Background
Big Sky Studios is one of London's leading photographic production facilities and the capital's largest full-service photography studio complex. Located in King's Cross, its impressive 3,400m² headquarters on Brewery Road houses seven fully equipped photographic studios, alongside extensive production facilities that support commercial photography, advertising campaigns, fashion shoots, film production and creative content creation. The business also operates its standalone Omega Place Studio, making Facilities Management a critical function across multiple locations.
As the business continued to grow, Big Sky Studios appointed Maxwell Stephens exclusively to recruit a Facilities & Building Manager responsible for ensuring the smooth operation, maintenance and continual improvement of its specialist production environments.
The Challenge
Unlike a traditional office environment, Big Sky Studios operates highly specialised facilities where reliability, flexibility and responsiveness are essential to supporting clients and commercial production schedules.
The successful Facilities & Building Manager would oversee multiple sites while ensuring studios remained operational, safe and presented to the exceptionally high standards expected by some of the world's leading photographers, creative agencies and production companies.
The role covered responsibility for:
- Overall building operations across multiple sites.
- Planned and reactive maintenance.
- Building fabric and infrastructure management.
- Contractor procurement, supervision and performance management.
- Security, cleaning, waste management and environmental services.
- Health & Safety compliance.
- Budget management and cost control.
- Facilities procurement and supplier negotiations.
- Capital improvement and refurbishment projects.
- Strategic planning for future estate development.
Project management also formed a significant part of the position, with responsibility for managing refurbishment and building improvement projects from initial planning and contractor tender through to completion, commissioning and Building Control sign-off.
Because the studios operate within a fast-paced commercial environment, maintenance and improvement works needed to be carefully coordinated to minimise disruption to clients and ongoing productions.
Our Approach
Maxwell Stephens undertook a targeted executive search focused on experienced Facilities and Building Managers with backgrounds managing technically demanding, customer-facing environments.
While technical competence was essential, cultural fit proved equally important.
Big Sky Studios required an individual who would thrive within its creative, energetic and collaborative culture while possessing the organisational capability to manage a diverse operational portfolio.
Our search prioritised candidates with:
- Proven Facilities and Building Management experience.
- Multi-site operational responsibility.
- Strong contractor and supplier management expertise.
- Project management experience within occupied buildings.
- Budget management and commercial awareness.
- Health & Safety knowledge.
- Building maintenance and compliance expertise.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- A proactive, solutions-focused mindset.
Throughout the recruitment process, we carefully assessed each candidate's ability to operate independently, build strong relationships and maintain exceptional service standards within a dynamic production environment.
The Outcome
Following an extensive executive search, Maxwell Stephens successfully appointed an outstanding Facilities & Building Manager who closely matched both the technical requirements of the role and the collaborative culture of Big Sky Studios.
The successful candidate brought significant experience across Facilities Management, contractor management and building operations, together with a practical, hands-on leadership style that aligned perfectly with the organisation.
Since joining Big Sky Studios, the Facilities & Building Manager has played a key role in:
- Maintaining high operational standards across multiple sites.
- Delivering planned and reactive maintenance programmes.
- Managing building improvement and refurbishment projects.
- Developing strong relationships with contractors and suppliers.
- Supporting safe, compliant and efficient studio operations.
- Improving cost control and procurement processes.
- Helping create an environment where creative teams and clients can operate without interruption.
Their proactive approach has enabled Big Sky Studios to continue providing exceptional facilities that support some of the UK's leading creative productions.
Specialist Recruitment for Specialist Environments
Recruiting Facilities Management professionals for complex, customer-facing environments requires more than technical assessment. It demands an understanding of operational priorities, organisational culture and the ability to identify individuals who can balance service excellence with commercial awareness.
Through our specialist Facilities Management recruitment expertise and tailored executive search process, Maxwell Stephens successfully delivered a Facilities & Building Manager capable of supporting one of London's premier photographic production facilities.
Candidate Testimonial
"It was excellent to come across Maxwell Stephens during my search for a more relevant and fulfilling role. Rather than bombard me with vacancies, they took the time to understand exactly what I was looking for and only introduced opportunities that genuinely matched my criteria. The entire process was managed professionally from first interview through to offer, and their understanding of both candidates and clients really stood out."