Head of Estates

Summary

We are the public body that looks after England's historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England has a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Head of Estates.

This is a full time, permanent position.

The location of this role is National where we offer hybrid working, you will be based in one of our following offices and from home – Newcastle, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, Bristol, Portsmouth (Fort Cumberland) and Cambridge. This role will involve frequent travel to all office locations as required.

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive defined benefit pension scheme to which we make 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here .

What you will be doing

As Head of Estates, you will provide senior professional estate management expertise across our diverse portfolio of freehold and leasehold properties. You will play a pivotal role in implementing the organisation's Estates Strategy through property decisions that optimise resources, support the delivery of our Net Zero ambitions and deliver great workplaces. You will provide clear, commercially sound and technical advice.

Who we are looking for:

• Qualification – MRICS or equivalent qualification
• Breadth of experience – Property lease and rent negotiations, business rates, legalities
• Line Management
• Example of successful negotiations
• Budgets and financial reporting
• Approach to Landlord/tenant liaison
• Relationship management

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having won the Gold Award from MIND for workplace wellbeing in seven consecutive years, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work–life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don't prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part–time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England wants all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at if you have any recruitment queries.

At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science–backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role.

At Historic England, we value the expertise and individuality each candidate brings and want to hear about this in your own words. If you require the use or AI tools or other resources to support your application, we ask that all information is factually accurate, original, and reflects your own experience. To best represent yourself, we encourage you to write in your own words and use AI–generated content only as inspiration–not as direct input.

Provisional interview dates: Week commencing Monday 15th June 2026 – virtually via Microsoft Teams

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –