Helpdesk Operator & Trades Team LeaderWork pattern - 5 days on site
Environment: University campus / Estates & Facilities Department
Reporting to: Maintenance Operations Manager
We are looking for an experienced Helpdesk Operator & Trades Team Leader to join a busy Estates & Facilities team within a
University campus environment.This is a hands-on coordination and supervisory role, ideal for someone with a background in estate maintenance, facilities management, engineering or trades who is confident managing competing maintenance priorities and coordinating multi-skilled operational teams.You will act as a central point between the Estates Maintenance Helpdesk, trade teams and Estates management, ensuring reactive and planned maintenance works are allocated, progressed and completed efficiently.
The roleWorking closely with the Maintenance Operations Manager, you will:

• Oversee the day-to-day operation of the Estates Maintenance Helpdesk.
• Receive, assess and prioritise reactive maintenance requests.
• Allocate work through the CAFM system to the appropriate maintenance teams.
• Coordinate workloads across Electrical, Plumbing, Carpentry and Grounds Maintenance teams.
• Monitor jobs from initial request through to completion.
• Balance urgent reactive repairs with planned and preventative maintenance requirements.
• Support the scheduling and delivery of PPM programmes.
• Provide day-to-day supervision and guidance to maintenance operatives and technical staff.
• Monitor outstanding jobs, workloads, productivity and service delivery against agreed KPIs and SLAs.
• Escalate urgent, high-risk or business-critical maintenance issues.
• Liaise professionally with university staff, students, contractors and other stakeholders.
• Maintain accurate CAFM records and provide updates on progress and completion.
• Support statutory compliance activities including electrical, water hygiene, fire, gas and building maintenance requirements.
• Promote safe working practices, ensuring appropriate risk assessments, method statements and permits are in place where required.
• Help identify recurring maintenance issues and opportunities to improve service delivery.

About youYou'll ideally have:

• Experience coordinating reactive and planned maintenance activities.
• Previous experience supervising tradespeople, maintenance operatives or a multidisciplinary maintenance team.
• A good understanding of electrical, plumbing, carpentry, mechanical or general building maintenance activities.
• Experience using a CAFM, helpdesk or work management system.
• The ability to assess maintenance requests and determine priorities quickly.
• Experience allocating workloads and monitoring jobs through to completion.
• A good understanding of PPM and reactive maintenance.
• Knowledge of Health & Safety and safe systems of work.
• Awareness of statutory building and maintenance compliance requirements.
• Strong organisational and scheduling skills.
• Confident communication skills and a customer-focused approach.
• Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office.
• The ability to remain organised and make sound decisions in a busy operational environment.

QualificationsYou should ideally hold a recognised trade, technical or supervisory qualification, or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience gained within an estates or maintenance environment.IOSH Managing Safely or an equivalent Health & Safety qualification would be advantageous.Experience within a university, education, healthcare, local authority or other large public-sector estate would also be beneficial.

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