Estates Digital Infrastructure Lead

Overview

You will be the bridge between IT Services and the Estates and Facilities Management (EFM) department, ensuring that digital infrastructure is treated as a core component of every capital development and refurbishment project. You will collaborate with teams across IT Services and Estates, as well as senior internal stakeholders, contractors and suppliers, to deliver successful IT outcomes within University estate developments.

This role represents IT within estates developments, attending governance meetings and acting as the primary point of contact and conduit into IT Services. You will ensure that key digital infrastructure requirements are captured, specified and implemented to the right standards, working closely with technical subject matter experts. You will own the route to resolution for IT‑related issues, translating between technical and non‑technical audiences, keeping stakeholders informed and escalating where appropriate, retaining ownership until resolved.

You will also encourage the standardisation of IT solutions across the estate portfolio, identifying opportunities to improve consistency, efficiency and quality of delivery.

By concentrating estates‑related engagement in one role, this post will also reduce the demand on Networking, Infrastructure, Audio Visual and other specialist teams, allowing them to focus their expert input where it adds the most value. It will additionally foster the effective and efficient flow of work between EFM and IT ensuring a seamless handover from construction project to live IT service.

You will work in collaboration with multiple EFM project teams across the campus masterplan, embedded in their delivery rather than working through a single counterpart.

• Own the primary interface between Estates and IT Services for University estate development initiatives, acting as the single point of contact and ensuring clear lines of communication in both directions.
• Lead the capture, definition and documentation of IT requirements, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy and technical standards and that requirements are considered at the right stage of the project lifecycle.
• Provide oversight and direction across the provision and installation of IT services, including passive infrastructure, communications rooms, AV and desktop IT installations.

• Ensure compliance with relevant technical specifications and standards for networking (passive and active components), Audio Visual and other IT systems.
• Coordinate the review and approval of designs, contractor proposals and technical documentation with specialist IT teams (Network, AV, Desktop and others). Hold delegated approval authority where this is explicitly granted by the relevant technical lead and supported by clear guidance.
• Carry out site visits and inspections throughout the project lifecycle to assure the quality and compliance of installed IT infrastructure.
• Protect the integrity of agreed IT and AV scope through project gates, escalating to the relevant technical lead and IT Services leadership where value engineering or budget pressure threatens to compromise the agreed specification.

• Represent IT Services within project governance meetings and other forums as required, providing clear, informed and timely input on behalf of the department.
• Own the flow of information back into IT Services, providing structured progress updates to IT leadership and technical and delivery teams. Escalate risks, issues and conflicts with the IT strategic roadmap to the appropriate technical lead and to IT Services leadership where resolution requires it.
• Work with Project Managers and IT operational teams to drive the successful handover of IT systems from project delivery into live service, marking a clean transition point at which ongoing service ownership passes to the relevant IT teams.

• Engage with IT product areas and technical teams to identify strategic IT initiatives and ensure these opportunities are captured and reflected within Estates…