Director of Housing Maintenance

OnwardHomes; Manchester; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Onward Homes is seeking a Director of Maintenance in Manchester to lead our housing repairs and maintenance service and shape the ongoing growth of Onward Repairs. You will drive a First Time Fix approach, foster a culture of customer excellence, and ensure we have the people, capacity and supply chain needed to deliver high-quality, efficient and responsive services.

You will bring significant senior leadership experience in housing repairs and maintenance, manage large portfolios, and work

Qualifications

• Essential: Relevant qualification in related construction discipline.
• Essential: Relevant Health and Safety Qualifications.
• Desired: Degree level in a relevant property discipline.
• Desired: Chartered Builder or Surveyor.

Responsibilities

• Lead our culture: Create a high-performing housing maintenance service where customer excellence, accountability, pride and professionalism are at the heart of everything we do.
• Set the strategy: Develop and deliver our First Time Fix maintenance strategy and lead the continued growth of Onward Repairs as our major housing repairs and maintenance delivery organisation.
• Build our capability: Ensure we have the right management, trade capacity, skills and resources to meet the maintenance needs of our homes and customers.
• Connect our services: Work across Onward Repairs, our Contact Centre, Maintenance Surveying and wider property and asset teams to create a seamless repairs experience for customers.
• Drive performance and value: Ensure our housing maintenance service delivers excellent service, strong operational performance and value for money.
• Develop our people: Create opportunities for training, development and apprenticeships, building the skills and capability we need for the future.
• Build relationships: Develop strong relationships across the housing sector and wider industry to support innovation, enhance Onward’s reputation and contribute to the future growth of Onward Repairs.

Education

Relevant qualification in related construction discipline

Degree level in a relevant property discipline

Chartered Builder or Surveyor

Relevant Health and Safety Qualifications

Job description

About The Role

Lead the future of housing maintenance at Onward

We’re looking for an experienced and ambitious Director of Maintenance to lead our housing repairs and maintenance service and shape the continued growth of Onward Repairs.

This is a significant leadership opportunity for someone with a strong understanding of housing maintenance and repairs, who can combine operational excellence with an uncompromising focus on customers and the quality of their homes.

You’ll lead the development of our First Time Fix approach, creating a culture of customer excellence, pride and professionalism while ensuring we have the people, skills, capacity and supply chain needed to deliver a high-quality, efficient and responsive housing maintenance service.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead our culture: Create a high-performing housing maintenance service where customer excellence, accountability, pride and professionalism are at the heart of everything we do.
• Set the strategy: Develop and deliver our First Time Fix maintenance strategy and lead the continued growth of Onward Repairs as our major housing repairs and maintenance delivery organisation.
• Build our capability: Ensure we have the right management, trade capacity, skills and resources to meet the maintenance needs of our homes and customers.
• Connect our services: Work across Onward Repairs, our Contact Centre, Maintenance Surveying and wider property and asset teams to create a seamless repairs experience for customers.
• Drive performance and value: Ensure our housing maintenance service delivers excellent service, strong operational performance and value for money.
• Develop our people: Create opportunities for training, development and apprenticeships, building the skills and capability we need for the future.
• Build relationships: Develop strong relationships across the housing sector and wider industry to support innovation, enhance Onward’s reputation and contribute to the future growth of Onward Repairs.

What we’re looking for

You’ll be an established senior leader with a strong track record of managing a large-scale housing repairs and maintenance service, ideally within social housing or a similarly customer-focused residential environment.

You’ll bring:

• Significant senior-level experience leading housing repairs and maintenance services.
• A strong understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved in delivering responsive repairs and maintenance across a large housing portfolio.
• Knowledge of property investment and asset management, and how maintenance insight should inform longer-term investment and portfolio decisions.
• Experience of leading operational change and creating a strong, customer-focused performance culture.
• Strong knowledge of workforce and resource planning, trade operations, supply chain management and delivering efficiencies through lean thinking.
• Excellent performance, financial and budget management experience.
• The ability to build strong relationships and influence senior internal and external stakeholders.
• A commitment to delivering safe, high-quality homes and excellent outcomes for customers.

Role Requirements

Qualifications

Essential

• Relevant qualification in related construction discipline
• Relevant Health and Safety Qualifications

Desired

• Degree level in a relevant property discipline
• Chartered Builder or Surveyor

About Us

About Onward

Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the Northwest, with 35,000 properties across the region.

We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own, which is why we’re committed to building 500 new homes each year. We do more than just provide a roof over our customers’ heads, we’re here to make a real difference.

In addition to creating positive spaces for our customers we continuously strive to create a positive and progressive workspace to enable our colleagues to achieve their full potential.

We embrace diversity and strive for diverse teams to create an inclusive culture which enables Onward to thrive and be representative of the communities that we serve. We want to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be part of our recruitment processes and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with our recruitment process via the email address below.

At Onward Homes, your application will be reviewed by a human who carefully considers your CV, skills, knowledge and experience as part of our recruitment process. We do not use AI to make hiring decisions.

If candidates have any concerns / questions in relation to the role at any stage of the recruitment and selection process theycan contact the HR team on [e-mail] and a member of the HR Team will be in touch.