Job summary
- Main area
- Operational Estates; Estates & Engineering; Hard FM / Estates
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 289-CR-121
- Employer
- Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Chelsea & Westminster Hospital
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £75,328 - £86,114 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 01/05/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 14/05/2026
Employer heading
Head of Operational Estates
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Job overview
We are looking for an experienced and highly motivated Head of Operational Estates to provide senior leadership and operational oversight of the Trust’s estates and engineering services. This is a key leadership role responsible for ensuring the delivery of safe, compliant, and resilient estates services that support high‑quality patient care across the Trust. The postholder will lead multidisciplinary estates teams and oversee both in‑house and contracted services, ensuring full compliance with statutory requirements, NHS guidance, and CQC standards. Working closely with senior leaders, clinical teams, and external stakeholders, the role will provide expert assurance on estates performance, risk management, infrastructure resilience, and regulatory readiness.
This role is ideal for a confident and credible estates professional with strong technical knowledge, proven leadership experience, and the ability to operate at executive level, contributing to Trust‑wide objectives and continuous improvement.
Main duties of the job
• Support operational delivery under the direction of senior leadership for the delivery of all hard FM services across the Trust’s estate, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives and regulatory frameworks.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary engineering and estates team, fostering a high-performance culture focused on safety, compliance, and service excellence.
• Provide technical advice and support to senior leadership on estates operations, advising the Associate Director of Estates, Trust Board, and external stakeholders on engineering risk, infrastructure resilience, and statutory compliance.
• Oversee the implementation and continuous improvement of compliance strategies, ensuring full adherence to NHS HTMs, HBNs, and all statutory and regulatory requirements.
• Direct the Trust-wide audit and assurance programme for estates operations, ensuring robust quality management systems are in place to identify, report, and resolve non-compliance.
• Lead on the development and delivery of the Estates Risk Register, ensuring proactive identification, mitigation, and escalation of operational risks.
• Support innovation initiatives in asset management and lifecycle planning, and sustainability, ensuring the estate is maintained to support clinical priorities and long-term strategic goals.
Please refer to JD for full details
Working for our organisation
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of England's top-performing and safest trusts. We operate two main acute hospital sites—Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital—along with award-winning clinics across North West London.
Our nearly 7,500 staff care for a diverse population of 1.5 million, providing full clinical services, including maternity, A&E, and children’s services, plus specialist HIV and sexual health clinics. The Care Quality Commission rates us 'Good' in safety, effectiveness, care, and responsiveness, and 'Outstanding' in leadership and resource use.
We continually invest in our facilities, including a £30m expansion of critical care at Chelsea and Westminster and an £80m Ambulatory Diagnostic Centre at West Middlesex.
We welcome applications for flexible working arrangements, accommodating requests where possible to support our staff and patient needs.
The Trust is committed to equality and welcomes applications from all, regardless of background. Adjustments can be made for disabled candidates. Early application is advised as vacancies may close once sufficient applications are received. If you haven’t heard from us within three weeks of the closing date, your application was likely unsuccessful. Employment is subject to a six-month probationary period.
Some roles may require weekend shifts at multiple sites.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Compliance
• Provide strategic leadership on estates compliance, ensuring all engineering and facilities operations meet statutory, regulatory, and NHS-specific requirements, including HTMs, HBNs, and CQC standards.
• Support the implementation and review of compliance frameworks developed by senior leadership, policies, and protocols to mitigate operational, reputational, and financial risks.
CAFM System Management
• Provide strategic leadership for the Trust’s Computer-Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) system, ensuring it is fully optimised to support operational delivery, compliance assurance, and strategic estates planning.
Financial Management
• Support the development and monitoring of estates budgets, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities, statutory obligations, and operational needs.
• Monitor expenditure across all estates functions, identifying cost-saving opportunities and ensuring financial performance remains within agreed parameters.
Please refer to JD for full detail
Person specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Master’s Degree (or equivalent qualification or experience) in Hard FM, Estates Management, Engineering, or Compliance.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Knowledge and experience of CAFM software e.g Maximo, MRI or IDOX
- Demonstrable experience providing senior operational leadership within a complex healthcare or public‑sector estates environment, with the ability to influence executive decision‑making and deliver services aligned to Trust‑wide strategic objectives.
- Experience leading Estates compliance and assurance activity in preparation for CQC inspections, including management of regulatory evidence, inspection engagement, and delivery of Estates‑related action plans.
Skills and knowledge
Essential criteria
- Substantial experience in senior leadership of hard FM engineering roles within healthcare, public sector, or complex estates.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Application numbers
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Simon Benge
- Job title
- Associate Director of Estates
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 02033152778
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