If you’re an ambitious trades manager looking for an exciting opportunity to make a huge difference and help grow an exciting business, we’ve got an incredible opportunity for you. We’re recruiting a new role to manage the day-to-day running of, and drive improvement in, Umega’s flourishing home repairs business. 

Founded in 2007, Umega is a thriving independent Edinburgh property business with a large portfolio of rental properties, a busy estate agency team and a quality home repairs service all under our care. This is a dynamic role in a busy organisation that prioritises looking after people and doing right by them. Our standards are high, which is why our customers love working with us, and we’re expanding our team with more great representatives of who we are.

The Role

You’ll start off with line management responsibility for a fantastic team of 9 people, taking management responsibility of an existing good service that is profitable. There is strong demand for our services and with your help, we will grow the team in 2024 as we learn more about what customers want and get better at giving them what they need. You’ll be working closely with Umega’s Directors as we try new things, make mistakes, learn and grow the business whilst providing valuable services to more and more homeowners, landlords and tenants all over Edinburgh. 

This job combines supervising and managing our 8 maintenance technicians as they carry out home repairs and improvements all over Edinburgh, and also taking responsibility for our back office customer service. Most of our Home Repairs work is done on the Umega Lettings properties working for Umega’s Portfolio Managers, but there’s a growing demand from new external customers. These two different customer segments require slightly different systems and processes to support service. You’ll be working closely with the different teams and customers to understand how we can improve and help design and implement improvements in every area. This is work that will take years, not months. We’re looking for an ambitious and capable person to join us on a challenging and exciting road ahead.

Necessary skills & experience:

  • Trades. You have to have experience and the requisite skills to carry out home repairs. You’ll be managing a team of maintenance technicians and you have to be able to support the team or jump in and get your hands dirty when the occasion arises.
  • People Management. You must have previous management experience. Managing people isn’t easy and you’ll be coming straight in with 9 direct reports. You’ll need to have at least 3 years of management experience.
  • Back office. You have to be comfortable in an office environment and using  software and IT. We use a combination of different softwares at the moment, BigChange and FixFlo being the main ones.
  • Customer Service. You’ll be frequently talking to customers face to face and over the phone to discuss/quote for work and troubleshoot when necessary.
  • Relationship management. You’ll be expected to create strong relationships with our trade suppliers as well as the other Umega departments that deal with lettings and estate agency. Good stakeholder management is a must. It’s vital that people enjoy working with you and want to deal with you.
  • Contract management. You’ll negotiate contracts with our material suppliers and subcontractors to ensure we’re getting the best prices and service levels from our suppliers/partners. You’ll also work with our vehicle fleet supplier to keep our fleet of trades vehicles current, appropriate and competitively priced.

Starting salary – £38,000 – £42,000 per year, depending on experience

Start date –  As soon as you are available – we can be flexible and we’ll wait for the right person.

How to apply – We will only consider applications submitted with a covering letter (or video) telling us about you – the person behind the CV. We’re interested in more than just a list of previous jobs – we want to understand your reasons for applying to join our team and know a little bit about you before inviting you for an interview.

Please send your CV and covering letter to Neil McInnes at [email protected]

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

Be part of a vibrant, growing company of 60+ great people, ranked in the top 100 small businesses to work for in the UK (Best Companies 2022), and winner of the Best Letting Agency in the UK (Negotiator Awards, 2023).

  • 32 days Annual Leave (and more when you stay with us for 2 years or longer)
  • Monday-Friday, 9-5 (no weekends)
  • Uniform & IT provided
  • Shared pool car provided for property visits
  • Company Pension
  • Enhanced Parental Leave
  • Employee Discounts
  • Monday – Friday Schedule
  • Private Healthcare (Vitality)
  • Enhanced Sick Pay
  • Free tea, coffee, soft drinks fruit and regular treats
  • Great social life

…and more! 

Before you send us your application, take a look at our website and social media to find out more about working at Umega.

Closing date for applications: Monday 22nd January 2024 at 12 noon.

No recruitment agencies, please.