bodies, setting expectations around performance, communication, compliance, value for money and escalation.
• Establish and maintain a clear overview of Orbit’s third-party managed property portfolio, including key management arrangements, contractual or lease obligations, estate charge arrangements, compliance responsibilities and material risks.
• Provide strategic oversight of third-party management costs, budgets, estate charges and expenditure trends, working with Finance and operational teams to challenge costs, assess value for money and support informed decision-making.
• Identify, assess and escalate legal, regulatory, financial, reputational, health and safety, building safety and customer risks arising from third-party management arrangements.
• Provide reports, briefings and assurance updates to senior stakeholders, governance forums and project boards as required.
• Promote a resident-focused approach to third-party management, ensuring that service failures, communication issues and complaints are used to drive improvement.

What you'll bring

• Strong understanding of third-party managed property arrangements, including managing agents, management companies, freeholders, estate charges and layered leasehold/freehold structures.
• Experience of leading supplier, contractor or third-party relationship management in a complex operating environment.
• Ability to provide organisational grip across multiple teams where responsibilities are shared, unclear or dependent on external parties.
• Strong understanding of risk management, governance controls, escalation processes and assurance reporting.
• Ability to interpret leases, management agreements, estate arrangements or other property management documentation sufficiently to identify obligations, risks and areas requiring legal or specialist advice.
• Commercial awareness, including the ability to scrutinise costs, challenge expenditure, assess value for money and identify financial risks.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, including the ability to influence colleagues and external parties where there is no direct line management authority.
• Ability to translate complex property, legal, financial and operational information into clear reports, recommendations and decision-making materials.
• Experience of developing or improving policies, processes, controls and management information.

Why Orbit?

Choosing us means being rewarded in every sense. Here’s what you can expect to enjoy with us. A rewarding experience that works for you. We strive to create an inclusive experience with benefits and wellbeing programmes designed to help you, and your loved ones, to thrive. For a better work life balance, we offer flexible working opportunities for many roles.

A place to progress. From training programmes to professional qualifications, we provide opportunities to learn and develop at every stage of your career. Whether you’re a student, graduate or experienced professional we’ll support you to grow. For leaders, our tailored development journeys are designed to stretch and strengthen your leadership skills. As well as practical training, we give you access to renowned business schools and experiential programmes for greater breadth and depth of learning.

A purpose to feel proud of. We’re proud to make a difference to people together. We’re values-driven with a commercial focus on performance - because the more profit we make, the more we can achieve for people. What brings us together is a passionate belief in progress and people. Read more about the values and purpose that drive us on our careers website.

How we hire

We aim to make our hiring process simple and fair: Online application, Interview(s), Decision and offer. We put the safeguarding of our customers, colleagues and contractors at the heart of everything we do and as such, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check.