Lead Maintenance Engineer - South

Lead Maintenance Engineer £45,000 per annum DOE South Regions
37.5 hours per week Permanent

Partou UK is one of the UK's largest and fastest-growing childcare providers, formed through the acquisition of Just Childcare in June 2021 and All About Children in September 2022. Since then, the organisation has continued to grow with clear intent

• balancing expansion with a deep commitment to the wellbeing, development and experience of children, families and teams.

Our approach to growth is thoughtful and people centred.

We recognise that behind every nursery are dedicated teams, trusted relationships with families and unique local communities.

As we expand, we invest significantly in high-quality early years practice, professional development and reflective ways of working that support continuous improvement and shared learning across the organisation.

The Lead Maintenance Partner is responsible for overseeing maintenance services across nursery sites in South regions.

The role ensures safe, compliant, and high-quality environments for children, staff, and visitors while providing leadership to Maintenance Partners and acting as the first point of escalation for technical issues.

• Oversee day-to-day maintenance across multiple nursery sites Lead and support Maintenance Engineers across regions
• Ensure the development of the partnering with operations and ensure monthly inspections are under taken
• Conduct regular 1:1 meetings including Partou and You conversations with Maintenance Partners to review performance, workload, and development
• Allocate tasks and manage workloads across teams
• Coordinate and manage contractors, ensuring safe systems of work
• Carry out hands‑on maintenance tasks when required Subject Matter Expert
• Act as the initial escalation point for technical issues, liaising with specialist contractors or technical support where required
• Ensure statutory compliance and health & safety standards are consistently met
• Provide innovative suggestions for service based on oversight.

Maintain accurate maintenance records using Fresh Desk system and support planning/update of PPM schedules

Ensure all required documentation is kept up to date, in a legible manner and available at all times for H&S and Ofsted Audits.

Reporting of all compliance issues on estate supporting on trend analysis.

Ensuring Quality first time fixes and arranging works efficiently to minimise travel and incurred costs as well as minimising the business' carbon footprint and reporting.

Proactive advising of possible cost savings as part of service for year‑on‑year savings against budget.

Ability to demonstrate a wide understanding of customer needs and being able to manage their expectations.

Commitment to quality, Great Customer Service and Compliance.

Demonstrable experience of ability to organise team workload to meet tight deadlines, coping well under pressure and difficult situations and ability to identify and act on own development needs.

Willingness to undertake further training to meet evolving needs of the role as legislation changes.

Willingness to travel within the designated division and further afield as required.

Is structured, organised, flexible and adaptable in the approach.

Instils confidence and resilience in others and is enthusiastic, pragmatic and motivating.

Confident and approachable / assertive as required and displays good self-awareness.

Excellent analytical, conceptual thinking, problem solving, planning and execution skills.

Strong experience in maintenance and general trades

Compliance knowledge and training desirable (Fire/Legionella).

Displays critical…