Regional Operations Lead

Cushman & Wakefield; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Cushman & Wakefield is seeking a Regional Operations Leader to provide strategic and operational leadership across the UK Corporate Workplace portfolio. You will lead a geographically dispersed team, set clear standards and govern a multi-site Total Facilities Management program, ensuring compliance, safety, and a first-class workplace experience across the UK.

You will own the annual operating plan, drive budgeting, forecasting and variance analysis, and manage supplier performance with a focus

Qualifications

• Essential: Relevant senior management experience in Facilities Management or Workplace Operations.
• Essential: Strong governance and financial oversight capability.
• Desirable: Membership of IWFM, RICS, IOSH or IEMA.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a geographically dispersed Workplace team across multiple UK sites with clear objectives and standards.
• Provide strategic and operational leadership for the UK portfolio, ensuring a first-class hospitality-led workplace experience.
• Establish governance, performance measures and service-improvement plans; review outcomes and address underperformance.
• Oversee UK workplace operations, maintenance, and service delivery within agreed service levels.
• Own the UK Workplace annual operating plan, budget and financial performance with robust forecasting.
• Lead national contract management of the Total Facilities Management portfolio across UK sites.
• Set supplier-management strategy and governance through KPIs and SLAs with regular reviews.
• Identify and mitigate supplier, financial, compliance, operational and service-continuity risks.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Budgeting

Contract governance

HSE & audits

Stakeholder mgmt

Supplier mgmt

Multi-site mgmt

Job description

Job Title

Regional Operations Lead

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 Description

Core 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 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.

Key Performance Indicators:

• People and leadership: Delivery of agreed team objectives, completion of performance and development reviews, effective succession and capability plans, and demonstrable improvement in engagement, accountability and management standards.

• Service performance: Achievement of portfolio KPIs and SLAs, consistent service standards across UK sites, timely recovery of underperforming services and positive workplace experience measures.

• Financial management: Delivery within the approved annual operating plan, accurate forecasting, controlled variance, timely identification of financial risks and achievement of agreed efficiencies and savings.

• TFM contract and supplier performance: Contractual compliance, effective QBR governance, achievement of supplier KPIs and SLAs, closure of improvement actions and proactive management of commercial and service-continuity risks.

• Health, safety, environmental and audit assurance: Completion of planned audits and assurance activity, timely closure of corrective actions, compliance with statutory and ISO requirements, and reduction of repeat findings and material incidents.

• Risk and governance: Accurate and timely management reporting, active maintenance of portfolio and supplier risks, effective escalation and closure of material issues, and audit-ready controls and records.

• Stakeholder management: Strong senior stakeholder confidence, effective communication of performance, risks and opportunities, and positive feedback on alignment of workplace services with business priorities.

• Projects and change: Delivery of agreed programmes to scope, budget, timetable and intended benefits, with clear governance, ownership and risk control.

• Sustainability and continuous improvement: Progress against agreed environmental targets and delivery of measurable improvements in efficiency, resilience, service quality and colleague experience.

Qualifications/Skills:

• Essential: Relevant professional qualification or equivalent senior management experience in Facilities Management, Workplace Operations, Property, Business Management or a related discipline.

• Recognised health and safety qualification, such as NEBOSH or IOSH, or demonstrable equivalent environmental, health and safety management experience.

• Strong people leadership capability, with the ability to set standards, coach managers and teams, address underperformance and instil ownership and accountability across multiple locations.

• Commercial and financial acumen, including budget ownership, forecasting, variance analysis, cost control and presentation of clear recommendations to senior stakeholders.

• Excellent communication, influencing, negotiation and relationship-management skills, with credibility when engaging senior stakeholders, clients, suppliers and operational teams.

• Strong analytical, organisational and decision-making skills, with the ability to prioritise a complex national portfolio and manage competing risks and business needs.

• Desirable: Membership of a relevant professional body, such as IWFM, RICS, IOSH or IEMA.

Knowledge:

• Comprehensive knowledge of Workplace and Total Facilities Management operating models, service delivery, contract governance and statutory maintenance requirements.

• Strong understanding of supplier management frameworks, contractual obligations, KPIs, SLAs, QBR governance, commercial controls and supplier risk management.

• Sound knowledge of financial planning, budget management, forecasting, cost optimisation and management reporting.

• Working knowledge of environmental, health and safety, compliance and assurance frameworks, including ISO management systems and internal and external audit processes.

• Knowledge of risk management, business continuity, governance, sustainability and continuous-improvement principles within a multi-site corporate environment.

• Strong digital literacy, including Microsoft 365 and the use of workplace, finance and performance-reporting systems to support effective decision-making.

Skill & Experience:

• Substantial management experience within Workplace, Facilities Management or Corporate Real Estate, including responsibility for a multi-site UK portfolio.

• Proven experience of leading, developing and performance-managing geographically dispersed teams, establishing high standards and a culture of accountability.

• Demonstrable ownership of significant operating budgets, financial plans, forecasts and cost-improvement initiatives.

• Proven national contract-management experience across a Total Facilities Management portfolio, with strong commercial and contractual governance.

• Strong track record of managing strategic suppliers and holding service partners accountable through KPIs, SLAs, QBRs, improvement plans and risk controls.

• Experience of leading environmental, health and safety, compliance and audit activity, including assurance planning, corrective-action management and audit-ready governance.

• Proven ability to build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and translate business priorities into clear workplace strategies, service standards and performance outcomes.

• Experience of sponsoring complex workplace projects and change programmes, with robust governance, risk management and benefits realisation.

• Demonstrable success in driving sustainability, innovation, service improvement and a consistently high-quality colleague experience in a high-profile corporate environment.

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”