Deputy Director of Estates and Facilities

Deputy Director of Estates and Facilities

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) is seeking an exceptional Estates leader to take on a pivotal role at one of the largest and busiest acute teaching hospital trusts in the country. As Deputy Director of Estates & Facilities (Estates Services), you will provide strategic and operational leadership for Hard FM and Fire Safety services, ensuring our Estate enables safe, high quality care for the millions of patients we serve.

This is a rare opportunity to shape both the stewardship of a highly complex existing Estate and the future design of our hospitals as part of the National New Hospitals Programme.

• Inspirational leadership and the ability to motivate large, diverse teams
• Deep expertise in engineering, Hard FM, statutory compliance, and fire safety
• A strong track record of delivering strategic change in complex environments
• Excellent judgement, resilience, and the ability to manage competing priorities
• A commitment to patient safety, service quality, and continuous improvement

This is a role with real strategic influence. If you are driven by the challenge of leading one of the NHS's most complex Estates through a period of significant transformation, we would be delighted to hear from you.

The Carter and Naylor reports set out significant expectations for EFM services nationally. You will provide both operational and strategic leadership in delivering NUH's response, ensuring our services are efficient, resilient, and aligned with best practice.

You will also work closely with Clinical Care Groups and senior operational leaders to ensure the Estate fully supports safe and effective clinical care. This includes business continuity planning, enabling high quality patient pathways, and ensuring Estates related risks are understood, escalated, and managed appropriately.

You will lead the operational management of Estates Services across NUH, covering a wide and diverse portfolio including engineering, infrastructure, statutory compliance, risk management, resilience, and fire safety. Working closely with the Director of Estates & Facilities, you will also deputise across the full range of EFM services when required.

As a key member of the Estates & Facilities Directorate Leadership Team, you will work alongside senior colleagues responsible for Soft FM, Capital Development, and Property & Regulatory Services. Together, you will provide strategic and operational governance for a Directorate with a budget of £123m and a workforce of around 1,300 staff.

With over 19,000 staff, we are one of the biggest employers in the city with a central role in supporting the health and wellbeing of our local population. We play a leading role in research, education and innovation.

Come and join our wonderful team  are big believers in diversity and welcome new ideas to help develop our team in order to deliver world class healthcare to the vast patient populations we serve. With endless personal development opportunities available, at NUH we will endeavour to turn your job into a career!

We particularly welcome applications from people who identify as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, or Disabled, as we are striving to be better represented at NUH.

In addition to the below, please refer to the Job Description and Person Specifications attached to the advert for full details.

NUH's Estate is recognised as one of the most challenging in the NHS. Ageing primary infrastructure, complex distribution systems, and significant backlog maintenance require strong leadership, rigorous governance, and risk-based investment planning.

You will:

• Lead the strategic development and operational delivery of Estates Services
• Define engineering strategies for both current estate challenges and future redevelopment
• Act as the Trust's lead professional advisor for engineering and statutory compliance
• Shape the Estates contribution to major business cases for the New Hospitals Programme
• Oversee fire safety compliance, governance, and continuous improvement across the Trust
• Ensure robust assurance frameworks that protect patients, visitors, and staff

With the New Hospitals Programme now expected to deliver from 2035, you will also play a central role in developing a new interim Estates strategy, informed by a full condition survey commencing in 2026.

• Degree/Master's level qualification and Chartered membership of a Technical Estates institution or demonstrating willingness to fast track an application for chartership.
• Equivalent level of in-depth and specialist knowledge and significant experience at Director, Deputy Director or very senior manager level in Estates and Facilities Management area. Level of experience required to attain registration as a Chartered Engineer or equivalent professional.
• Evidence of ongoing CPD and membership of appropriate professional body e.g.…