Busy Bees Aotearoa has grown rapidly to become the third largest private early childhood education provider in New Zealand, offering tailored services to parents by creating happy, sustainable and fun learning environments for children. Now as part of a leading international group of preschool centres we are excited to continue our growth and deliver even better outcomes for our communities.

In October 2021 Busy Bees Learning (Australia) purchased Provincial Education, maintaining the existing management and leadership teams. This showed Busy Bees commitment to providing the very best in quality care and education throughout the world, recognising the high standards that Provincial Education has in New Zealand.

With our business continuing on a strategic growth trajectory, we have an opportunity for a Head of Property and Facilities. Based in our Support Office, located in Orewa and reporting to our COO this pivotal position has been created as a result of a vacancy arising in addition to the successful expansion of the business. We are looking for a self-motivated, strategic, affiliative leader who can develop, implement and drive our complex property portfolio, ensuring the successful delivery of the property team’s work program.

The Role
In conjunction with the Senior Leadership Team, the Head of Property & Facilities will be required to develop and maintain the group property plan. This plan will focus on the current view of the portfolio, developing principles, goals and objectives in relation to growth, while identifying issues, risks and opportunities. Leading a small team of 3, the role is expected to be ‘hands on’ with some of the duties including, not limited to the following:

• Lead and oversee the Busy Bees Aotearoa property portfolio, agenda and direction, ensuring strategic, functional and operational accountabilities work effectively together
• Provide leadership and direction to the property and facilities management team, setting outcomes and deliverables, monitoring overall progress towards those outcomes
• Manage the financial day-to-day property budgets in consultation with the relevant functional and operational areas – including CAPEX, repairs and maintenance
• Lead the development and implementation of a sustainable property management plan
• Manage property assets efficiently and in a manner that ensures compliance with relevant legislation, license requirements and policies
• Act as the key Busy Bees NZ property and facilities liaison with Busy Bees Global property team members based in UK
• Undertake due diligence inspections of new centre opportunities
• Provide new centre property advice and full due diligence condition report

About You
This is a rare opportunity to leverage your previous success within a value driven global organisation on an ambitious growth trajectory. To be successful in this role you must be able to demonstrate substantial experience in providing high level strategic property and facilities management leadership as well as juggle multiple work streams all at once.
To be considered for this opportunity you will have the following:

• A tertiary qualification in Surveying, Engineering or Property – or equivalent relevant industry experience
• Preferably, 10+ years’ experience in leasehold or freehold property management in a commercial environment, ideally in a geographically dispersed business
• Ability to lead, encourage, inspire and motivate staff to accomplish the company vision and values by modelling exemplary leadership behaviour
• Possess strategic agility with the ability to see ahead clearly and can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately with broad knowledge and perspective
• Proven negotiation skills in achieving positive commercial outcomes
• Good organisation skills, with confidence to work on your own to establish and document processes and procedures around property management
• Strong project management skills, and experience in planning and delivering property projects
• Experience in working within and across complex multi-site national organisations delivering projects with teams who are geographically dispersed - demonstrating strong leadership and excellent communication skills
• Well-developed communication skills and computer literacy, preferably with some experience with property management/CAFM systems
• Experience in managing a property portfolio in the ECE /education sector would be an advantage

This is a great opportunity for senior property leader to step up into a role with a nationwide scope, or alternatively, a senior leader from a consultancy environment looking to move client side and help lead the strategic focus of this business’s property portfolio.

To learn more or to see a full job description, please submit your interest via the link above, or alternatively for a confidential discussion please contact Matt Webster at Assemble Recruitment on 027 274 6829.