Contracts Manager - Housing Services - Local Authority
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Contracts Manager – Housing Services
- Location: Oldham / Hybrid working
- Pay: £26.87 to £28.51 per hour (PAYE)
- Job Type: Full-time, 37 hours per week
Join our client in Oldham as a Contracts Manager, where you will lead the delivery of key housing services, ensuring our housing stock is safe, compliant, and delivers high-quality services for residents. This role is crucial in managing a varied portfolio of contracts, including high-value long-term housing agreements.
Day-to-day of the role:
- Manage high-value housing contracts, including long-term PFI agreements.
- Monitor contract performance, budgets, and service delivery to ensure compliance with housing, building safety, and legal requirements.
- Lead procurement of contractors, consultants, and partner organisations.
- Oversee major housing projects and capital programmes like the Warm Homes programme, improving energy efficiency and tackling fuel poverty across the borough.
- Manage financial planning, budgets, and reporting.
- Collaborate with partners such as NHS, Registered Providers, and contractors to deliver integrated services.
- Prepare reports and present to senior leaders, boards, and elected members.
- Manage risk, governance, and performance across housing services.
- Support and develop a small team of housing professionals.
Required Skills & Qualifications:
- Proven experience managing high-value contracts in housing or a similar sector.
- Strong leadership skills with experience managing and motivating teams.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience working with multiple partners and senior stakeholders.
- Strong project and programme management skills.
- Knowledge of housing legislation and compliance requirements.
- Experience managing budgets and delivering value for money.
Desirable:
- Degree or professional qualification in Housing, Construction, Management.
- Project management qualification (e.g., PRINCE2).
- Experience with PFI contracts or housing programmes.
Benefits:
- Opportunity to manage high-profile housing programmes.
- Work at the heart of improving housing and communities in a collaborative, partnership-led environment.
- Strong organisational values focused on fairness, openness, and accountability.
- Car allowance for necessary travel.
Additional Information:
- Occasional evening and weekend meetings may be required.
- Travel across sites required.
Our Clients Values:
They are committed to fairness and equality, openness and transparency, accountability and responsibility, working together, and respect for our communities.
To apply for the Contracts Manager position in Housing Services, please submit your CV and cover letter detailing your relevant experience and why you are interested in this position.
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Highlight your high-value contract management experience prominently at the top of your CV — the advert lists this as the first required skill and the role centres on managing long-term PFI housing agreements.
📊 Quantify your contract portfolio: e.g. 'Managed 6 housing contracts totalling £4.2M, achieving 97% KPI compliance over 3 years' to directly mirror the advert's emphasis on high-value, performance-monitored contracts.
🏗️ Dedicate a bullet to capital programme delivery — reference any energy efficiency, decarbonisation, or similar programmes you have overseen, as the Warm Homes programme is explicitly named as a key responsibility.
🎯 Demonstrate housing legislation knowledge by naming specific legislation (e.g. Building Safety Act 2022, Housing Act 1985, Decent Homes Standard) in your CV — the advert explicitly requires compliance knowledge.
🤝 Showcase multi-partner collaboration experience, naming NHS, Registered Providers, or local authority partners where relevant, as the advert stresses partnership-led delivery with senior stakeholders and elected members.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Managed a portfolio of 8 housing contracts valued at £5.6M annually, maintaining 96% KPI compliance and achieving full building safety regulatory adherence across 1,200 properties.
- •Led procurement of 4 contractor frameworks under PCR 2015 regulations, reducing average contract award time by 6 weeks and delivering £320K in value-for-money savings over 2 years.
- •Directed a £2.1M energy efficiency capital programme across 3 housing estates, coordinating NHS and Registered Provider partners to reduce fuel poverty for 480 households within 18 months.
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Letter preview — tailored to Reed
Dear Hiring Manager,
Oldham's housing portfolio — spanning long-term PFI agreements and the Warm Homes capital programme — demands exactly the contract management and compliance expertise I have built over my career. I am applying for the Contracts Manager – Housing Services position and am confident I can bring immediate value through my track record in managing high-value housing contracts and leading procurement processes within a public sector framework.
My background in housing contract management includes overseeing multi-million-pound agreements, monitoring KPI performance against building safety and legislative requirements, and collaborating with Registered Providers, NHS partners, and elected members. I have led procurement exercises from specification through to award, managed capital programme budgets, and presented performance reports to senior boards — all core to this role.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How have you structured contract performance monitoring frameworks for high-value, long-term housing agreements?
- ›Describe your experience managing PFI contracts — what governance and reporting mechanisms did you put in place?
- ›How do you ensure compliance with building safety legislation and housing regulations across a varied contract portfolio?
- ›Walk us through your approach to procurement of contractors and consultants within a local authority or public sector setting.
- ›What project management methodologies have you applied to capital housing programmes, and how did you track budget and programme milestones?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you managed a significant budget overrun on a housing contract — what steps did you take to recover the position?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to present complex housing programme data to elected members or a senior board — how did you prepare and what was the outcome?
- ›Give an example of when you had to manage a difficult contractor relationship to maintain service delivery standards.
- ›Tell me about a time you led a team through a period of significant change or pressure within a housing or public sector environment.
- ›Describe a situation where you identified a compliance risk in a housing contract and the actions you took to mitigate it.
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you managed a significant budget overrun on a housing contract — what steps did you take to recover the position?
Describe a situation where you had to present complex housing programme data to elected members or a senior board — how did you prepare and what was the outcome?