Maintenance Operative

About the job

The Maintenance team is responsible for ensuring the safe, efficient, and reliable operation of the facility, its systems, and its surrounding grounds. This varied role involves a combination of hands-on maintenance work, contractor management, health and safety compliance, and proactive planning to maintain a high operational standard across all areas of the site.

Shift Requirements

Shifts patterns will run between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm.

What you will be doing

• General Maintenance & Inspections: Inspect machinery, equipment, buildings, and facility systems including HVAC, and mechanical components. Perform routine cleaning and sanitising, including specialist cleaning of delicate or high-value items. Carry out small repairs such as fixing locks, taps, and broken windows. Ensure grounds maintenance activities are completed, trimming bushes, litter picking.
• Safety & Compliance: Check, maintain, and test safety systems such as fire alarms, fire extinguishers, lighting and generators. Monitor, review, and update relevant health & safety spreadsheets and compliance documents. Ensure all weekly and monthly checks are completed, with faults reported and resolved immediately. Work within all risk assessments related to maintenance operations and grounds work.
• Coordination: Support the maintenance team and cleaning teams to ensure tasks are completed to standard and on time. Help resolve issues arising in day-to-day operations. Communicate effectively with all levels of management to minimise operational disruption. Provide support, advice, and recommendations for job requests, office moves, and site projects.
• Contractor Management: Manage the maintenance of the building by performing repairs or coordinating contracted services. Oversee, and document contractor activities, ensuring all required information and compliance documentation is provided.
• Operational Support: Inspect and troubleshoot issues reported by colleagues or management. Respond to emergency situations or urgent site issues, with flexibility for call-outs as needed. Keep the daily communication (comm) cell updated with accurate information. Maintain all tools, and equipment needed for effective work performance of both the operation and the team.

What we need from you

• Essential: Strong problem-solving and analytical abilities. Excellent time-management and organisational skills. Effective communication and interpersonal skills. Ability to multitask and manage multiple priorities. Working knowledge of building structures, systems, and grounds maintenance. Good physical condition and ability to undertake hands-on tasks. Flexible approach to scheduling, including emergency responses.
• Technical Competencies: Proficiency in Excel and other PC-based software. Proven maintenance experience across mechanical, electrical, or building systems. Familiarity with health and safety procedures and compliance requirements.

Person Profile

The successful candidate will be a practical, hands-on individual with good problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently. They will take pride in maintaining a safe and efficient working environment and be capable of carrying out a wide range of maintenance and repair tasks.

The ideal candidate will:

• Be able to identify faults and carry out repairs with minimal supervision.
• Have good organisational and time management skills.
• Be able to prioritise tasks and respond quickly to urgent maintenance issues.
• Have good communication skills and be comfortable liaising with contractors and colleagues.
• Be reliable, flexible, and willing to support the wider warehouse operation when required.

Why work for Waterstones

Waterstones is the cornerstone of bookselling across the UK and Ireland. Joining Waterstones means being an active part in a success story that began in 1982, and books are as popular now as the day we started. Trading across the UK, Ireland and Europe, we are present in over 300 shopping locations, where Waterstones continues to thrive, each year actively pursuing a programme of new bookshop openings. Online at Waterstones.com, we meanwhile mirror the essence of our bookshops, further showcasing the unique enthusiasm and knowledge of our booksellers. If you have the relevant essential experience and you are interested, we would love to hear from you.

Waterstones is committed to encouraging equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and is dedicated toward eliminating unlawful discrimination. Our aim is to be truly representative of all sections of society and our customers, and for each employee to feel fully respected and to be able to give their best.

Diversity Statement

At Waterstones, we are committed to creating a workplace that is fair and inclusive to people from all backgrounds, perspectives and experiences, and we strive to promote an inclusive work culture. We are working hard to ensure our recruitment processes are free from bias, and our aim is to be truly representative of all sections of society and our customers, and for each employee to feel fully respected and able to give their best.

Reasonable Adjustments

We understand that some disabled applicants may, due to the nature of their disability, find some parts of the recruitment process challenging. If you need any reasonable adjustments during any part of the interview process, please make these known either to your interviewer or the person you liaise with when setting up your interview.