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Director of Estates & ITSomerset House
2 days ago
  • LevelSenior
  • ProfessionsIT Director, Operations Director, Administrator
  • TypeFull Time
  • LocationLondon, United Kingdom

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Description

Closing Date: 13-Jan-2025

We are looking for an experienced Director of Estates & IT to join our fantastic team at Somerset House Trust. As the home of cultural innovators, the Trust connects creativity and the arts with the broader society.
The purpose of this strategic role is to:
  • Ensure we conserve and animate our beautiful heritage building as a central part of our charitable purpose
  • Translate Somerset House's ambition as the Home of Cultural Innovators into a comprehensive estates and IT strategy, to guide the evolution of the site and its physical and digital infrastructure, then lead on its delivery
  • Lead the organisation on sustainability goals and actions
  • Continuously improve site operations to address the evolving needs of the organisation and its internal and external customers
You'll be recognised as a collaborative and energising leader who can bring together teams to contribute to the success of the Trust. You will have the courage to challenge established thinking and ways of working, the ability to set goals and direction and the skills to communicate effectively at all levels. You'll be someone who is known for delivering to promise in a relatively small and developing organisation.
Somerset House pursues a ‘Step Inside, Think Outside’ spirit and is born from the creative community we nurture  - the experience and perspectives we host across background, age, race, and stage, and the intersections and crossovers we encourage.
What we are looking for:
Organisational leadership
  • Responsibility for fulfilment of the heritage element of our charitable purpose, and our lease responsibilities to conserve the building.
  • As a member of the executive team, shape and deliver the organisational strategy, contributing functional expertise and ensuring alignment for your areas of responsibility
  • Lead the estates and IT teams - teams are engaged, accountable & delivering on clear plans
  • Executive lead for health and safety, ensuring our approach and culture is robust
Lead on sustainability at an organisational level
  • Define sustainability vision, plans, policies and lead on cross-functional, alignment & delivery
  • Set out a prioritised, costed decarbonisation roadmap which is likely to include district heating, & lead delivery, ensuring benefits realised
Develop our estates and infrastructure offer as the Home of Cultural Innovators
  • Lead on site strategy, aligned to overall organisational strategy- build alignment on the future vision to optimise how we use the site across the needs of our programme, creative residents, financial and sustainability objectives, backed by a costed and prioritised long term (5-10+ year) plan for the site
  • Identify and advocate for how technology can be used to improve our offer and achieve our objectives
  • Ensure multi-year conservation, sustainability & infrastructure plans are in place and delivered
  • Deliver effectively governed projects with minimal disruption to our onsite community and programme
  • Develop our workplace offer, aligned to our employer proposition
Deliver robust estates and IT operations
  • Ensure safe, effective and efficient day to day running of the estate, with appropriate processes in place to guarantee legal and policy compliance
  • Ensure the site is well maintained and presented and provides a welcoming environment for all users
  • Build a strong customer-oriented and service approach in our delivery teams
  • Deliver value through effective planning, procurement & budget management for areas of responsibility
  • Ensure effective relationship management of 3rd party contractors
  • Identify and advocate for income-generating or cost-saving opportunities
  • Establish business cases and post-completion reviews for all major expenditure
  • Ensure our cyber security systems and disciplines are robust and adhered to throughout the organisation
Lead the internal digital transformation of Somerset House
  • Review internal systems and methods, modelling & promoting improved ways of working
  • Ensure our system and process improvement plan is delivered
  • Identify and prioritise opportunities to innovate and modernise our operations
  • Actively lead in using of data & insights to drive performance & informed decision-making
Skills, knowledge & expertise required for the role:
  • Experience in leading estates functions at a senior level (facilities, building & capable of overseeing IT) at a large multi-use site, ideally in the heritage, arts & events and/ or customer-facing sectors.
  • Demonstrable experience of developing and implementing strategies for building use and enhancement
  • Strong leadership and ability to motivate and develop teams, balancing day-to-day and strategic needs
  • Continuously improving effectiveness and ways of working to better serve internal and external customers
  • Experienced at risk management and mitigation, ensuring robust processes and governance in place
  • Experience of leading and delivering transformation and cross-functional projects
  • Commercial mindset- evidence of supporting income growth and/or driving savings
  • Able to contribute at a strategic level to an executive team outside of own specialism
  • Evidence of data-led decision making and embedding it in an organisation
  • Able to influence at a senior level including strong written and verbal communication
  • Technically strong and able to communicate effectively with both experts and non-experts

Skills Required

  • IT
  • Risk Management
  • Communication Skills

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