Regional Engineering Manager

Unite Students has a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Regional Engineering Manager to join our high-performing Estates team. The role will primarily cover our London locations but will also cover properties in Oxford and Gillingham.

The purpose of the role is to oversee the technical delivery of the region's Central Estates service, engineering maintenance programme and projects, and be accountable for the condition, lifecycle, design development and operational performance of our London estate.

The Regional Engineering Manager is responsible for the performance of our M&E and building structure assets within the portfolio of their region, for delivering both the reactive and planned Engineering Operational Strategy into our estate and for ensuring our buildings, our team and our 3rd party partners contribute to ensuring an exceptional service and experience to our customers.

We are the custodians of our compliance & building standards and quality. This role requires a leader, people manager and a subject matter expert, specialising in the technical understanding of multidisciplinary building services engineering. You'll be a commissioning and validation expert, efficiently delivering world class Estates service and property in a sustainable way.

You’ll be responsible for the creation, development, and delivery of our 5-year asset capture, condition, building risk and Capex lifecycle investment plan; protecting, enhancing and securing our key M&E building services structure assets.

You’ll be required to lead the Estates skilled trade workforce and contractor partners, working closely with the Compliance, Contracts, and Planning Manager, to ensure planned maintenance is scheduled and delivered in line with statutory expectations, and reactive maintenance is delivered in line or better than our customer SLA.

The role will also be the go-to expert for Engineering best practice and delivery in your region, providing support, guidance, confidence, and trust to operational stakeholders and the wider business.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Manage a Health and Safety culture across all areas of maintenance, ensuring that every team member knows what is expected of them to conduct their operations efficiently and safely within their respective region.
• Ensure the team deliver statutory compliant buildings within their respective region and support the development of the regional and national Central Estates strategy.
• Deliver the overall building maintenance strategy within your respective region.
• Report monthly on planned and reactive maintenance performance identifying improvements to create a world-class customer experience.
• Collate and deliver building condition surveys that inform long term maintenance plans within the respective region and inform the annual capital planning process, working closely with the ESG, Asset Management and H&S colleagues.
• Provide technical support and guidance to regional maintenance and facilities teams.
• Deliver a culture shift from reactive to planned interventions that will balance annual activity and smooth resourcing requirements.
• Inspired leadership and management of technical skilled trade workforce team - Senior Mechanical & Electrical Engineers, Electricians and Building Services Engineers; ensuring excellence in delivery of objectives against key business metrics and the annual plan.

What We’re Looking for in You

• Diploma/degree or equivalent in Mechanical, Electrical or Building Services Engineering.
• Significant relevant Engineering, M&E, Building Services and Estates Experience.
• Strong mechanically & electrically biased candidates with knowledge and understanding of fire safety systems.
• Knowledge & experience of current CIBSE, Breeam, Building Regulations, EN Standards and IEC Standards.
• Detailed knowledge of building construction, mechanical and electrical installations.
• Strong understanding of project life cycles and the delivery of capital projects.
• Strong understanding of capital / cost management practices.
• Detailed knowledge of statutory regulations and legislation.
• Good knowledge of Health and Safety responsibilities.
• A leader. A proactive communicator with the ability to work collaboratively in a multifunctional team.
• A high-performing, confident & honest individual, able to build trusted relationships, with a passion to inspire your team.
• As comfortable in a plant room alongside Engineers and contractors as face to face presenting to Senior Stakeholders across the business.
• Ability to work under pressure, reactively to escalated situations and tight deadlines. Alongside long-term investment, condition and risk planning vision and ability.

What You’ll Get in Return

• A discretionary annual bonus so you can share in the company’s success.
• 25 days’ paid holiday and an annual holiday buying scheme, with 5 additional days awarded for long service.
• A generous pension scheme - employer contributions between 5% and 11% depending on how much you save.
• Various benefits to support your health and wellbeing including a Healthcare Cash Plan, an Employee Assistance Programme, a Wellbeing platform and a Gym benefit that you can share with your family and friends.
• Enhanced Family Leave including 18 weeks full pay for birthing parents and 4 weeks for non-birthing parents.
• Lots of other great benefits including an annual ShareSave scheme, Employee Life Assurance, a discounts portal and more!

About Unite Students

Founded in 1991, Unite Students is the UK’s leading provider of purpose-built student accommodation. You can find us in 23 leading university towns and cities, with 70,000 students calling US home! We are driven by our values, culture, and a commitment to develop diverse and inclusive teams, filled with positive energy and new ideas.

Instinctive inclusion. We know that to create and maintain a happy healthy organisation, we have to work hard to ensure inclusion isn’t just what we do but who we are.

People make Unite Students. Employees, students and neighbours all contribute to building environments where we can all thrive.

Room for Everyone. We’re proud to be an employer that embraces individuality, and we’re passionate about building inclusive teams. We focus on creating a collaborative culture where you can be you, where your voice is heard, and where you can truly belong. We take great pride in being rated Gold Investors in People and are constantly striving to provide the highest standard of learning and development opportunities and professional pathways for our people. Building a home for success, for both our employees and students, requires exceptional people with a passion for creating room for everyone, doing what’s right, keeping US safe, and raising the bar. Join us as we build better experiences for students that live with us.

We are US.