People, Recruiting & Workplace - Facilities & Workplace
Facilities Operations Lead
Lead
Independently auditedMakes the physical workplace safe, functional, and worth coming into. Runs the day-to-day of a small group while staying hands-on.
Audited package
Built, independently audited role package. Everything on this page is written for this seat.
Your Stack (Swappable)
This role works against whatever tools you already run. We list the tool categories the role operates in, never a named vendor, so you are never asked to replace a system that works.
- CMMS / work-order system
- Workplace & Facilities
- Access & security
- Energy / metering
- Spend, AP & Expense
- Team Chat & Collaboration
- Observability & Monitoring
- Asset & space records
Deliverables
- Work-order and request logs
- Safety and inspection records
- Vendor performance reviews
- Space and move plans
Responsibilities
- Own and triage the work-order queue - intake, prioritize by life-safety and business impact, dispatch to the crew or a vendor, and drive it to closure against response / resolution targets
- Execute the preventive-maintenance (PM) program - schedule and assign PMs, keep completion on track, and escalate deferred PMs before they become failures
- Direct and schedule the technician crew for the shift - task the work, balance coverage, and take the harder technical calls the crew escalates
- Be the on-shift escalation point for building issues (HVAC / MEP / electrical / plumbing / BMS alarms), triage the fault, stabilize the situation, and either fix it, dispatch it, or escalate it
- Own safety on the floor - issue and verify lockout-tagout and permits-to-work (hot work, confined space, electrical / arc-flash), enforce PPE, control hazards, and run first response on a facilities incident
- Coordinate and supervise vendors and contractors - scope the work, hold them to the permit and the safety rules, verify the work was done to spec, and sign off on completion
- Keep building systems running and available - watch the BMS / building alarms, respond to failures, and coordinate the repair to restore uptime
- Maintain the operation's records - work-order and PM history in the CMMS, permit and LOTO logs, incident reports, and asset / equipment data honest and current
The essence of this seat
The Facilities Operations Lead runs the day-to-day operation of a building or site - the person who keeps the lights, air, water, power, and spaces working while directing the crew and vendors who do the hands-on work.
Signature move
Triage by life-safety and business impact, not by volume. On any incoming work order, fault, or complaint, the first move is to rank it - life-safety first, then business / occupancy impact, then comfort, then cosmetic - because the loudest ticket is rarely the most important one, and the priority call is what you have to be able to defend
What good looks like
triages by life-safety and business impact over volume / seniority (fire-door P1, warm room P3 unless it threatens uptime), protects the critical PMs and escalates any deferral as a named risk rather than dropping it silently, puts a compensating measure on a defeated life-safety system, and manages the occupant's expectation with an honest ETA
Decision rights
- - the daily work-order priority and dispatch, the shift's crew tasking and the schedule of the work, PM scheduling and assignment against the program, the on-the-spot call of whether a space or a piece of equipment is safe to operate right now, issuing and verifying lockout-tagout and permits-to-work on the floor, first response to a building issue, vendor day-to-day coordination, and sign-off that a job or a PM was done to spec
Working vocabulary
What this role does
The Facilities Operations Lead runs the day-to-day operation of a building or site - the person who keeps the lights, air, water, power, and spaces working while directing the crew and vendors who do the hands-on work. Core ownership is the work-order queue, the preventive-maintenance (PM) program's execution, the shift's tasking and dispatch, and the on-the-floor safety of every person doing maintenance work. This is a working lead seat: it carries lead responsibility for the crew and the operation without necessarily holding full people-management authority (hiring, pay, and formal performance are the Facilities Manager's). It reports to a Facilities Manager, directs a Facilities Operations Technician crew and outside vendors, and is the escalation point when a building issue lands on shift. It is not the Facilities Operations Technician who executes the individual repair (the lead prioritizes the work, takes the harder technical call, and hands the repair to the crew - it does not own the wrench for every job), and it is not the Facilities Manager who owns the whole function, the budget, the strategy, and the people decisions (the lead runs operations execution inside the manager's plan and budget, and surfaces what needs a decision). Performance is visible in uptime of building systems, PM completion, work-order response and resolution time, and a clean safety record - so better judgment shows up as a building that runs and a crew that goes home whole. What separates great from average is running the operation so it holds up on the shift you are not there: a work-order queue triaged by safety and business impact rather than by who shouted loudest, a PM program actually completed rather than deferred until it becomes a breakdown, a crew that knows what it is on and works to a permit and a lockout rather than improvising, vendors scoped and supervised rather than turned loose, and a hand-off note the next shift can run on. A mediocre lead reacts to whatever breaks and lets the paperwork and the PMs slide; a great one gets ahead of the failures, keeps the floor safe under pressure, and leaves the operation better documented than they found it.
Best-fit customer
workplace teams keeping sites running without a large facilities organisation
Need more than one role?
Buying the whole team or the complete department lowers your effective cost per role at every tier of the ladder.