Electrical, Fire, Door Entry Contract Lead

Job Description

The London Borough of Harrow is seeking an experienced Electrical, Fire and Door Entry Contract Lead to provide strategic and operational leadership across all electrical, fire safety and door entry services within the Council’s housing stock. The postholder will play a critical role in ensuring full statutory compliance, safeguarding resident safety and delivering high-quality, value-for-money services. Acting as the Council’s technical and contractual authority, they will lead on the interpretation and application of all relevant housing, building safety and mechanical and electrical legislation, including the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 (Awaab’s Law), ensuring that the Council meets its regulatory obligations and maintains robust assurance frameworks.

This role is responsible for overseeing multiple borough-wide statutory contracts, including electrical testing, fire detection and alarm systems, emergency lighting, door entry and access control systems, managing contracts collectively valued at several million pounds per annum. The successful candidate will lead complex relationships with specialist contractors, holding significant accountability for contract performance, compliance, remediation actions and escalation of underperformance where necessary. They will exercise professional judgement in enforcing contractual standards and ensuring that services are delivered consistently to a high standard, aligned with best practice and regulatory expectations.

Working collaboratively across Building Safety, Compliance, Capital Delivery, Housing Management, Legal, Finance and Procurement teams, the postholder will influence service delivery across a wide range of housing functions. They will also engage regularly with residents, leaseholders, councillors and external regulators, ensuring transparency, responsiveness and a strong customer focus. This is a highly influential role requiring strong leadership, technical expertise and the ability to drive continuous improvement in service delivery, ensuring that Harrow’s housing services remain safe, compliant and resident-centred.

The successful candidate will have:

• Extensive knowledge of UK housing, building safety and compliance legislation, including electrical and fire safety in social housing.
• In-depth understanding of mechanical and electrical regulations, standards and best practices.
• Strong knowledge of contract law, procurement and contract management frameworks.
• Detailed understanding of Awaab’s Law and resident safety obligations.
• Significant experience leading electrical, fire and/or M&E compliance contracts within a social housing or similar regulated environment.
• Proven experience managing high-risk, high-value contracts and specialist contractors.
• Experience of dealing with regulatory scrutiny, audits, complaints and service failure.
• Demonstrable experience of influencing senior stakeholders and driving service improvement.

For more information, please refer to the Role Profile/Selection Criteria

About us

Harrow Council is the 12th largest London borough and one of the most culturally diverse local authorities in the UK, making it a great place to live, work and visit with a range of cultures, religions and opinions that come together to produce high achieving schools and a close and friendly community. Located 10 miles from the city centre and just 13 minutes to Euston from Harrow & Wealdstone station there are great transport links via the Metropolitan Line, Watford DC Line and national rail service. It is easily accessible to the M1, M25 and A406.

Other information

Support for candidates visit:Harrow.gov.uk Our behavioural indicators roles below G11 and above G11 Here at Harrow Council, the vision is one of 'Working together to make a difference for Harrow' Please click here to view Harrow Council's benefits

Important Note

To deliver our commitment to equality of opportunity in service provision, all staff are expected to promote equality in the workplace and in the services the Council delivers. All sections of the population will have equal access to jobs at the London Borough of Harrow. No applicant or employee will receive less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender, reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy, or maternity unless a Genuine Occupational Qualification applies. As such, we value diversity and welcome applications from all backgrounds. For further information, please read our equality statement.

As a disability-confident employer, we are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and accessible to everyone. This includes reasonably adjusting the recruitment process for those with disabilities or long-term health conditions. For further information, please contact us at resourcing@harrow.gov.uk

London Borough of Harrow is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Harrow operates stringent, safer recruitment procedures.

Due to the high number of applications received for some posts, we may close vacancies before the stated closing date if sufficient applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible.

Harrow redeployees will be given priority consideration.

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, any your data protection rights, can be found by visiting www.cifas.org.uk/fpn