Position Details Estates
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £47,389 to £56,535 with potential progression once in post to £63,606
Grade: 8
Full Time, Permanent
Closing date: 22nd March 2026
Our Offer to You People are at the heart of what we are and do.
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state of the art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham
Background Within Estates, we are looking to further strengthen our team across a range of roles and teams. We are looking to recruit people whose achievements and skills will contribute to our success and who share our values of collaboration, respect, inclusion, sustainability and professionalism. We welcome diversity and are committed to ensuring everyone is part of an enjoyable and rewarding culture in which they can do their best work.
As a team, we aim to deliver a world class university experience for the benefit of all students, staff, academics and visitors. We are proud of the role we play in the success of the University, the enjoyment that students, staff and academics get during their time here and ensuring that visitors leave us with the best possible impression of the University.
We operate up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all through the year in order to keep the University running efficiently and effectively, and in recent years have managed to sustain a safe and compliant campus during lockdown and an intensive period of campus re opening and challenging large scale international events.
The University of Birmingham Estates is responsible for both the master planning and stewardship of our extensive estate. Our team is made up of over 180 dedicated members of staff, including 10 apprentices studying Mechanical or Electrical qualifications over a 4 year scheme; all striving to deliver a world class university experience for the benefit of all students, staff, academics and visitors. After our staff, our physical estate is the largest single enabler for our world class teaching, research and providing a fantastic student experience.
Our estate is large and varied covering 672 acres, with over 300 buildings of different ages, complexities, physical condition and use, ranging from grade 1 and 2 listed properties to brand new state of the art learning and research spaces. It consists of two main campus sites (Edgbaston & Selly Oak) along with properties in Stratford upon Avon, Ansty (near Coventry), Coniston (in Cumbria), Ironbridge and Dubai. The total gross internal area of the estate is 538,000 m2. 74% of the non residential estate is in building condition A and B and we typically spend circa £9M on energy and water each year.
We are committed to sustainability and have achieved a 20% reduction in CO2 four years ahead of target and we generate 75% of our own energy via on site combined heat and power plants. Furthermore, we continue to reduce our carbon footprint by 3,000 tonnes per year on average and maintain more than 9,200 trees.
Role Summary The Head of Estates Digital Information and Insight provides strategic leadership for the data managed in the Estates digital systems, including data integration and analytical insight, ensuring estate, space, asset and cost information is structured, accurate, connected and actively used to inform institutional strategy, investment and performance.
Reporting to the Assistant Director of Estates, Space, Property and the Digital Estate, the post holder leads the specialist digital information and systems environments that underpin the Estate data, including the space, property and assets portfolio. Working closely with senior colleagues across Estates, Planning, Colleges and Professional Services, the role operates at the intersection of digital information management, analytics and business intelligence, translating complex estates data into insight.
A core focus of the role is the integration, governance and effective use of Estates data, ensuring consistency and reliability across systems to support capital planning, space efficiency, sustainability, investment appraisal and compliance. The post holder will design and deliver high quality reporting, dashboards, forecasting and scenario modelling to support strategic and operational delivery. The role also includes responsibility for managing the Estates component of the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) process and overseeing the submission of benchmarking data for the External Management Record.
Leading a small specialist team, the post holder will create a high performing, inclusive and collaborative environment, directing Estates insight capability towards the University's most critical strategic questions.
The Team The Team is directly responsible for the delivery and management of a number of functions. These include:
- Building Information Modelling and Digital Twin processes and models, through capital delivery and maintenance of the models;
- Ownership of Document and Information Management processes for delivery on Capital new build and refurbishment projects;
- Space and Property Management, for space data management and space utilisation across the University.
Main Duties Estates Analytics, Insight and Reporting
- Design and deliver Estates focused analytical reports, dashboards and insight to support operational and strategic decision making, including forecasting and scenario modelling to assess the impact of changes in estate, space, cost and utilisation variables.
- Lead estate benchmarking, analysis and external returns, ensuring accuracy, consistency and strategic value, and translate complex estate and systems data into clear, actionable insight for senior Estates leaders and institutional governance bodies.
Estates Digital Systems and Information Leadership
- Lead the development, governance and effective use of Estates digital systems and information environments including the Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) and the Common Data Environment (CDE). The role holder will ensure an integrated approach to system development supporting space, property, projects, sustainability and asset management and ensuring systems are fit for purpose, well integrated and capable of supporting high quality reporting, analytics and decision making.
- Provide oversight of data quality, standards, workflows and access across Estates digital platforms, and lead Estates related data and systems integration initiatives, including the development of delivery plans, success measures and benefits realisation.
Strategic Planning, Governance and Compliance
- Provide Estates data and insight to support financial and capital planning and investment decisions, including supporting Estates input to University committees for reporting on performance, risk and KPI measures.
- Lead the Estates contribution to the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) process, External Management Record submissions and estate benchmarking, ensuring Estates data supports regulatory, assurance and audit requirements.
Space, Property and Asset Insight
- Own and manage estate and space data validation processes, working with Academic and Professional Services colleagues to ensure accuracy and completeness, and ensure estate, space and asset data are maintained, analysed and reported consistently across Estates systems.
- Working with key stakeholders, design and deliver analytical documentation, Power BI dashboards and predictive models to support decision making and business intelligence reporting for space efficiency, including space utilisation analysis to support space optimisation . click apply for full job details