Regional Operations Lead

Cushman & Wakefield; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Cushman & Wakefield in the United Kingdom seeks a Regional Operations Lead to provide strategic and operational leadership for the corporate workplace portfolio across the country. You will lead a geographically dispersed team, set standards, manage budgets, governance, and drive a hospitality‑led, safe workplace experience while partnering with senior stakeholders.

This role emphasizes performance, risk management, supplier governance and continuous improvement to deliver excellent service

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop and hold accountable a geographically dispersed Workplace team across multiple UK sites, setting clear objectives, standards and priorities and using coaching and performance management to drive consistent results.
• Provide strategic and operational leadership across the UK portfolio, ensuring local teams deliver a first-class, hospitality-led workplace experience aligned with business priorities.
• Establish governance, performance measures and service improvement plans, reviewing outcomes, challenging underperformance and addressing material risks and service failures.
• Maintain oversight of UK workplace operations, planned and reactive services and statutory maintenance, ensuring delivery within service levels.
• Own the UK Workplace annual operating plan, budget and financial performance, with robust forecasting and variance analysis.
• Lead national contract management of the Total Facilities Management (TFM) portfolio, ensuring compliance and consistent service delivery across all UK sites.
• Set the supplier-management strategy and governance framework, driving contractor performance against KPIs and SLAs through reviews and QBRs.
• Identify and mitigate supplier, financial, compliance, operational and service-continuity risks, with recovery plans as needed.
• Build trusted relationships with key senior stakeholders, aligning workplace strategy with organisational priorities and communicating performance and risks.
• Sponsor and govern strategic workplace projects and change programmes, ensuring clear business cases and delivery of benefits.
• Provide leadership for environmental, health and safety, compliance and audit activities, including ISO and audit preparation.
• Ensure controls and reporting support data-driven decision making, regulatory compliance and escalation of business risk.
• Drive sustainability, innovation and continuous improvement across the UK portfolio.
• Maintain executive oversight of customer-facing workplace services across locations.

Job description

Job Description Summary

To provide strategic and operational leadership across the UK C&W Corporate Workplace portfolio, leading and developing a geographically dispersed team by setting clear standards, coaching capability and instilling ownership and accountability to drive performance and a first-class, hospitality-led workplace experience. The role builds trusted relationships with key senior stakeholders across the UK, aligning workplace services with business priorities and communicating performance, risks and opportunities effectively. It combines strong financial management—including budgeting, expenditure control, forecasting and variance analysis—with environmental, health and safety, compliance and audit leadership. It also drives supplier performance and risk management through KPIs, SLAs, QBRs and effective governance, enabling safe, sustainable, efficient and customer-focused services across multiple UK sites.

Job Title

Regional Operations Lead

Job Description

• Lead, develop and hold accountable a geographically dispersed Workplace team across multiple UK sites, setting clear objectives, standards and priorities and using coaching and performance management to drive consistent results.
• Provide visible strategic and operational leadership across the UK portfolio, ensuring local teams deliver a consistent, first-class, hospitality-led workplace experience aligned with business priorities.
• Establish governance, performance measures and service improvement plans, reviewing outcomes, challenging underperformance and ensuring material risks and service failures are resolved.
• Maintain management oversight of UK workplace operations, planned and reactive services and statutory maintenance, ensuring delivery within agreed service levels without direct ownership of routine frontline tasks.
• Own the UK Workplace annual operating plan, budget and financial performance, providing robust forecasting, variance analysis, cost control and informed recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Lead the national contract management of the Total Facilities Management (TFM) portfolio, ensuring commercial control, contractual compliance and consistent service delivery across all UK sites.
• Set the supplier‑management strategy and governance framework, driving contractor and service‑partner performance against KPIs and SLAs through regular reviews and Quarterly Business Review (QBR) meetings.
• Identify, assess and mitigate supplier, financial, compliance, operational and service‑continuity risks, escalating material exposures and ensuring effective recovery and improvement plans are in place.
• Build trusted relationships with key senior stakeholders, clients and partners across the UK, aligning workplace strategy and service delivery with organisational priorities and communicating performance, risks and opportunities effectively.
• Sponsor and govern strategic workplace projects and change programmes across the UK, ensuring clear business cases, accountabilities, risk controls and successful delivery of intended benefits.
• Provide leadership for environmental, health and safety, compliance and audit activity, including ISO and other internal and external audits, assurance planning, corrective actions and maintenance of audit‑ready governance.
• Ensure appropriate management controls, systems and reporting are in place to support accurate data, effective decision‑making, regulatory compliance and clear escalation of business risk.
• Drive sustainability, innovation and continuous improvement across the UK portfolio, identifying opportunities to improve service quality, efficiency, resilience and the colleague experience.
• Maintain executive oversight of customer‑facing workplace services, ensuring operational leaders deliver professional, consistent and responsive standards across all locations.

Cushman & Wakefield is an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, marital status, or any other legally protected characteristic. Cushman & Wakefield is committed to equity in employment, and our goal is to have a diverse, inclusive and barrier‑free workplace. If you are a person with a disability and need any other accessible accommodations during the hiring process, you are invited to bring this to the Talent Acquisition Advisor’s attention once they have made contact.

INCO: “Cushman & Wakefield”