Facilities & Services Officer (January 2025)/Al Ain British Academy

Job Description

Aldar Academies are currently seeking a Facility and Services Officer for Al Ain British Academy commencing in January 2025.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the highly successful Aldar family.

Al Ain British Academy opened in September 2011 providing high quality education in the heritage ‘Garden City’ of the United Arab Emirates. The children are taught the English National Curriculum – tailored to be meaningful to children living in Al Ain. Facilities at the school are excellent and include a large astro-turf field, two swimming pools, well-stocked library, a large multi-purpose sports hall, an auditorium and outdoor play areas. It is an exciting, challenging, and enjoyable school to work in where achievement for pupils is at the heart of all we do. The school has achieved outstanding levels of progress and attainment, supported by rigorous tracking of data and assessment in all areas of the curriculum.

Successful candidates will find themselves welcomed into a wonderful school family community, where staff are held in high regard by pupil, parents and school leadership alike. Al Ain is a beautiful, green city that offers an affordable lifestyle within the UAE, whilst offering easy access to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman all within a short drive. Al Ain boasts its own tourist attractions in the form of Al Ain Zoo, Jebel Hafeet mountain, Al Ain Oasis, as well as leisure facilities including hotels, malls, golf and Rugby club, shooting range, swimming pools, Al Ain Raceway and much more.

The successful candidates will be closely aligned with our core values and ethos and possess a genuine understanding and appreciation of the values of the region.

Responsibilities

Job Purpose:

As a member of the school operations team, the Facilities & Services Officer (FSO) will be fully responsible to effectively manage all Facilities & General Services related activities and ensure the school(s) complies with all Aldar Education directives within daily school operations.

The incumbent will continuously strive to exceed internal & external customer expectations, capitalizing the economic profit and return on capital investment, while embracing the Aldar Education Core Values.

To embody the values, vision and ethos of Aldar Education and assist the Principal in implementing process and policy which will ensure high quality and successful outcomes.

Main Duties:

• To be responsible for the delivery of facilities and general services across the school. Delivering a 'service culture' and ensuring efficient, effective staff and resource deployment in timely manner.
• To ensure the school facilities are maintained to the highest standards (cleanliness, maintenance and safety) and that the support service teams are performing effectively and efficiently.
• To oversee the school accommodation requirements, ensuring staff are housed in accordance with school expectations, Aldar Education housing policy and allowances.
• To oversee efficient and cost-effective purchasing and contracting in accordance with the school budget, Aldar Education policy and school development plans.
  
  
  

Specific Duties:

General Operations:

• To ensure all repairs and maintenance at the School, including the inspection of required repairs and, where necessary, the appointment of external service providers in line with Aldar Education HQ guidance and Aldar Education Procurement framework, and ensuring agreed works by staff or contractors have been completed satisfactorily and following up on any deficiencies to the initial scope of works.
• To ensure the security and efficient operation of the school site, buildings and grounds at all times, in accordance with current Health & Safety guidance, ensuring daily checks of the site are carried out by the site services team for vandalism and ensuring cleaning standards are acceptable.
• Implementation of issued policies, systems, processes and student safeguarding measures in conjunction with the Aldar Education HQ.
• To ensure school-based events and activities are effectively planned and resourced in a timely and appropriate manner.
• Ensure essential central services such as catering, security, maintenance, cleaning, transport, waste disposal and recycling are effectively planned and resourced throughout the year and be the point of contact for external services management.
• Support the OSM in utilisation of space and resources for buildings, or re-organisation of current premises.
• To ensure daily monitoring of the BMS and BMS alert systems (where installed) are carried out amongst the site services team.
• To support the OSM (and Group Housing Manager) in procuring and maintaining the Aldar Education standards of staff accommodation (where required).
• To act as the designated school Incident Commander and be contactable outside of normal School hours, available to attend site when required in line with the Aldar Education Critical Incident Response Protocols.
  
  
  

Leadership & Management:

• To ensure the external support service teams are performing in line with school expectations, fully resourced and delivering on their contractual obligations delivering best value for the school and high standards of service for the school community.
• Manage the facilities and general service teams to ensure high standards of service are maintained throughout the School and that they provide an effective service culture.
• Ensure each member of the Facilities & General Services team partakes in professional development, appraisal and training and undergoes an individual development plan to help the school in building a high-performance team.
  
  
  

Finance, Commercial & Procurement:

• To oversee relevant budgets and expenditure, effectively manage costs, and ensure the School receives best value and service at all times in relation to facilities and building standards.
• To support opportunities for shared resource, cost and/or services across partner schools to ensure that the schools benefit from improved access to service teams and physical resources (ie support staff, transport etc).
• Ensure purchasing policy and the Delegation of Authority (DOA) processes and procedures are followed at all times.
  
  
  

Relationship & Stakeholder Management:

• Ensure that schools are fully compliant with local government authority regulations to safeguard against fines of any nature as a result of non-renewal of contracts at school level.
• Ensure all internal and external audit actions are completed in a timely and appropriate manner.
  
  
  

Health, Safety & Environment

• To promote a positive and proactive health and safety culture throughout their teams for health and safety.
• To ensure the school complies with current Health & Safety legislation and/or guidelines as issued by Aldar Education HQ.
• To review and monitor the health and safety performance of contractors and suppliers within their respective schools.
• To support the OSM with environmental related aims and objectives and ensuring that they are delivered within the required timelines.
• Ensure all internal and external health, safety and environmental related audits are effectively completed in a timely and appropriate manner.
  
  
  

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum diploma / degree of higher education; or
• Related industry qualification, of graduate level, for the assigned functional area(s).
• Certificate of Facilities Management / NEBOSH or IOSH preferable.
  
  
  

Minimum Experience

• At least 3 years’ experience in a mid-level position within an education or facilities service oriented industry.
  
  
  

Job Specific Knowledge & Skills

• Fluent English communication skills, written and oral.
• Attention to detail with diligent follow up, and able to execute in a timely manner.
• Skilled in multi-tasking and handling pressure.
• Organizational ability, of self and others.
• Forethought and forward planning (particularly as this relates to local Government compliance matters).
• Capable of influencing people and talented in networking with cultural sensitivity.
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Strong and consistent supervisory skills.
• Commercial acumen.
• Initiate effort and energy beyond the typical work day, where the tasks require additional commitment.
  
  
  

What We Offer

Aldar Academies are a family of world-class, child-centered, and innovative schools based in the UAE. We educate over 25,000 students across our group of owned and managed schools and as we grow so does our need for highly skilled, inspirational, and dedicated school leaders. Our future-focused learning model includes both students and staff and so we place a special emphasis on professional development, coaching and training.

Successful candidates will have access to a wide network of professionals and opportunities to both lead and contribute to training others as well as developing themselves.

Aldar Academies are keen to hear from like-minded, forward-thinking school leaders who would welcome the challenge and opportunities that we have to offer.

This job description is not all-inclusive. Aldar Education reserves the right to amend this job description at any time. We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to a diverse and inclusive work environment. We are also mindful of our national development strategy and encourage UAE Nationals in their application at our company.

Aldar Education is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. Offers of appointment are subject to satisfactory references and police clearance.