Role: Operations Manager  - Building Services Sector/Repairs/Planned Maintenance

Location: Hybrid/Midlands - Home based with Travel within Midlands

Package: up to £75,000, excellent benefits and Bonus

My client are an established and growing Building services company that focus of providing Construction/building/Repairs elated framework services with local authorities, housing associations and commercial clients across the Midlands. From project inception to completion, they are committed to delivering excellence at every stage. 

They are recruiting for an Operations Manager to take ownership of the contracts they deliver in the region: resourcing them properly, keeping them under control, and making sure each one is performing for the client, You own delivery and the people.

The person appointed will have a lot of autonomy, direct access to the owners, and a genuine say in how the operation is set up as it grows.

Duties:

• Running the contracts. Day-to-day control of every contract in your area - responsive repairs, voids, planned works and any larger projects - including the emergency service outside normal hours. Knowing where each contract stands at any point without having to go and ask.
• Resourcing. Making sure each contract has the right trades, supervision and support behind it, and moving people and subcontractors between contracts as the workload shifts. Recruiting ahead of demand so a new contract can mobilise without stripping the ones already running.
• Performance. Hitting the KPIs and SLAs we've agreed on each contract - attendance times, completion within target, first-time fix, resident satisfaction, complaints. Knowing the numbers week to week and dealing with problems before they end up in a client report.
• People. Leading the supervisors, schedulers, admin team, directly employed operatives and subcontractors across the region. Setting standards, dealing with performance issues properly, and keeping good people.
• Commercial. Working hand in hand with the Commercial Manager on cost, margin, variations, valuations and applications for payment. Feeding them accurate information from the ground, and acting on what they feed back. Keeping an eye on productivity, van stock and subcontractor spend.
• Safety and compliance. Health and safety on every job, every day, liaising with our H&S manager. Compliance with CDM,asbestos, gas and electrical regulations, and our own systems. Audits, toolbox talks, near-miss reporting and site inspections that actually happen, on every contract.
• Clients. Being the main operational contact for each client - performance meetings, resident escalations, quality issues. Building the kind of relationships that lead to more work.
• Mobilisation. Taking a lead on getting new contracts up and running: staffing, scheduling, systems, materials, the first few weeks of delivery. We're winning work regularly, so this will be a recurring part of the job rather than a one-off.
• Improvement. Making the operation better over time: how jobs are scheduled

Key Skills:

• Currently doing an Operations Manager, Repairs Manager or Contracts Manager role in responsive maintenance, or ready to step up from a senior supervisor or project lead role in the same field.
   
• Proven experience running framework contracts for housing association or local authority clients, ideally across more than one contract at once. You'll know what good looks like and what the client will pick up on.
   
• A track record of resourcing contracts properly - planning labour ahead, managing subcontractors and keeping control when the workload moves around.
• Managed a mixed team of directly employed trades and subcontractors, and comfortable having difficult conversations when needed.
   
• Commercially switched on - understands margin, variations and what drives cost on a repairs contract, and can work closely with a commercial lead rather than around them.
   
• Strong on health and safety. SMSTS or equivalent, and a working knowledge of the regulations that matter in occupied homes.
• Confident with clients. Can present performance data, explain a problem honestly and agree a way forward.
• Based in or within easy reach of the Midlands, with a full UK driving licence.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with a Tier 1 property services contractor or a large housing association client.
• Trade background, or an HNC/HND in a construction-related discipline.
• Experience mobilising a contract or growing an operation from a small base.
• Experience using job management or scheduling software.

Role: Commercial Manager - Building Services Sector/Repairs/Planned Maintenance

Location: Hybrid/Midlands - Home based with Travel within Midlands

Package: up to £75,000, excellent benefits and Bonus

My client are an established and growing Building services company that focus of providing Construction/building/Repairs elated framework services with local authorities, housing associations and commercial clients across the Midlands. From project inception to completion, they are committed to delivering excellence at every stage. 

They are recruiting for a commercial Manager to take ownership of the finances on every contract they deliver in the region: valuations, applications, variations, cost control, subcontractor accounts and the reporting that tells them whether each contract is actually making what it should. This is a hands-on job in a business that's still building its structure with a growing order book, a set of schedules of rates, and a lot of information that needs pulling together properly. The person they appoint will have real autonomy, direct access to the owners, and the chance to set up the commercial function the way they think it should run.

Duties:

• Owning the contracts commercially. Full commercial ownership of every contract in your area - responsive repairs, voids, planned works and larger projects.
• Valuations and applications. Monthly (or as the contract requires) valuations and applications for payment on every contract,accurate and on time. Chasing certification and payment through, and dealing with disputes before they become a problem
• Variations and pricing. Pricing variations and additional works against the schedule of rates, making sure they're agreed and instructed before the work goes ahead where possible, and recovered where it isn't. Keeping the uninstructed and unrecovered work to a minimum.
• Cost control. Understanding what each contract costs them to deliver (Labour, materials, van stock, subcontractors, plant) and working closely with the Operations Manager on productivity and improving margins.
• Subcontractors. Subcontract orders, valuations, payments and final accounts. Making sure they are being paid for what's been done, and that the terms with subcontractors match the terms with the client.
• Reporting. A clear, honest monthly report to the directors on each contract: turnover, cost, margin, cash position, risks and opportunities. A cost-value reconciliation that people can trust and act on.
• Contract administration. Knowing the contracts signed - terms, payment mechanisms, KPIs with a financial consequence, notice periods, retention. Flagging areas of exposure and making sure obligations are achieved
• Tenders and new contracts. Supporting the directors on pricing new work: reviewing schedules of rates, building up rates where needed, sense-checking tenders against what it costs to deliver. As New work is won, setting it up commercially from day one.
• Building the function. Putting in the processes and systems the commercial function needs

Key Skills:

• Currently a Commercial Manager, Senior Quantity Surveyor or Managing QS in repairs and maintenance, or a strong Quantity Surveyor ready to take on a region in their own right.
• Proven experience on responsive repairs, voids and planned maintenance contracts for housing association or local authority clients. You'll know your way round a schedule of rates, NHF or similar, and how these contracts actually get paid.
   
• A track record of looking after more than one contract at a time and keeping them all under control.
   
• Can produce a cost-value reconciliation and a monthly report that stands up to scrutiny, and explain it in plain terms to people who aren't surveyors.
   
• Experienced with subcontractor accounts from order through to final account.
   
• Comfortable working closely with an operations lead - sharing information both ways, challenging constructively, and backing each other with the client and the directors.
   
• Organised and self-sufficient. Happy setting up processes from a low base rather than inheriting them.
   
• Based in or within easy reach of the Midlands, with a full UK driving licence.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with a Tier 1 property services contractor or a large housing association client.
• A degree or HNC/HND in quantity surveying or a related discipline, or working towards RICS or CIOB membership.
• Experience mobilising a contract commercially or helping a business through a period of growth.
• Familiarity with job management or scheduling software and how commercial data can be pulled from it.