Group Head of Estates

Overview

Group Head of Estates — Wimbledon

#OFE

Steer Automotive Group is an award-winning, fast-growing business with over 160 sites and nearly 4,000 employees. We are committed to delivering exceptional service and quality repairs, with technology playing a crucial role in our growth and innovation. As we strive to build a best-in-class technology function, we are seeking a dynamic IT Support Analyst to join our team. If you have a growth mindset and a passion for technology, this is an exciting opportunity to contribute to our success.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Group Head of Estates to take ownership of the Group’s national property portfolio, working closely with the Group CFO and Senior Executive Team. This is a hands-on, delivery-led role with accountability for the safety, compliance, performance, and cost-effectiveness of the estate. The successful candidate will spend regular time on site, ensuring estates and facilities actively enable operational teams to deliver an outstanding, measurably different customer experience.

You will partner closely with Divisional Managing Directors and operational leaders, ensuring estates activity is responsive, robust, and aligned to the Group’s commercial and financial objectives. This role is firmly focused on execution, accountability, and results, rather than strategy creation. This role operates on a hybrid basis, with one day per week based at our Wimbledon head office and the remainder working from home and on-site across the UK estate.

Estate & Property Management

• Provide expert input on property acquisitions, leases, renewals, and exits
• Oversee day-to-day management of all sites, including facilities management, maintenance, and repairs
• Lead and embed effective planned preventative maintenance (PPM) programmes
• Ensure facilities consistently meet operational needs and agreed service levels
• Control and optimise estate costs, including rates, utilities, and service contracts, leveraging Group scale

Compliance, Safety & Risk

• Ensure full statutory compliance across all sites, including health & safety, fire safety, environmental standards, and building regulations
• Implement a robust estate and facilities defect reporting and resolution process
• Maintain accurate estate records, risk assessments, and compliance documentation
• Lead audits, inspections, and remedial action plans
• Share best practice across the Group to drive consistency and risk reduction

Capital Projects & Procurement

• Lead capital works, refurbishments, and construction projects from concept to completion
• Manage budgets, tender processes, contracts, and supplier relationships
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to specification

Financial Control

• Set, manage, and control estates and facilities operational and capital budgets
• Monitor spend, forecast future costs, and identify efficiency and savings opportunities
• Manage supplier contracts to ensure value for money
• Oversee lease renewals with a strong focus on cost control and commercial discipline

Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Lead a small, dispersed estates and facilities team, including outsourced partners where appropriate
• Build a high-performance culture with clear expectations, accountability, and development
• Develop strong relationships with the Group Executive Board, Regional Directors, and Site Managers

Sustainability & ESG

• Partner with ESG leads to improve energy efficiency and reduce the Group’s carbon footprint
• Implement sustainable maintenance practices and responsible asset management across the estate

Qualifications and Skill

Essential

• Proven experience leading estates or facilities within a large, multi-site organisation (10+ years)
• Strong working knowledge of property law, leases, statutory compliance, and building regulations
• Demonstrable experience delivering capital projects and managing complex budgets
• Experience leading geographically dispersed teams
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capability

Desirable

• Professional membership (. RICS, IWFM, CIOB)
• Experience managing small industrial leasehold units

Personal Attributes

• Hands-on, pragmatic, and delivery-focused, with the ability to think strategically where needed
• Strong people skills and collaborative leadership style
• Able to balance commercial priorities with compliance obligations
• Highly organised with excellent attention to detail
• Resilient, adaptable, and comfortable managing a varied workload
• Confident influencing and challenging at senior leadership level

Why Join Us?

• Opportunity to shape and improve a national estate at scale
• Senior role with real influence and visibility across the Group
• Fast-growing organisation with ambitious transformation plans
• Values-led culture focused on excellence, integrity, and innovation