Title: Head of Fire and Building Safety Management (Operations)
Contract Type: Permanent, Full Time, 35 hours per week
Location: West Ham Lane Stratford London or Sale Point Greater Manchester
Persona: Agile (home office and site combined)
Salary: £87,845 - £100,000 London Weighted and £76,937 - £89,092 Regional plus essential car user allowance £1,300 per annum

Closing date for completed applications: 15^th August at 11pm

Interviews will be held 23^rd August

Early applications are encouraged as we reserve the right to close the advertisement and interview earlier than stated

L&Q are seeking an inspirational Fire and Building Safety leader to lead the Operational Fire and Building Safety delivery teams. This is a truly unique opportunity to provide leadership for the highly crucial fire and building safety teams at L&Q.

You will be responsible for leading teams across all elements of Operational Fire Safety including Fire Risk Assessments, Fire Planned Preventative Maintenance, and delivery of Fire Risk Actions. Along with all aspects of the emerging Operational Building Safety requirements, including leading the Building Safety Managers, leading on the development of external wall remediation projects, leading on Fire and Building Safety Resident Engagement, and leading on the management of Building Safety Data and the Building Safety Information team.

You will report directly to the Director of Building Compliance, and work closely with the Heads of Strategic Fire and Strategic Building Safety in developing, establishing, and maintaining through continuous improvement, the fire and building safety arrangements and operational procedures in line with the L&Q policies and standards.

You will ensure that L&Q have in place, have implemented and are following robust processes to deliver full compliance with the existing and emerging statutory and regulatory requirements, to ensure that buildings are safe and secure for our residents to occupy.

You will be the budget holder for all operational fire and building safety to ensure that operations are delivered efficiently and effectively, with a value for money approach, to minimise service charges associated with fire and building safety measures.

Your role will require close collaboration with the Head of Compliance and Engagement, the Head of Strategic Fire Safety, the Head of Strategic Building Safety, the Director of Building Compliance, the Director of Health and Building Safety, along with other senior leaders across the organisation. Your Executive Director will be the Executive Group Director of Property Services, who you will have frequent interaction, and you will be expected to produce reports for the Executive Team along with other Governance Boards and Committees.

You will be direct line manager for a team of Compliance Managers and Lead Building Safety Managers who each lead on their individual compliance workstreams.

The role will include procurement of specialist services along with control and management of key building safety data. As such you will be expected to ensure all L&Q’s procurement processes and standing order rules are followed, whilst having a strong working knowledge of L&Q Housing Management, Financial, Compliance Management, and record keeping systems.

Candidates will have extensive experience of providing senior leadership within senior roles such as Head of Service, Assistant Director, or Director, within the Housing sector

You must be a first-class communicator with experience working with a variety of different stakeholders including residents and resident groups and committees, Corporate Health and Safety, Housing Management teams, Development and Sales teams, and, essentially, other Property Services teams.

Requirements for this role include:

Education to degree level or vocational equivalent with associated membership to a relevant professional body. Relevant professional bodies could include housing, health and safety compliance, building, and / or surveying.

Extensive experience of providing senior leadership.

Preferably Level 6 in Building Safety and / or Fire Safety.

Very strong commercial and financial acumen.

Practical Experience of Operational Fire and Building Safety including knowledge of passive and active fire, M&E and specialist safety installations and systems.

Highly computer literate with experience of working with a variety of software systems and solutions.

Full driving licence and have access to a vehicle on a daily basis. (travelling to various sites).

Our commitments:

At L&Q, people are at the heart of our business and our success depends on employing the best people and getting the best from them.  This is why we are committed to developing our people. It's only by investing in a well-trained and motivated workforce that we can continue to prosper and sustain business success.

In addition to our support and training, the successful candidate will have access to our full suite of benefits including 28 days holiday rising to 31 days with length of service, excellent Pension scheme, an employee assistance programme and non-contributory life assurance.

We are committed to supporting your work-life balance and recognise the changing demands and circumstances in life.  Please let us know during the recruitment process if you’re interested in part time working or job sharing.  In addition, should your circumstances change once you have joined L&Q, you can also request flexible working arrangements, e.g. a change to working hours - if it’s feasible then we’ll make it happen.

We are recognised externally for our commitment to inclusion.  We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident (Committed) employer and have signed the Time to Change Employer Pledge to demonstrate our commitment to end mental health discrimination in the workplace.

We expect all of our employees to support our environmental policy and social responsibility work. We are an employer committed to environmental and social responsibility.

L&Q is a regulated charitable housing association and one of the UK’s most successful independent social businesses. The L&Q Group houses around 250,000 people in more than 110,000 homes, primarily across London the South East and the North West of England.

As a charitable organisation, our role goes beyond providing homes and housing services. We are a long-term partner in the neighbourhoods where we work. We hope to build aspiration, opportunity and confidence in our communities through our £250 million L&Q Foundation and our skills academy. 

Our vision is that everyone has a quality home they can afford, and we combine our social purpose with commercial drive to create homes and neighbourhoods everyone can be proud of.