Director - Facilities at North West University

Job description

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

• To lead, direct and optimize hard and soft facility maintenance services across campus properties and estates, ensuring all facilities are ready for use to efficiently support university operations in accordance with the NWU strategic objectives and regulatory requirements.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategy Implementation

• Contribute to the development of the NWU Facilities functional strategy and take co-responsibility for the implementation.
• Work with the office of the Chief Director: Facilities to implement and execute the Facilities Functional Strategy on campus.
• Develop and implement a maintenance operational plan for the assigned campus properties and estates.

Policies, Practices and Standards

• Implement NWU Infrastructure Management Policy and other applicable NWU policies.
• Identify campus specific asset maintenance standards and work with the office of the Chief Director: Facilities to design and implement the said standards.
• Implement approved NWU infrastructure standardized maintenance procedures, processes, guidelines and standards on campus and over the infrastructure/ equipment life cycle.

Infrastructure Asset Maintenance

• Lead, develop, implement, and oversee infrastructure asset reactive and unscheduled or emergency maintenance plans.
• Work with the central Planned Maintenance office to identify and implement preventative and scheduled maintenance needs for each asset class on campus.
• Work with and support the central Planned Maintenance office to identify, plan and execute risk based and condition-based maintenance needs for the assigned campus.
• Ensure there are clearly defined procedures and processes for maintenance of campus power distribution systems and internal load management in case of power outages.
• Execute reactive maintenance from work orders according to the defined service delivery timelines and customer service level agreements.
• Co-ordinate campus condition assessments to inform macro- and deferred maintenance plans.
• Lead and oversee the establishment of condition monitoring and inspection plans as per the operating and maintenance manuals to check, test or replace infrastructure systems, subsystems, assemblies or components.
• Lead and ensure optimal utilization of NWU computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) to ensure timeous execution of maintenance work requests, tracking and reporting within agreed service priority levels across campuses.
• Ensure that the campus has robust response procedures in place to respond to critical equipment (diesel generators, water systems, aircon plants etc) downtime and re-installation of service within agreed timeframes.

Contract Management

• Develop campus annual procurement plans and participate in procurement process ensuring timeous submission of procurement documents to the central Planned Maintenance office and Procurement Division.
• Manage all active contracts on campus and ensure the day-to-day hard and soft facility services are executed efficiently, and contractors’ performance is measured and reported against performance specifications and service levels.
• Ensure that contractual performance by service providers is adhered through the implementation and monitoring of agreed Service Level Agreements.
• Ensure timeous renewal of service and maintenance contracts to ensure continuity of services.

Specialised Technical Support Service

• Jointly responsible with Director Infrastructure Design and Construction to oversee the design, planning and execution of infrastructure projects
• Provide technical specialist service for maintenance and / or facility services needs over the project life cycle.
• Lead, oversee and ensure the compilation of technical specialist service needs for maintenance and / or facility services resource allocation.

Energy and Water Efficiency Plan

• Translate energy and water efficiency strategy into implementation action plans for short, medium and long term to achieve the targets in support of NWU Environmental sustainability policy.
• Work with Smart Campus department to monitor campus energy and water usage efficiency and performance against targets and propose interventions for improvement.
• Develop and implement mitigation plans to manage energy and water outages on campus.
• Develop and implement Business Continuity Plans for critical equipment to ensure services continuity in case of failure of municipal provision of services.

Management and Leadership Results Areas

• Ensure optimal team composition and equitable resource allocation, effectiveness and efficiency across campuses.
• Stakeholder relationship development and effectiveness.
• Corporate governance conformance, reporting and risk management and business continuity.
• Integrated budgeting, cost management and cost-effectiveness.
• Unit processes and systems design, utilisation, effectiveness and efficiency in support of the digital business strategy.
• Personal effectiveness, wholeness and development.
• Values-based behaviour leadership and personal compliance.

Minimum requirements

• A bachelor’s degree or bachelor’s of technology degree (NQF level 7) in built environment qualification (Mechanical;  Electrical or Industrial Engineering).
• A postgraduate qualification in Management (NQF level 8).
• A minimum of five (5) years’ technical, operational and managerial experience in infrastructure asset maintenance.

ADDED ADVANTAGE & PREFERENCE:

• Legal Appointment - Government Certificate of Competency.

KEY FUNCTIONAL/TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES:

• Strong knowledge of and experience in Infrastructure Asset management value chain, including development of maintenance policies, processes and plans
• Strong knowledge of and experience in facility services management including use of CMMS
• Strong knowledge of applicable legislation, standards, municipal by-laws, and regulations
• Contract management
• Project and program management
• Leadership, coaching and mentoring
• Proficiency in MS Office
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

KEY BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES:

• Analytical and strong attention to detail.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Proactive and innovative technical problem solver.
• Customer centric.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• High-performance driven.

CLOSING DATE: 26 October 2025