Vice President - Facilities and Workplace

RAKBANK; Dubai; On-site; AED 502,000 - 781,000; Full time

Job summary

Rakbank is seeking a Vice President - Facilities and Workplace in Dubai to lead the bank’s physical environments, from HVAC and power to data centre and workplace experience. You will drive engineering governance, strategic maintenance programs, and outsourced contracts to ensure reliability and resilience across multiple sites.

The role requires 18–20 years in facilities management or related fields, with a focus on cost efficiency, sustainability, and employee experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering required.
• MBA or master’s degree in related field strongly preferred.
• 18–20 years of progressive leadership in facilities/engineer operations, or corporate services.

Responsibilities

• Lead facilities management and engineering across offices, branches, and critical facilities.
• Set enterprise standards for maintenance, safety, and infrastructure resilience.
• Oversee lifecycle of building systems and critical assets with risk-based decisions.
• Ensure availability and prompt recovery for mission-critical facilities and data centre infrastructure.
• Govern outsourced facilities providers with performance reviews and SLAs.
• Shape workplace experience to be productive, employee-friendly, and digitally enabled.

Skills

Enterprise facilities management

Data centre operations

Asset lifecycle management

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering

MBA or related master’s in Engineering/Facilities/Real Estate

Tools

CAFM

IWMS

Job description

Vice President - Facilities and Workplace Job Snapshot Role: Vice President - Facilities and Workplace Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates Industry: Banking Function: Facilities Management-Maintenance Experience: 18-20 years in facilities management, engineering operations, corporate real estate, workplace experience, or corporate services Job Type: Full-time Gender: Any Candidate Nationality: Any Country: United Arab Emirates City: Dubai Industry: Banking Function: Facilities Management-Maintenance Salary: 45000-70000 Estimated salary range based on similar jobs in the job city; please confirm the final offer with the employer.

Role Context The Vice President - Facilities and Workplace will provide strategic and operational leadership across the physical environments that support the bank 's employees, customers, technology infrastructure, and business continuity requirements. The position combines engineering governance with modern workplace strategy. Responsibilities extend from HVAC systems, power infrastructure, data centre, fire and life safety, asset management, and outsourced facilities contracts to employee experience, transportation, fleet services, government requirements, digital workplace technology, and service innovation. The role has significant influence over operational resilience, workplace productivity, asset reliability, employee satisfaction, cost efficiency, sustainability, and the long-term performance of the bank 's property and engineering estate.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead facilities management and engineering operations across the bank 's offices, branches, operational sites, critical facilities, and supporting property portfolio.
• Establish enterprise standards for maintenance, engineering performance, asset reliability, safety, service quality, and infrastructure resilience.
• Oversee the lifecycle of building systems and critical engineering assets, ensuring maintenance and replacement strategies are based on condition, performance, risk, and business requirements.
• Maintain strong operational oversight of HVAC systems, chiller plants, electrical distribution, substations, UPS systems, generators, fire protection, BMS, MEP infrastructure, and related building technologies.
• Ensure mission-critical facilities and data centre infrastructure maintain appropriate availability, redundancy, monitoring, and recovery capability.
• Develop preventive, predictive, and condition-based maintenance strategies that reduce failures and improve asset availability.
• Drive compliance with engineering standards, occupational health and safety requirements, statutory obligations, internal policies, and regulatory expectations.
• Establish structured governance for outsourced facilities management providers, including performance monitoring, service reviews, escalation mechanisms, and contractual accountability.
• The Vice President will also shape workplace experience across the organization, ensuring facilities are designed and operated as productive, responsive, and employee-focused environments.
• Develop workplace service standards that improve employee comfort, engagement, collaboration, wellbeing, and productivity.
• Use occupancy data, workplace analytics, service feedback, and utilization information to improve space effectiveness and investment decisions.
• Introduce smart workplace technologies that make environments easier to manage and more responsive to employee needs.
• Build a hospitality-led service culture across reception, workplace support, employee services, and other customer-facing corporate functions.
• Lead corporate services covering travel, transportation, fleet operations, workplace support, and associated administrative services.
• Oversee government relations activities connected with permits, licenses, statutory approvals, and operational compliance.
• Standardize corporate service processes across locations while identifying opportunities to improve cost, responsiveness, and consistency.
• Establish measurable service standards and continuously review performance against employee and organizational expectations.
• Digital transformation will be an important part of the role, with responsibility for modernizing the systems and data used to operate facilities.
• Lead implementation and enhancement of CAFM and IWMS platforms across the property portfolio.
• Deploy smart building technologies, IoT-enabled monitoring, intelligent controls, and predictive maintenance capabilities.
• Identify repetitive operational activities that can be automated to improve reliability and reduce manual intervention.
• Integrate engineering, maintenance, occupancy, energy, asset, and service data to support stronger management decisions.
• Use operational analytics to identify performance trends, asset risks, capacity constraints, and opportunities for service improvement.
• Evaluate emerging workplace and building technologies that can improve resilience, sustainability, productivity, and employee experience.
• Manage operational and capital expenditure budgets across facilities, workplace services, engineering, and corporate services.
• Develop financial plans for asset renewal, infrastructure upgrades, workplace projects, maintenance programs, and service contracts.
• Identify sustainable cost optimization opportunities without compromising safety, resilience, service quality, or employee experience.
• Lead procurement planning for major facilities, engineering, workplace, and corporate service requirements.
• Establish contract governance models covering service levels, KPIs, commercial obligations, performance reviews, and supplier improvement plans.
• Maintain effective relationships with facilities providers, engineering contractors, technology vendors, consultants, and specialist service partners.
• Ensure operational activities remain audit-ready with appropriate controls, documentation, procedures, approvals, and performance evidence.
• Track improvements in service quality, asset reliability, workplace satisfaction, operating efficiency, productivity, and return on investment.

Ideal Profile

Candidates must hold a bachelor 's degree in Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering. An MBA or master 's degree in Engineering, Facilities Management, Real Estate, Business Administration, or another relevant discipline would strengthen the profile. Professional credentials such as CFM, FMP, IWFM, PMP, PRINCE2, LEED AP, WELL AP, NEBOSH, IOSH, or comparable certifications are highly desirable. The position requires approximately 18-20 years of progressive leadership experience across facilities management, engineering operations, corporate real estate, workplace experience, or corporate services. Candidates should bring at least 10 years of leadership responsibility for facilities and workplace operations across substantial multi-site environments. Strong experience managing critical infrastructure and data centres is particularly important, including practical understanding of the engineering systems required to maintain uninterrupted operations. Extensive exposure to outsourced facilities management models, sophisticated service contracts, supplier governance, and performance management is required. The successful candidate should understand both conventional engineering operations and the emerging digital technologies shaping modern property management. Experience implementing CAFM or IWMS platforms, smart building systems, IoT monitoring, predictive maintenance, automation, and data-driven facilities management will be valuable. Commercial judgment should be supported by experience managing large operational and capital budgets, negotiating supplier arrangements, prioritizing investments, and delivering measurable cost and service improvements. The role also demands senior stakeholder influence, strategic thinking, strong communication, and the ability to lead transformation while maintaining stable day-to-day operations.

Skills Set

• Enterprise facilities management
• Engineering operations
• Corporate real estate
• Workplace experience
• Critical facilities management
• Data centre facilities
• Asset lifecycle management
• Preventive maintenance
• Predictive maintenance
• Reliability engineering
• HVAC systems
• Chiller plants
• HVAC controls
• Electrical infrastructure
• Electrical substations
• UPS systems
• Generator systems
• Fire and life safety
• Building Management Systems
• BMS
• MEP systems
• Critical infrastructure
• Health and safety
• Operational resilience
• Business continuity
• CAFM
• IWMS
• Smart building technologies
• IoT monitoring
• Workplace analytics
• Occupancy analytics
• Building automation
• Maintenance automation
• Workplace utilization
• Employee experience
• Corporate services
• Travel management
• Transportation management
• Fleet management
• Government relations
• Permits and licensing
• Facilities procurement
• Contract management
• Vendor governance
• SLA management
• KPI management
• Capital expenditure
• Operational expenditure
• Cost optimization
• Asset reliability
• Sustainability
• Service quality
• Facilities transformation

Why Join Us

This position offers the opportunity to shape the physical workplace and critical engineering infrastructure supporting a major Banking organization in Dubai. The scope extends beyond conventional facilities management into smart buildings, workplace experience, data-driven operations, critical infrastructure, corporate services, and enterprise transformation. The Vice President will have the authority to modernize operational models, introduce technology-enabled services, improve asset reliability, and create workplaces that better support employee productivity and wellbeing. Exposure to large-scale property, engineering, digital, and corporate service programs also creates a strong platform for continued executive-level development.

About the Company

Rakbank is a UAE banking institution providing retail, business, corporate, digital, lending, and wealth management services. The bank operates an extensive physical and technology infrastructure supporting customers and employees across the country, with continued investment in operational resilience, workplace modernization, service quality, and technology-enabled banking.