Associate Director Estates & Facilities Operations

Transformation Unit; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 103,000 - 118,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

NHS Pension Scheme

Generous annual leave

Staff network

Job summary

North London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a senior leader to drive Hard and Soft Facilities Management across its extensive mental health estate. The role requires strategic and operational leadership to ensure safe, compliant and cost-effective services that support clinical needs.

The postholder will oversee high-value outsourced FM contracts, lead in-house teams and protect Trust interests with strong commercial and contract management skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior strategic and operational leadership for the delivery of Hard and Soft Facilities Management services across the Trust’s estate.
• Lead and develop in-house FM management teams, providing professional leadership, direction and oversight of contract management, performance and governance.
• Demonstrate substantial expertise in Facilities Management with strong commercial acumen and contract negotiation to protect the Trust’s interests.

Job description

Main area Estates, Facilities & Capital Development Grade NHS AfC: Band 8d Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 455-NLFT-8283883

Employer North London NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Trust HQ Centro Building Town London Salary £103,102 - £117,560 per annum including HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 19/11/2026 23:59

NHS AfC: Band 8d

Thank you for your interest in North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT).

As of 1 April 2026, NLFT has formally merged with Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust—marking the start of an exciting new chapter. This is a unique opportunity to join a forward-thinking organisation at a time of transformation, where we are strengthening access to mental health services, responding more effectively to complex and specialist needs, and advancing our work in education, research and innovation.

By bringing together our combined expertise, we are building a stronger, more collaborative Trust—one that delivers consistent, high-quality care and improved outcomes for the diverse communities we serve.

At the heart of our approach isThe North London Way. We are committed to:

• Working collaboratively at every level, guided by our shared values
• Shaping a positive, inclusive culture where staff and service users thrive
• Empowering our teams with the skills, tools and autonomy to drive meaningful change
• Delivering excellence and continuously improving the quality of care we provide
• Embedding research, innovation and technology across our services
• Taking a trauma-informed approach in everything we do

We are proud to be an inclusive employer that values diversity. We actively welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly from our local communities, and are committed to creating opportunities for everyone—including apprentices, veterans and care leavers.

The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

As a values‑driven Trust, we recruit through our values. Our selection processes focus on behaviours, attitudes, and examples that reflect our organisational values and commitment to compassionate, high‑quality care.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role.

We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

North London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre-employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website.

The postholder will provide senior strategic and operational leadership for the delivery of Hard and Soft Facilities Management services across the Trust's extensive estate of mental health services and sites.

Main duties of the job

The role will have overall responsibility for the effective management, performance and commercial governance of the Trust's high-value outsourced Facilities Management contracts, ensuring the delivery of safe, compliant, high-quality and cost-effective services that support the Trust's clinical and operational requirements.

The postholder will lead and develop the Trust's in-house Hard and Soft FM management teams, providing professional leadership, direction and oversight of contract management, operational performance, financial control, service improvement and contractor accountability.

The postholder will be required to demonstrate substantial expertise in Facilities Management, together with excellent commercial acumen, contractual knowledge and the ability to manage complex supplier relationships, negotiate effectively and protect the Trust's financial and operational interests.

The postholder will act as the nominated deputy to the Director of Estates & Facilities in relation to operational Estates and Facilities matters, representing the Directorate at senior management meetings, Trust committees and other relevant forums as required.

Working for our organisation

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

• We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
• With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
• We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.
• We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.

Why NLFT?

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
• Excellent internal staff network

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Strategic and Operational Leadership: Provide senior leadership and strategic direction for the delivery of Hard and Soft Facilities Management services across the Trust’s extensive and dispersed estate, ensuring services are safe, effective, efficient, responsive and aligned with the Trust’s clinical and corporate objectives.
• Contract Management and Commercial Governance: Lead the strategic management and commercial oversight of the Trust’s high-value outsourced Hard and Soft FM contracts, ensuring contractors meet their contractual obligations, performance standards, key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level agreements. Ensure robust contract governance, effective management of commercial risks, contractual disputes and variations, and the achievement of value for money. Provide strategic oversight and commercial management of any other related or ancillary service contracts that fall within the Estates and Facilities operational portfolio, as required.
• Professional Leadership and Management: Provide effective leadership, direction and professional management of the Trust’s in-house Hard and Soft FM teams, establishing and maintaining an effective client function, ensuring they have the necessary skills, resources, systems and processes to manage and monitor outsourced service providers, maintain operational control and hold contractors accountable for service delivery and performance.

This is not an exhaustive list, please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information on the role requirements and duties.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Level of Educational or Professional Qualification

Skills/Abilities

• Skills/Abilities

Experience & Knowledge

• Experience & Knowledge

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we reserve the right to close any vacancies before the stated closing date. Therefore, please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

In line with NHS protocols, only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview. We regret that it is not possible to contact all applicants for every vacancy. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume you have not been shortlisted for the next stage.

Some administrative recruitment activities may be undertaken using automated workflow and robotic process automation technologies. These tools assist authorised staff in processing recruitment records and employment checks but do not make decisions regarding your employment.

You must already have the right to work in the United Kingdom or fully meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship; however, we can only consider these where all UKVI requirements are met. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role satisfy the relevant UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points‑based system criteria, as applications that do not meet these requirements cannot be progressed. For more information about the criteria, please click here

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

Please note, in order to progress your application your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of North London NHS Foundation Trust. As part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, fair, and supportive workplace for all. We actively welcome applications from individuals who are under‑represented within our workforce and are dedicated to eliminating discrimination in all its forms.

As a Disability Confident (Two Ticks) employer, we guarantee an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role and are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.