Deputy Director of Estates and Facilities

Position: Deputy Director of Estates and Facilities (Permanent)
The University of East Anglia is a publicly funded major UK research and teaching university. It was built to embody a radical new vision for higher education, where interdisciplinarity is crucial and excellence in both research and teaching is valued. UEA consistently ranks within the top quarter of universities in the UK for the quality of research and teaching.

UEA is a campus-based university on the edge of a beautiful, historic city and the Estates and Facilities Division is proud to be able to make a beneficial contribution to the University’s vision by managing, developing and creating a campus that makes a positive impact on the living and learning experience for students and staff. Our campus is home to Sir Denys Lasdun’s iconic brutalist architecture set in hundreds of acres of beautiful country park that includes a large broad (lake).

In the spirit of Lasdun’s ambition to inspire an anatomy of ideas, today, UEA is tackling some of the key challenges of the changing world. UEA’s research combines disciplines and breaks new boundaries across its priority research themes of climate, creative and health.

As a member of the Estates and Facilities Directorate’s Leadership Team, the post holder will deputise for the Director across the full range of their duties. In addition, the postholder will have specific responsibility for leading the development and implementation of a number of strategies for the Estates and Facilities Directorate. These include our Estate Strategy, Engineering/Infrastructure Strategy, Space Strategy, Estate Masterplan in addition to developing and delivering the Campus Development Programme.

In conjunction with the strategic elements, the post holder will be responsible for the delivery of our multi-million-pound capital programme and specific projects related to buildings, engineering, infrastructure and sustainability initiatives for both the academic and student accommodation estate. The role also encompassed effective management of all university space and all other matters relating to the general management of the property portfolio.

The successful candidate will be degree qualified in a relevant construction and property related subject and/or hold relevant chartered professional membership. You will also possess extensive experience of leading capital development programmes and projects across comparable technically complex estate portfolios. It is anticipated that you will have a proven track record in broad strategic planning experience preferably across the areas of master planning, capital programme delivery and property management.

Given the strong leadership requirements of the role, it is expected that prospective candidates will have proven team leadership experience.

To arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our retained advisors Michael Hewlett or Ben Duffill of The Management Recruitment Group.

The closing date for this role is 11:59pm on Sunday 8th February 2026.

Long listing meetings with MRG via Teams are scheduled for w/c 9th February and it is anticipated that presentations and interviews will take place at UEA w/c 23rd February 2026