Job Description

Position Details

Estates

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,062 to £31,900, with potential progression once in post to £35,883

Grade: 5

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to August 2027

Closing date: 6th July 2026

2 Position available

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The University of Birmingham Estates Division is responsible for both the master planning, operations and management of our extensive estate. Our team is made up of over 160 dedicated members of staff, including apprentices studying across a range of teams and disciplines: all striving to deliver on a 24/7 basis a world class university experience for the benefit of all students, staff, academics and visitors.

The University of Birmingham is on a journey to become a Top 50 Global University following a century of being one of the most successful and important Universities in the UK. The Estates Department has a strong focus on putting customer service at the heart of what we do, and making significant investments in maintaining our legacy buildings as well as continuing to invest in our capital programme. As a top-ranking research-intensive university with one of the largest and most internationally diverse campuses in the UK. Your role will be critical in ensuring the university is maintained to high standards for the University’s staff, students and visitors across our extensive building portfolio.

After our students and staff, our physical estate is the largest single enabler for our world-class teaching and research and provides a fantastic student experience. Our estate is large and varied covering 672 acres, with over 200 buildings of different ages, complexities, physical condition and use - ranging from grade 1 and 2 listed properties to brand new state of the art learning and research spaces. It consists of two main campus sites (Edgbaston & Selly Oak) along with properties in Stratford upon Avon, Ansty (near Coventry), Coniston (in Cumbria), Ironbridge and Dubai.

The Fire Door Specialist (Carpentry) is responsible to a Team Leader and/or their Deputy Team Leader on a day to day basis and is required to carry out installation of fire door sets, critical repairs, and general maintenance to fire doors to ensure compliance with all relevant fire safety regulations. They will work independently setting their own work schedule and apply their experience and knowledge of BM TRADA approved methods, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and relevant British Standards, to fire door remediation works. They will be responsible for ensuring a high level of statutory compliance across the University’s accommodation settings.

The postholder communicate regularly with Customer Services Managers across the accommodation settings to provide advice and devise maintenance schedules for remediation works. They will consider the sensitivities of working within live student accommodation, and the impact such intrusive works can have. If issues arise reporting them to Customer Services Managers and working with them to resolution.

Review working practices in order to meet demand, ensure the best use of resources and recommend improvements.

Provide advice and guidance to other members of the team in relation to the general maintenance of fire doors, and supervising such general maintenance works to ensure they are carried out to achieve overall safety and statutory compliance.

Main Duties

• Installation of fire door sets, installing fire-rated hardware, and carrying out critical repairs along with general maintenance through replacing damaged components including intumescent strips and seals, and surrounding areas impacting on fire door performance.
• To draft schedules and put forward a program of repairs utilising bespoke Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) system to review status of fire door assets, including reports from fire door inspections. Use of bespoke application to record detail of fire door remediation works carried out, and to take images of remediation works as required to provide a detailed audit trail of asset maintenance.
• Liaison in person and via email with members of the Accommodation Team, especially Customer Service Managers (CSMs) when scheduling fire door maintenance and/or installation.
• To interpret and work from verbal instructions, drawings and specifications appropriate to University buildings.
• At times support a wide range of work of other tasks, demonstrating flexible and multi-skilled collaborative working.
• To learn new techniques and craft practices in line with evolving technology and legislative Health and Safety Requirements. This may involve attendance on training courses.
• To work as part of a multi-disciplined team and understand fully the inter-relationship between the various maintenance teams.
• Instruct others on aspects relating to their work, including engaging and developing apprentices through providing specialist advice and guidance to maintenance teams on fire doors.
• Recording, completing and providing essential job information via IT based systems.
• Required to operate in various shift patterns in order to accommodate the needs of the University.
• Undertake all work in accordance with safe working practices and safe working procedures, always leaving area of work both completely clean and safe on completion of task.
• Driving safely whilst obeying all traffic laws and regulations, when driving University vehicles.
• Monitoring work completion and service standards of all fire door related activity.
• Evaluating and making recommendations on new developments relating to fire door safety, briefing managers and implementing agreed changes to procedures.
• You may liaise with colleagues in other institutions – to share and develop expertise in all areas of fire doors.
• Supports equality and values diversity, moderates own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.
• Any other duties as may reasonably be expected by the relevant manager.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to A Level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant facilities work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
• Minimum of GCSE grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent level 2 qualification.
• Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS) Diploma / BM TRADA Q-Mark Fire Door Maintenance Certification (individual certification) / BM TRADA Q-Mark Fire Door Installation Scheme Certification (individual certification).
• Significant experience in fire door maintenance repairs and installation and having worked previously for a BM TRADA registered organisation (fire door installation and fire door maintenance).
• Recognised CITB (Construction Industry Training Board)/EITB qualification or equivalent and preferably hold City and Guilds Certificates or other approved training acceptable by the University of Birmingham and the appropriate training boards.
• In-depth knowledge of Health and Safety legislation, along with an understanding of BS 8214 Code of Practise for Fire Door Assemblies and BS 9999 Code of Practise for Fire Safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings.
• An understanding of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
• Good practical working knowledge and experience of multiple disciplines in a maintenance setting.
• Skills in analysing and solving a wide range of practical problems and ensuring a high-quality service.
• A focused customer-service attitude, with excellent communication skills and experience of working in a highly customer focussed environment, along with excellent time management and organisational skills.
• Ability to clarify issues objectively and to address them by priority.
• The ability to operate and interrogate appropriate University computerised systems including use of Microsoft Office packages.
• Safe use of hand and power tools, work in a tidy and organised manner, always leaving area of work spotlessly clean and tidy.
• Work independently (often autonomously using own initiative) and as part of a team with ability to understand and follow instructions, carrying out work to agreed deadlines.
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to evaluate the service offered and identify improvements.
• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach.
• Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace with ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.
• Full driving license.

Dimensions

This role will require the exercise of personal initiative within and beyond the department.

Planning and organising

You will be required to independently on daily, weekly and monthly tasks.

Problem solving and decision making

You will be working under the direction of a manager, with a significant degree of autonomy. You will deal with more complex queries and be expected to resolve any problems in your area of responsibility. You will need to be able to recognise when to refer more complex, non-routine technical and Health & Safety related issues to others.

Internal and external relationships

You will liaise with internal colleagues across the University and stakeholders.

Informal enquiries to Kris Sheldon, email: k.l.sheldon@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website