Head of Housing Works in Southampton

Positive Employment is currently recruiting for a Head of Housing Works for our client, a government organisation in Southampton. The successful post holder will form part of the senior leadership team in Resident Services, Housing division. This new opportunity has been created as part of their exciting transformation strategy. Reporting directly to the Director, this role is a temporary contract initially for 3 months with the possibility to extend. This role is hybrid working with 1-2 days in office per week. Some travel is required.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Prioritise the performance and sustainability of the Housing system as a whole over the optimisation of any individual function, making trade-offs explicit and acting in the interests of overall outcomes for residents and the organisation.
• Build relationships and collaborate with leaders across the organisation, other public sector bodies and tenants to scan the horizon, agree priorities and mutual strategy.
• Use the Housing drumbeat of governance to collaborate with other SLT leaders, align priorities, allocate resources to priorities, remove blockers and manage escalated risks to drive week on week improvement – drawing on evidence, customer insight and real-world experience.
• Build a Housing culture that empowers managers, staff and teams, gets to the root cause of problems and makes space for collaboration, learning and improvement across functions.
• Ensure Housing delivers high-quality services across all of Housing that meet agreed commissioning requirements, comply with regulatory standards, operate within budgetary constraints and add value for tenants.
• Lead the Housing Works function to deliver safe, high-quality and efficient repairs, voids and maintenance services that meet agreed commissioning priorities and customer expectations.
• Champion the use of digital tools and data insight to improve planning, scheduling, and workflow efficiency, supporting first-time fix and reduced turnaround times.
• Develop an annual business plan for Housing Works that responds to agreed client needs – both strategic and operational – and aligns with Southampton’s wider organisational and financial frameworks. Ensure the plan sets out clear priorities, resourcing and performance commitments consistent with commissioned outcomes.
• Set operating budgets with sufficient staff and non-staff elements to deliver improving outcomes for residents.
• Understand the cost drivers in your services and use that insight to shape delivery, improve efficiency and inform business cases.
• Develop business-case capability within the DLO to support investment decisions that improve productivity and reduce total cost.

Personal Requirements:

• Degree-level education and/or a relevant professional or leadership qualification, or equivalent senior leadership experience in a complex operational environment.
• Significant experience leading large-scale operational services, ideally within housing, property, construction or a comparable environment - with accountability for delivery, performance and budgets.
• Strong commercial and financial awareness, with experience managing supply chains, improving productivity and delivering value for money across in-house and external delivery models.
• A track record of driving service improvement and change - strengthening planning, performance management and ways of working to deliver more consistent, reliable outcomes.
• The ability to lead through others - building strong leadership and management capability, creating clear accountability and enabling teams to perform without over-reliance on central control.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to work effectively across organisational boundaries and build trusted relationships with colleagues, partners and stakeholders.

Working Hours: 37hrs / Monday - Friday

Pay: £500.00 per day

Please note this role is within the scope of IR35.