Head of technical (Quantity Surveyor)

Location: Glasgow or Edinburgh

Hours: Around 37.00 per week

Employment type: Permanent Employee

We are currently seeking applications for a Head of technical (Quantity Surveyor) within the Housing and Social Justice Directorate based in Glasgow or Edinburgh. This is a permanent and pensionable appointment and new entrants will normally start on the minimum of the pay range. Candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria below will be invited to the assessments.

The post holder will be part of the More Homes Division Senior Management Team. The Division is responsible for increasing the supply of good quality, well planned housing across all sectors, working closely with local authorities, housing associations, developers/house builders and community-based organisations. This key post will take the lead role for the division on working with councils, housing associations and the construction industry to achieve excellence in housing development, making greater use of offsite construction and exploring new business models for the delivery of affordable homes.

This technical role is vital in ensuring that every pound of the Government’s £3.5 billion investment in affordable housing over this Parliamentary term represents good value for money.

The post holder will lead the division's technical team and through our ‘Achieving Excellence in Housing Development’ programme, lead work to drive greater value from the Scottish Government’s investment in affordable housing. This work includes a procurement support programme and the implementation of a system to measure performance and quality in new build affordable housing.

Qualifications Required

A degree in Quantity Surveying and to have full membership of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS) in the Quantity Surveying and Construction pathway together with evidence of appropriate continuing professional development to meet RICS requirements.

Essential Criteria

1. Full membership of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS) in the Quantity Surveying and Construction pathway and a detailed working knowledge of current Scottish house building standards, Scottish planning policies, space standards and the issues with brownfield sites.

2. Able to communicate with and influence key stakeholders at all levels and experience in concisely and clearly presenting complex technical information to a variety of audiences both internally and to external stakeholders and including the provision of advice and support to senior management and Ministers.

3. Experience and knowledge from client perspective of public sector construction procurement including programme and project management and establishing programme structures to ensure programme direction is aligned with organisational strategy and constituent projects deliver the required benefits.

4. Experience of carrying out cost benefit analysis to central government standards and guidance, for complex housing proposals.

Nationality Requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals

• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland

• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service

• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil  Service

• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Further Information

For further information on this vacancy please download and review the “Person Specification and Further Information for Job Applicants” which you will find below. To apply, you must fully complete and submit an online application via this website before the closing date. To learn more about this opportunity, please contact Colin MacBean by email at MoreHomesBusMan@gov.scot.

Important Information Regarding Interviews

In recognition of the Scottish Government's ongoing measures and guidance in its response to Covid-19 (Coronavirus), we would like to advise applicants that a decision has been taken that all interviews must be conducted in a virtual/remote setting.

In order to facilitate this new way of working, we are asking all applicants to ensure that they have a suitable space to complete the virtual interview. In addition, a personal device of choice, which has the interview application downloaded. This could be MS Teams or Webex for example. This will allow candidates to undertake the interview/assessment if selected. We are also asking you to ensure that your personal Wi-Fi/Broadband capacity will be sufficient to carry both audio and video feeds.

The Scottish Government is a diverse and inclusive workplace and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via recruitment@gov.scot.

Closing date: 2 December 2021 at midnight.