Head of Property and Workplace Services

Guide Dogs - Be Part of Something Life‑Changing

Come and join us as an insightful and innovative Head of Property and Workplace services, and be part of something life‑changing - helping people with sight loss live the life they choose

About the Role:

As Head of Property and Workplace Services at Guide Dogs, you will lead the development of a clear and effective property strategy, overseeing the management of our estate. This includes responsibility for lease events, compliance, planned maintenance, facilities management, supplier performance and property communications.

You will provide expert operational leadership across the organisation’s property portfolio, ensuring our premises are safe, compliant, financially sustainable and fit for purpose. The Head of Property and Workplace Services role plays a vital part in enabling everything we do and ensuring we continue to deliver on our purpose and exceed expectations.

This is a hybrid role, offering flexibility between home working and time based at your nearest Guide Dogs office. Occasional nationwide travel will also be required. This is a Monday – Friday, 9-5 role.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement a Property Strategy to satisfy the long-term requirements of the organisation.

• Provide strong leadership and direction to a multi-disciplinary Property team (c.25 colleagues, including 3–4 direct reports), driving performance, accountability, and capability to deliver strategic priorities and operational excellence.

• Translate technical issues into clear decisions for Executive and Trustee approval.
• Ensure all work is undertaken in compliance with health and safety, fire safety, building regulations and environmental standards.

You:

You’ll bring a proactive approach to property development, estates and facilities management, and enjoy leading a team with a strong focus on productive collaboration to meet the needs of the organisation. You’ll be committed to implementing an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy that underpins our charitable objectives, acting with integrity and honesty in everything you do.

Skills and Competencies:

• Property development, Estates Management, Facilities Management, and Sustainability experience.
• Effective leadership of cross functional and dispersed teams.
• Evidence of continuous improvement.
• Persuasive influencing as well as strong communication and reporting skills (written, informal/formal presentations).
• Health and Safety.

Benefits:

We wouldn’t be able to change the lives of people with sight loss without our people. That’s why it’s important for us to provide a variety of benefits that reward our colleagues in a way that suits them and recognises the hard work and contribution that they make.

• 26 days annual leave. After three years of continuous employment, this increases to 28 days plus bank holidays.
• Real Living Wage Employer
• Flex pot - equal to a proportion of your annual salary to use on our wide variety of flexible benefits
• The option to buy and sell annual leave
• Discounts and cash-back scheme
• Excellent pension scheme (We will match your pension contributions plus 2% up to a maximum of 9% employer contribution)
• And lots more!

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Behind Every Guide Dog Is Someone Like You - We’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that celebrates and values diversity. Bring your whole self to work regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We don’t want you to ‘fit’ our culture, we want you to enrich it.

How to apply

Further details on the full role are attached below. When you are ready to apply, submit an online application form via this page. Please note - If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK via our digital ID checking supplier. We cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.

As part of your application ensure you provide evidence and examples of how your skills & experience meet the criteria as set out in the attached job description. You will also be asked to complete a few job-specific questions, so please be prepared to write your answers to these questions.

If you choose to use AI tools to assist in completing your application, please use them appropriately. We value authenticity. If you want to stand out, using a generic AI-generated response isn’t going to separate you from the crowd. This is your time to shine and showcase your unique skills, personality, and thought processes! You can find our full statement on the use of AI to complete applications on our careers website.

If you would like to have an informal conversation about the role before applying, or require any accessibility support to apply, our friendly recruitment team is ready and waiting to help. Call them on 0118 3540345 or drop an email to [email protected].

Safer recruitment:

Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If you are applying for a disclosure role, please note that you will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and sign up to the DBS update service.

At Guide Dogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.