Head of Facilities Management and Operations needed at Astron Energy Ltd.

Lead Astron Energy’s facilities operations, ensuring safe, reliable, and cost-effective management of buildings, infrastructure, and related services to support business continuity and optimal workplace in regional corporate offices, Refinery corporate offices and support buildings, LMP corporate offices and support buildings, and terminal offices across South Africa and Botswana. Provide integrated leadership and oversight of Real Estate, OHS&S, Insurance, and Operations portfolios, including the management of DoA changes and implementation. Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with key stakeholders, service providers, and customers. Accountable for the management of all service contracts, ensuring alignment with governance frameworks, corporate compliance standards, and organisational objectives.

Strategic Implementation:

• Translate strategy into operational initiatives with measurable business outcomes and targets.
• Facilitate the development of best practice in operations and service excellence.

Operational Efficiency:

• Drive innovative, cost-effective workplace solutions that optimise tenant productivity and collaboration.
• Ensure compliance with all company policies, procedures, and governance frameworks in Facilities operations.
• Provide oversight of employee and stakeholder amenities, including restaurants, canteens, and consumables, ensuring quality and service excellence.
• Safeguard business continuity across all departmental services and operations.
• Oversee the availability and continuous improvement of user-friendly, interactive tenant engagement platforms and helpdesk channels.
• Engage with Senior and Executive management on progress, updates, employee wellness and organisational changes (MOC & MOOC).
• Maintain effective communication with tenants, providing timely updates on progress, escalations, emergencies, and other matters impacting their facilities or operations.
• Lead the safety committees in improving the health, safety and wellbeing of all tenants at various sites.
• Ensure all department activities are aligned to applicable corporate policies. e.g. fixed assets, contracts and procurement, expenditure DOA, HR and regulatory compliance.
• Facilitate change management processes in collaboration with key stakeholders to ensure smooth implementation of company-wide changes (MOC & MOOC).
• Collaborate with key business functions — including Procurement, HR, Legal, Corporate Affairs, Audit, IT, and Compliance — to resolve cross-functional issues and align activities with organisational objectives.

People Management:

• Provide direction and define objectives to be achieved in Facilities.
• Manage performance of direct reports ensuring agreement of annual goals and measuring performance against agreed goals and addressing non-performance issues.
• Deploy people management processes effectively, in line with Company policies, procedures and prevailing improvement initiatives.
• Drive operational excellence through area of supervision.
• Oversee resource deployment to ensure adequate cover and resilience in the team.
• Promote, support, and encourage team members to live the Company values.
• Oversee the successful development, implementation, and maintenance of the organisational training program for Operations personnel.
• Drive a culture of high performance and accountability and encourage team members to live the Company values.
• personal improvement plans for individual team members with identified technical skill deficiencies.

Stakeholder Relationship Management:

• Identify, build, and nurture trust and collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Manage relationships with Landlords and outsourced facilities management service providers.

Financial Management:

• Oversight and accountability for the facilities operations budget, ensuring effective allocation of resources across all service areas and adherence to Company strategy, targets, and goals.
• Manage supplier and service provider contracts to ensure value for money and financial compliance.

Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Compliance:

• Ensure compliance with all Safety, Health, Environmental and all other applicable regulatory statutes, and all other safety and quality processes for the area of responsibility/work.

Professional Qualification and Certifications:

• Built Environment Degree (Property, Engineering, Facilities Management) or bachelor’s degree in business administration.
• Master’s Degree/ Project Management qualification/professional certifications (SAFMA/GBCSA) advantageous.

Work Experience:

• 15 + years’ experience:
• At least 10 years’ experience at tactical (service delivery execution) level which includes 5 years’ experience at senior management level in facilities management.
• Proven track record managing small to large fit-out projects, new builds, refurbs, white boxing, etc. and strong Real Estate transaction management, market research, feasibility study, rental contract terms negotiations.
• Demonstrated success in implementing and maintaining SHEQ, OHS, and Security strategies, policies and procedures that comply with regulatory requirements and industry best practice and ESG & sustainability data gathering, reporting, and strategy development.
• Experience developing and implementing BCP, disaster recovery plans and scenarios, and crises management.
• At least 5 years’ experience managing a large corporates insurance portfolio to ensure comprehensive risk management and compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Experienced in developing and implementing the organisation’s Delegation of Authority (DOA) framework and related corporate policies.

Knowledge and skills:

• In depth understanding of national and international management of owned and leased buildings
• Deep knowledge of direct (refinery, logistics, terminals) and indirect (corporate services, marketing) categories; skilled in market analysis and should-cost modelling.
• Excellent knowledge of contract and service delivery management through KPIs and SLA.
• Advanced proficiency in Coupa (or similar platforms), including supplier onboarding, e-invoicing, and analytics dashboards.
• Skilled in building relationships, including the ability to work with both internal customers and external entities.
• In-depth understanding of contract management, insurance policies, RFQs & RFPs, leases.
• Strong grasp of OHS act, SHEQ policy, programmes, and processes within facilities management.
• Proven ability to lead, coach, and develop high-performing teams; succession planning and capability building across procurement disciplines.
• Expertise in budgeting, forecasting, costing and cost management
• Ability to drive cultural and process change across business units, embedding governance and digital adoption.

Application deadline:

03 December 2025