The Government's Office of Government Property has kicked off a search for what it describes as "one of the most exciting property jobs in the country", working as director, property delivery and transformation across its 1,679 million-square-foot estate.
A job specification on the Cabinet Office website says the successful candidate will be responsible for leading cross-cutting programmes, and, in some cases, will be the senior responsible officer for the government property strategy.
The candidate will receive a salary of between £97,000 and £135,000 a year alongside a civil service pension with an average employer contribution of 27% of salary.
The director would be one of 7,000-plus property professionals working across the UK's largest estate.
According to the most recent government property strategy document 2022-2030, the estate comprises 1,679 million square feet spread across schools, defence, health, prison, offices, cultural assets, Court and Tribunal, science, job centres, logistics and storage, and probation. The largest segment is the 847 million square feet of schools, and the goverment has 49.54 million square feet of offices. By far the largest annual running cost is the £981.8 million spent on prisons.
In a post on LinkedIn, Mark Chivers, the government chief property officer, says he has just kicked off recruitment for the "most exciting job in property" saying the recruit will be a key member of "my senior leadership team and get to work on the most diverse estate in the world".
They will help the Government Property Function set the strategic vision for the vast government estate. The broad range of programmes includes Better Buildings, One Public Estate, FM, Place Pilots and InSite/data. They will provide expert advice and challenge to departments on property-related performance, together enabling a "more efficient, sustainable government estate".
In particular the "senior property professional" will help realise the ambitions set out in the government property strategy.
Among other things they will focus on the One Public Estate programme, delivered in partnership with the Local Government Association, supporting 1,000 projects, including bringing public services together under one roof and improving access to services.
They will also work on the disposals and efficiency programme which aims to raise £1.5 billion in capital receipts and £0.5 billion in revenue savings by 2025.
Another focus will be the Better Buildings programme, tackling maintenance and safety issues where they exist in the government estate, including issues such as Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete.
The job also focuses on improving Facilities Management across the estate through a 10-year strategy and new standards including effective operation of the Facilities Management Spend Control to ensure government departments comply with the Government Property Strategy and spend control policy.
Candidates need, among other criteria, substantial evidence of leading property operations across some/all of the property life cycle (transactions, projects, facilities management operations); and a proven track record of securing the confidence of senior stakeholders within and outside their organisation.
Applications for the job close on 9 January 2024 with interviews taking place in February.