Assistant Director of Estates (Operations)

Lead an estate the size of a small town.

What does it take to keep a 250-hectare campus, 275 buildings, 350,000m² of estate and around 6,700 student bedrooms safe, resilient and running every day?

And at the same time, improve how those services work, develop the people delivering them and help shape a more sustainable future for the estate?

Lancaster University is looking for its next Assistant Director of Estates (Operations).

This is one of the most significant operational estates leadership roles within the University, reporting directly to the Director of Estates, Facilities and Commercial Services and joining the senior leadership of a Facilities Division of around 500 people.

It is a role with real breadth.

You will lead the operational delivery of engineering, maintenance, hard FM, utilities, energy, statutory compliance, estate safety and grounds maintenance across a large and exceptionally diverse campus.

But this appointment is about more than keeping services running.

Lancaster is looking for someone who can look at how its estate operates today and help shape how it should operate tomorrow — strengthening resilience, improving service quality, challenging processes where they can be better, developing its teams and ensuring the University continues to get the best possible performance and value from its estate.

An estate with sustainability built into its future

There is another dimension to this role that makes it particularly interesting.

Lancaster has made significant investment in renewable and low-carbon infrastructure and sustainability is a major institutional priority. The Bailrigg campus now frequently generates 100% of its own electricity, and further progress is expected as its Heat Pump development is completed in 2027. Lancaster is currently ranked joint 80th globally for sustainability in the QS rankings.

As Assistant Director, you will be directly involved in that story, leading energy and utilities management, carbon-management initiatives and the continued development and operation of the University’s Energy Centre and associated infrastructure.

What will you be taking on?

This is a visible senior leadership position with responsibility for both strategy and delivery. You will lead teams and partners, oversee significant operational and infrastructure budgets, drive performance across in-house and contracted services and maintain robust governance and statutory compliance across the estate.

You will also hold important senior responsibilities relating to fire safety, higher-risk buildings, high-voltage electrical systems and infrastructure incident response.

Just as importantly, you will help create the culture around the service: developing people, building strong relationships across the University and making sure estates operations are recognised not simply as a support function, but as something that directly affects the experience of thousands of students, colleagues and visitors every day.

Who are we looking for?

You do not need to have spent your career in Higher Education.

We are interested in experienced estates and operational leaders from large, technically complex environments who can bring fresh thinking as well as strong operational judgement.

You are likely to bring:

• Senior leadership experience across estates operations, engineering, maintenance or hard FM within a large and complex estate

• A track record of developing and delivering hard FM strategies

• Strong statutory compliance, governance and risk-management experience

• Experience leading and developing multidisciplinary teams

• Evidence of improving processes, structures, services and customer outcomes

• Substantial maintenance and asset-management experience

• Strong financial planning and budget-management capability

• A degree, equivalent qualification or equivalent experience

If your background is in healthcare, the wider public sector, infrastructure, complex commercial estates or another similarly demanding operational environment, we would particularly encourage you to take a look.

What matters is that you understand what it takes to lead essential services where safety, resilience and compliance cannot be compromised, while still finding ways to make things work better.

Why Lancaster?

Lancaster offers something quite distinctive.

You have the professional challenge of a large, complex and evolving estate, but within a University with a very clear sense of place and community. Lancaster is ranked 10th in the Complete University Guide 2027 and 164th out of 1,504 universities worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2027.

The Bailrigg campus sits just outside the historic city of Lancaster, with the Lake District, Morecambe Bay, Forest of Bowland and Yorkshire Dales all within easy reach.

For someone considering relocation, Lancaster University is also happy to have an open conversation about the practicalities — including housing, family considerations, working arrangements and the requirements of what is necessarily a visible, campus-based leadership role.

The package

Alongside the competitive salary, the package includes 39 days’ annual leave (This is made up of 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays plus 6 University closure days) with the option to purchase up to a further two weeks of annual leave. The role also provides access to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).

Interested? Start with a conversation.

You don’t need to have decided that you are applying before getting in touch.

James Herron at Insight Executive Group is leading the search on behalf of Lancaster University and would be very happy to talk you through the role, the University, the team, the estate and any practical questions around location or relocation.

Applications close: Monday 28 September 2026

To apply, please send your CV and a covering letter outlining your interest in the opportunity and how your experience relates to the key requirements of the role to James Herron at Insight Executive. Applications will be handled in confidence.

Lancaster University is committed to fair, inclusive recruitment and welcomes applications from candidates with the skills, experience and potential to succeed in the role