Job Description

Facilities Operations Manager, Soft Services, ongoing temporary role, World Class University, 35 hours per week, £24.00 per hour plus holiday pay

Are you a seasoned Facilities Management professional with management experience within Soft Services? We are recruiting for a confident Facilities Operations Manager on an ongoing basis to support during a time of staff changes. This role is working within a World Class University, in their Estates department which covers areas including Estates Strategy, Capital Projects, Maintenance, Energy, Carbon and Environmental Management, Health & Safety and Catering. You will manage Soft Services including delivery of cleaning, janitorial portering and waste management services, managing the Facilities Management Supervisors and working closely with the Head of Facilities Management.

Key Responsibilities:

• Managing the delivery of cleaning, janitorial and portering services, ensuring agreed standards are consistently met
• Managing and coordinating FM Supervisors within Soft Services
• Overseeing periodic deep cleaning programmes, conference and summer schools cleaning and housekeeping, event setups and clear‑downs, and seasonal work
• Acting as the operational escalation point for urgent issues, customer concerns, and incidents
• Ensure integration between Cleaning, Janitorial and Portering teams
• Approving rotas and annual leave and oversee absence management
• Delivering training where required
• Overseeing operational compliance with Health & Safety legislation, COSHH, RAMS, risk assessments, PPE and Fire Safety
• Ensuring that regular audits and inspections are carried out in line with internal procedures, analysing trends, and implementing corrective actions
• Ensuring effective incident and accident, near miss reporting and follow-up (RIDDOR awareness), coordinating incident investigations and learning outcomes
• Maintaining secure, compliant stores and cleaning cupboards and high standards of equipment care
• Providing visible leadership and hands on operational support during summer schools, conference seasons, open days, Welcome Week and exam periods
• Coordinating event cleaning and portering logistics
• Ensuring use of CAFM (e.g., MiCAD, ), for job assignment, monitoring, SLA compliance and closure
• Producing regular reports on KPIs  
• Managing day-to-day relationships with suppliers and contractors
• Supporting Estates’ sustainability priorities: waste reduction, recycling, responsible chemical use, energy efficient equipment and process optimisation
• Contributing to business continuity and contingency planning, maintaining resilience for incidents, closures, and seasonal pressures
• Overseeing ordering, stock control, distribution of consumables, chemicals, PPE, uniforms and equipment
• Maintaining asset registers, planned servicing schedules, PAT testing coordination and machine lifecycle planning; ensure prompt repairs and safe operation
• Monitoring expenditure and provide information to support designated operational budgets

You will have:

• Managerial experience within Facilities Management or Cleaning Services
• Soft Services experience
• Confident Excel and Outlook user
• Strong knowledge of cleaning, janitorial, portering and waste management operations
• Leadership of multi functional teams across complex multi building estates
• Contractor and supplier management
• Management of formal processes such as attendance, conduct and performance
• Knowledge of H&S legislation – COSHH, RAMS, SSOW and risk assessment
• Understanding of BICSc standards and methodologies
• You will ideally be a BICSc accredited trainer or have a similar qualification with a recognised professional qualification in Health & Safety (e.g. IOSH). If you have a recognised Facilities Management qualification and Membership of a relevant association that would be an advantage
• It would be useful if you have worked in Higher Education or large Public Sector environments, have used CAFM systems (e.g MiCAD), have managed waste services and have designed or delivered staff training