Contract Manager (Facilities Services)

Location: Edinburgh/Glasgow

Salary: £41,642.00/Per Annum

Job Reference: 2023-6073

Information about the Business Area

The Scottish Government (SG) is the devolved government for Scotland with a range of responsibilities that include: the economy, education, health, justice, rural affairs, housing, environment, equal opportunities, consumer advocacy and advice, transport and taxation.

The SG operates from a large, complex and geographically dispersed estate that is managed by Workplace Division and maintained through an out-sourced Facilities Management (FM) contract.

Workplace Division is responsible for developing and maintaining a safe, secure, resilient, inclusive, accessible and energy efficient estate that is the right shape and size to meet changing requirements and that delivers value for money to SG.

The post is based in Facilities Services which includes both Hard Services (primarily the maintenance of building fabric and Mechanical & Electrical systems) and Soft Services (cleaning and waste management) teams. In addition to the FM contract, these teams manage other key support services contracts that cover functions such as catering and mail services.

This is a diverse and dynamic business area providing a wide range of high-profile services that make a real impact on the smooth, safe and sustainable running of the SG estate.

Information about the Role

We are seeking an individual who will bring experience of operating within a complex Facilities Management contract environment along with a desire to build strong strategic supplier relationships.

You will be joining Facilities Services at an exciting time as we expand and develop our capability in order to manage the FM and catering contracts. Reporting to one of the Senior Contracts Managers, this role will offer you with the opportunity to influence and drive the performance of these contracts and the services that they provide.

Working with national suppliers, internal experts and passionate colleagues, you will oversee the delivery of a wide range of high-quality contracted services. You will help establish new contract management working practices, and Management Information reporting, which will make a substantive contribution to raising standards, to statutory compliance and, to achieving value-for-money.

Working closely with managers across Workplace Division, and with stakeholders in other organisations, you will use a range of measures to ensure a consistent, joined-up, approach is applied to our assessment of contractor performance. You will also ensure that senior managers are provided with the information they require to assess contractor performance. Any disputes arising from the contractor’s performance should be managed to minimise the risk to SG with escalation of any issues that cannot be resolved.

When required, you will represent the organisation with suppliers and stakeholders, building strong commercial relationships. Using your professional expertise you shall advise and support colleagues at all levels within the SG on FM-related contract management.

SG is committed to empowering and developing staff by providing the support, training and qualifications they need to grow in their role. For this post, this will initially comprise training on the form of contract, management software and the contractor’s Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) system.

Responsibilities

• You will ensure the SG receives FM services in accordance with the scope of works, agreed service levels, management plans and the form of contract.
• You will become proficient in the use of contract management software, and you will support other staff to make effective use of contract management processes and procedures.
• You will audit the contractor’s delivery of maintenance activities to provide assurance it achieves statutory compliance, supports business critical infrastructure and is delivered in an optimum and safe manner through use of the contractor safety management system. This will require you to ensure appropriate mechanisms are in place to: monitor, report and improve service standards and to develop accurate Management Information. In so doing, you will pro-actively identify potential delays and contractor-side resource issues.
• You will undertake site visits to review service delivery, identify emerging issues and develop and maintain positive professional relationships with stakeholders.
• You will ensure, both through audit and review of performance management information, that the wider benefits and policy objectives of contracts, such as Community Wealth Building, are delivered to the required standard.
• You will also support robust financial management including budget setting and monitoring processes and the reconciliation of monthly accounts.         

Competencies

• Analysis & Use of Evidence
• Improving Performance
• Communications and Engagement
• Financial Management

Essential Criteria

1. Experience of managing multi-dimensional Facilities Management contracts from inception to maturity. This should include preparing management plans, managing service delivery, undertaking audits, overseeing corrective actions, and managing expenditure on budgets. You should have a number of years’ experience working in the delivery of Facilities Management services. It would be advantageous if this included use of contract management systems.
2. The ability to analyse data, evidence and information from a variety of sources in order to support the development of sound proposals, drawing out risks, opportunities, conclusions and recommendations in order to improve outcomes.
3. The ability to work in a variety of styles (independently and collaboratively) and to prioritise your workload in order to deliver against tight deadlines;
4. Excellent communication and influencing skills – both written and oral – including the ability to present information in a clear and concise manner to both in-house and external audiences.

Diversity/Disability

We are committed to increasing the diversity of staff. We will develop all our staff, and positively value different perspectives and skills. We want to make full use of these on our work. We especially welcome applications from the minority ethnic and disabled community since these groups are under-represented at present.

To apply, you must fully complete and submit an online application via this website before the closing date.

For futher information on this post please review the Person Specification below. 

Person Specification

To learn more about this opportunity, please contact Craig Bathgate at craig.bathgate@gov.scot

The Scottish Government is a diverse and inclusive workplace and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via ScottishGovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot

As part of any recruitment process, Scottish Government and associated public bodies collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants and applicants for public appointments.

Personal information you provide in the recruitment process will be made available to Scottish Government and our additional data processors.

Closing date: 22nd June 2023