About us

UCL is a radically different university. Founded in 1826 in the heart of London we are a multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students from over 150 countries. We were the first university in England to welcome students of any religion and the first to welcome women on equal terms with men. UCL is a diverse community with the freedom and courage to challenge, to question and to think differently.

UCL is regularly ranked amongst the top 10 universities in the world and recently named University of the Year 2024 by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024. Our progressive approach to teaching and research, our world leading academics, curious students and outstanding staff continually pursue excellence, break boundaries, and make an impact on real world problems.

About the Estate

The UCL Estate comprises over 270 buildings valued at over £3 Billion, more than four million square feet of academic accommodation and approaching 4250 student bedrooms. The scale, variety and complexity of the estate are unparalleled in the sector. UCL is in the midst of a 10-year Capital Programme with a value of £1.25bn in which UCL Estates Operations is helping shape the transformation of the university. 

The Campus Experience & Infrastructure Division is leading a number of major initiatives to support and im-prove the Institution, transforming the Estate and the delivery of estate services. The Division’s annual budget exceeds £100 million expenditure and £30 million income.

UCL is proud of its longstanding commitment to equality and to providing a learning, working and social environment in which the rights and dignity of its diverse members are respected. Among other initiatives, UCL has a number of Athena SWAN awards for good employment practice for women working in science, engineering and technology in higher education and research.

About the role

We are recruiting a new Assistant Director (AD) to join our Campus Infrastructure and Operations division. Reporting to the Director of Campus Infrastructure and Operations, the new AD will lead the Managed Services team to deliver contract compliance and deliver a consistent and standardised experience of our campus to stakeholders including students, colleagues and visitors. 

The successful candidate will create and manage a team which is focused on contract and performance delivery, and will develop policy, strategy and best practice to ensure an estate fit for purpose, of appropriate condition and functional suitability to support excellence in research, teaching and student accommodation. They will use the extensive available data to set standards, drive compliance and performance excellence, and they will provide operational expertise to the UCL projects team and the wider construction design team. 

About you

To succeed in this role, you must have the ability to demonstrate the motivation, development, and control of supervisory, craft and manual staff – including managing team performance, establishing relevant KPI’s and targets, etc. You are experienced and able to lead a reactive operational response to ‘in and out of hours’ incidents on systems inside or outside your area of responsibility, and have strong experience of managing within a challenging customer focussed, continually evolving environment - ideally within a 24/7 operation. You should also have an IOSH Managing Safely or equivalent qualification, and experience of budget and cost centre management with the ability to both set and manage delivery. 

You are an experienced leader, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to effectively manage many diverse stakeholder relationships and liaise with several disparate departments to ensure consistent quality service delivery for all stakeholders. 

Ideally you'll have experience of mobilising new build projects in readiness for operation and occupation and a strong understanding and practical experience of managing Health and Safety legislation and its application. You should have excellent IT skills including MS Office, previous experience with CAFM/IWFM systems is desirable.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (including 27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here : https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/