Head of Estates and Workplace

Salary - £77,869 to £82,637. Fully onsite in Wallingford with occasional homeworking. Permanent, full-time (37 hours per week). Closing date for applications, Friday 1 May 2026. We reserve the right to close this advert early if we find the right candidate, so we encourage you to apply early.

UKCEH is looking for an experienced Head of Estates and Workplace to join our team of talented individuals, contributing to scientific discovery and generating the data, insights and solutions that researchers, businesses and governments need to solve complex environmental challenges. Joining our lively Workplace Team, you'll lead the development and delivery of all estates and facilities services across UKCEH's four sites. You'll work closely with internal and external stakeholders to ensure all estate and facilities matters are considered as part of any business/services reconfiguration and in the development of any new services.

To be successful in this role, we are looking for someone with experience in estate strategy, management and planning, hard and soft facilities compliance, commercial awareness, project management, stakeholder engagement and a strong and confident people leader.

Responsibilities

• Working with the Executive Director for People and Operations on the Future Estates Strategy.
• Contributing to the development of the strategic direction of UKCEH and the annual planning cycles.
• Attending and contributing to Board committees and subcommittees, deputising on behalf of the director at senior leadership meetings when required.
• Integrating a number of related activity streams, with a requirement to co-ordinate and work collaboratively across the whole of UKCEH.
• Working with leadership team colleagues to continuously improve our workplace experience for all our people.
• Proactively leading a diverse team over four UK sites.
• Leading on preparing, tendering and managing capital program budgets and delivering schemes to deadlines.
• Managing and delivering proposals, costings and business cases for all new estates and facilities development schemes.
• Developing, managing and evaluating operational plans to support the achievement of strategic goals and team objectives.
• Leading our pre-acquisition due diligence (reviewing building and M&E surveys).
• Proactively leading the estates and facilities service to ensure the delivery of a high-quality service in line with relevant policies, procedures and practices.
• Ensuring contractors are managed appropriately so they adhere to all relevant policies, procedures and practices.
• Leading on appropriate ISO and other standards, providing assurance to the Board and the estates and facilities services.
• Liaising with key stakeholders across the organisation, providing advice and guidance within area of expertise.
• Having oversight and responsibility for mitigation of significant risk areas.
• Keeping up to date with external developments in the field.

Qualifications

• Proven success in leading estates strategy.
• Experience leading an estates and workplace team, understanding the needs of both estates planning and hard and soft facilities management.
• Working collaboratively with experienced and expert colleagues to deliver an excellent service.
• A track record of successfully influencing organisation strategy and of developing and leading the implementation of strategies, policies and processes across complex organisations.
• A clear understanding of service delivery and collaborative working with a continuous improvement mindset.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills.
• Demonstrable people leadership skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience at presenting and contributing at senior level.
• Membership with the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management.
• Must be able to travel regularly to all four UK sites.

We appreciate the continuous dedication and contributions of our staff, which is why we provide a comprehensive benefits package that includes financial incentives and well-being‐oriented perks, such as:

• 27 days annual leave (rising to 29 days after 5 years' service) plus 3 days for Christmas closure.
• 10% employer pension contribution.
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements (role dependent).
• Peer reward and recognition scheme.
• Dental insurance, gym/fitness discounts, retail discount portal.
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave.
• 24-hour, 365-day support with physical, mental, social, health or financial issues and much more.

Commitment to Inclusion

At UKCEH, we are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities, abilities and circumstances. As a Disability Confident employer, we actively encourage applications from neurodivergent candidates and people with disabilities, and we're happy to provide adjustments or support at any stage of the recruitment process – just let us know. If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement, we'd love to hear from you anyway. You may be just the right fit for this role or another within our wider team.

Important

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role and this does not qualify for endorsement to support a Global Talent Visa application. If you are considering pursuing self‐sponsorship, please indicate this in your application so we can take it into account during the recruitment process.