A leading facilities management provider is seeking a Handback & Transition Manager to join its team in Edinburgh on a permanent, full-time basis (37.5 hours per week). The role offers a competitive salary, company vehicle or allowance, bonus, and comprehensive benefits package.
Reporting to the Account Director, the Handback & Transition Manager will lead the strategic, operational, and commercial delivery of a major PFI contract handback and service transition within a complex healthcare environment.
This role holds overall accountability for ensuring the safe, compliant, and contractually robust transfer of assets, services, data, and workforce arrangements at contract expiry. The successful candidate will manage sensitive commercial negotiations, coordinate multiple stakeholders, and maintain operational continuity throughout a highly critical phase of the contract lifecycle.
Operating with a high degree of autonomy, the role requires balancing contractual compliance, commercial protection, and stakeholder relationships while ensuring uninterrupted service delivery and maintaining a safe operational environment during transition.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Handback & Transition Leadership
- Develop and deliver the integrated handback and transition strategy in line with contractual and governance requirements.
- Act as the single point of accountability for all handback and transition activities.
- Lead delivery against key contractual milestones within challenging and time-sensitive programmes.
Asset Compliance, Condition & Risk Management
- Oversee asset condition surveys, lifecycle validation, defect management, and statutory compliance activities.
- Ensure assets meet required handback standards through planned remediation programmes.
- Maintain and manage a comprehensive risk register covering operational, commercial, legal, safety, and reputational risks.
Commercial & Contractual Management
- Lead commercial negotiations with clients, consortium partners, and external advisors.
- Manage contract interpretation, claims, dispute resolution, deductions, and final account settlement processes.
- Protect the organisation’s commercial position while maintaining collaborative stakeholder relationships.
Operational Transition & Workforce Management
- Lead the operational transition strategy to ensure continuity of critical services during handover.
- Coordinate workforce transition and TUPE activities alongside HR, operational teams, and successor providers.
- Manage knowledge transfer, asset data validation, systems decommissioning, and mobilisation support.
Documentation, Governance & Assurance
- Oversee delivery of a complete and auditable handback documentation package, including asset registers, compliance records, technical files, and operational manuals.
- Ensure all documentation meets contractual and evidential standards.
- Maintain governance reporting and performance dashboards to support decision-making and assurance.
Continuous Improvement
- Capture lessons learned and contribute to best practice development across wider PFI expiry and transition programmes.
Candidate Requirements
- Significant senior-level operational or commercial management experience within facilities management, infrastructure, or construction sectors.
- Proven experience managing PFI or complex long-term service contracts through expiry or transition phases.
- Strong background in commercial negotiation, dispute resolution, and large-scale contract management.
- In-depth understanding of PFI structures, lifecycle asset management, and statutory compliance requirements.
- Strong technical knowledge of building services and M&E infrastructure within complex operational environments.
- Excellent leadership, analytical, and communication skills with experience managing multidisciplinary teams.
- Degree-qualified in a relevant discipline or equivalent professional experience.
- Professional qualifications such as IWFM, RICS, or commercial management accreditation are desirable.