Head of Engagement, Process and Systems

Occupying three beautiful campuses ranging from the urban utopia of London Road, the peaceful parkland of Whiteknights to the riverside retreat of Greenlands, the unique "University in a Park" setting of the University of Reading is an inspiring place to come to work.

• Do you have a passion for providing exceptional customer service?


• Would you relish the challenge of developing the people, processes, and reporting to ensure its delivery?


• Can you be part of helping shape the future of the Estates Directorate?


The Estates team at Reading is re-organising around a 'one estates' team ethos that will enable seamless delivery under the newly approved Estate Strategy. Within the Campus Planning department, the nine-month-old Engagement, Process and Systems team is the glue that ties the Estates directorate together as one team. The team is responsible for customer engagement through the FM Helpdesk and Receptions, development and support of the business processes that allow us all to manage the estate and service our customers, and the systems that support our operation.

This is an exciting time to join the team as we transition from a legacy CaFM system to an implementation of the Concerto IWMS seeking to leverage the benefits of the embedded best practice in the system and roll out new efficient and effective processes across Estates.

The right candidate will have a proven track record in a senior business administration role managing a substantial team. A motivated problem solver, they will be at home shaping and motivating a diverse team into an effective delivery unit, introducing new delivery processes and leading change across the directorate.

Someone who naturally identifies improvements and seeks to make things work better, they will be as comfortable defining business needs through a network of senior stakeholders as they are delving into the detail on the ground or making sure that systems align with business needs. Motivated by 'doing the right thing' they will have a ruthless focus on outcomes which represent success for the University and estates users, very often having a significant input to what success looks like.

The forthcoming introduction of the Concerto IWMS gives us the opportunity to 'reboot' our approach to engagement and supporting processes. The post holder will need to:

• Develop, communicate, embed, and manage a portfolio of business processes.


• Develop customer service protocols and transition activity from a reactive helpdesk approach to a proactive service desk approach utilising the Concerto IWMS.


• Develop robust financial monitoring protocols.


• Develop a comprehensive reporting capability across all the Directorate, but with particular focus on Project Delivery and Operations Performance.


• Develop the new IWMS and embed into BAU ensuring that the wider systems portfolio is fit for purpose, supportable and manage the development of new or replacement systems.


The Estate Strategy sets out the framework within which the Estate will be developed to meet the University's income growth aspirations. The post holder will be instrumental in the development of processes to support and monitor the delivery of the Strategy.


• A proven, long term track record in Business Administration or Process Development at a senior level which demonstrates the use of a 'toolkit' of measures applied to effectively deliver change.


• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate clearly with individuals from all levels of the organisation, and experience of managing effective liaison with a variety of customers and stakeholders.


• Experience of Process Development across technical portfolios including integration with current CaFM or equivalent systems.


• Experience of the development of Management Information and Reporting including the integration of CaFM and other systems with PowerBI.


• Excellent analytical skills and big-picture thinking, including the ability to interrogate large data sets and identify key trends/challenges/opportunities.


• Experience of financial monitoring and control.


• Line management and team development.