Director of Estates - Transformation

The Role

Reporting to the Chief Property Officer, you will provide strategic leadership bringing together Transformation, Technology & Innovation, Resources, Risk & Performance Management, Environmental Sustainability, and Health, Safety & Wellbeing into one integrated function.

You will play a central role in delivering the Estates & Facilities Directorate Plan 2025 - 2030, helping to drive organisational agility, digital capability, service excellence and sustainability across the Directorate and wider University.

You Will

• Lead large scale transformation and innovation initiatives across Estates & Facilities, driving operational and strategic improvement.
• Develop and implement coherent Technology, Transformation and Innovation (TTI) model, embedding digital capability, data driven services and emerging technologies across the Directorate.
• Provide executive leadership for Digital Estate, operational technology, automation, analytics and service transformation programmes.
• Lead governance, planning, performance and assurance activity across the Directorate, driving continuous improvement and organisational effectiveness.
• Drive progress towards net zero carbon, environmental sustainability and climate resilience objectives across Estates & Facilities.
• Provide strategic leadership for Health, Safety & Wellbeing, ensuring robust governance, risk management and proactive safety culture.
• Build strong partnerships across the University, industry and external stakeholders to support innovation, collaboration and long term strategic delivery.

This is a role for a leader who combines strategic vision, transformation expertise and operational credibility, with the ability to influence and senior levels and deliver meaningful organisational change within a highly complex environment.

You Will Bring

• Significant senior leadership experience with a complex public or private sector organisation.
• A strong track record of leading large scale transformation, innovation and organisational change programmes.
• Experience of developing operating models, performance frameworks and governance structures that drive measurable improvement.
• Demonstrable expertise in digital transformation, technology enabled services, data and performance management, or innovation delivery.
• Proven ability to lead high performing, multidisciplinary team through periods of change and growth.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, with the credibility to operate effectively at executive and strategic levels.
• Experience of managing significant resources, business planning processes and organisational performance within a large scale environment.
• A collaborative and values led leadership style, with a commitment to inclusion, sustainability and service excellence.

Why Join Us

This is an opportunity to shape the future direction of Estates & Facilities. You will play a pivotal role in delivering transformational change across a major estate, helping to build a digitally enabled, sustainable and high performing organisation that supports the University's Manchester 2035 strategy.

What will you get in return

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays.
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period.
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers.