Location

East Kilbride, London

Job summary

The Estates Director will lead the transformation and stewardship of an estate unique to the United Kingdom. The FCDO’s £2.5bn global property estate spans 180 countries and comprises approximately 6,800 assets, including embassies, ambassadorial residences and staff accommodation.

This is a pivotal leadership role at a time of significant organisational change. You will set the strategic direction for the FCDO estate and oversee the accelerated delivery of a major global transformation programme, ensuring the estate is secure, resilient, sustainable, and aligned with the UK’s diplomatic, development and security objectives.

Job description

The role will focus on reshaping the estate to reflect the FCDO’s global priorities and footprint in today’s challenging international context. A central element of the role will be refreshing the global estates strategy alongside the leadership of a significant, multi-year capital investment and refurbishment programme across the global estate, encompassing new builds, major renewals and complex heritage assets. You will lead a team overseeing health and safety performance and reducing carbon emissions whilst strengthening governance, assurance and delivery capability across a highly complex international portfolio.

This is a strategic leadership role, with you setting direction and enabling delivery through strong teams, clear governance and effective partners. While accountability for performance sits with the Estates Director, success will be measured by the establishment of a resilient operating model and sustained improvement in delivery and value for money over time.

You will be a core member of the Chief Operating Officer’s Senior Leadership Team, working closely with the Chief People Officer, Director of Technology, Commercial Director and Finance Director.

A fundamental priority for the role is ensuring that the global estate provides a safe, secure and legally compliant environment for staff, visitors and partners, particularly in high-risk locations, and that health and safety considerations are embedded into all investment and operational decisions.

Delivery across the global estate is achieved through a combination of in-house capability and a wide range of commercial partners operating in diverse international contexts. The Estates Director will lead a senior leadership team and work through others to ensure consistent standards, strong assurance and effective performance management across this model.

You will be responsible for:

1. Developing and delivering the FCDO Estates Strategy to 2030 and beyond, maximising value from the global estate by optimising utilisation, prioritising investment and project delivery across purchase, lease, new build and refurbishment, and identifying surplus or under-performing assets for disposal or alternative use.
2. Providing clear and inclusive leadership to a diverse and geographically dispersed estates function, ensuring the organisation has the capability and capacity required to deliver on its priorities, and leading and developing the senior management team through clear delegation, accountability and performance expectations.
3. Designing and embedding a world-class estates operating model that reduces risk, improves efficiency and strengthens governance and assurance across a complex, internationally delivered portfolio. This will include:
   • Strategic management of portfolio-level risk, including security, resilience and business continuity in high-risk locations.
   • Establishing a best-in-class health and safety capability across the estate.
   • Delivering greening commitments and net zero pathways.
   • Ensuring full compliance with relevant legislative, regulatory and assurance requirements.
4. Providing executive leadership for estates programmes and operations, including major capital projects, facilities management and life-support contracts. This will include:
   • Ensuring programmes and projects are delivered to agreed time, cost and quality expectations.
   • Working in close partnership with geographic directors and overseas missions.
   • Leading effective collaboration with internal stakeholders and external partners.
   • Setting and enforcing robust programme, project and contract management standards.
   • Overseeing development of business cases through appropriate HMG governance and assurance processes.
5. Leading the financial and commercial stewardship of the global estate, managing substantial capital and revenue budgets across a portfolio of approximately 6,800 assets, including embassies, ambassadorial residences and staff accommodation, and balancing maintenance requirements alongside a range of investment priorities. Championing the use of asset, performance and cost data to support prioritisation, assurance and long-term investment decisions across the portfolio.
6. Managing strategic relationships with OneHMG partners and other government departments across the overseas platform to ensure effective co-ordination, value for money and alignment of estates delivery.
7. Providing authoritative advice and leadership on all estates and property matters, offering timely, well-judged input to senior leaders on risk, investment, estates development, delivery and assurance. Collaborating with fellow property and project leaders across HMG to drive functional improvement, innovation and thought leadership.