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 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 the smooth operation, maintenance and continual improvement of its specialist production environments.
Unlike a conventional office, 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 standards expected by some of the world's leading photographers, creative agencies and production companies.
The role covered responsibility for:
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. In a hire-by-the-day studio business, downtime is lost revenue and a lost client, so the facilities lead has to plan works around bookings rather than the other way round — a discipline that not every corporate FM background instils.
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 needed an individual who would thrive within its creative, energetic and collaborative culture while having the organisational capability to manage a diverse operational portfolio. Our search prioritised candidates with:
Throughout the process, we assessed each candidate's ability to operate independently, build strong relationships and maintain consistent service standards within a demanding production environment.
Following an extensive executive search, Maxwell Stephens appointed a 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 suited the organisation.
Since joining Big Sky Studios, the Facilities & Building Manager has played a key role in:
Their proactive approach has enabled Big Sky Studios to continue providing facilities that support some of the UK's leading creative productions.
Recruiting Facilities Management professionals for complex, customer-facing environments requires more than technical assessment. It demands an understanding of operational priorities and organisational culture, and the ability to identify individuals who can balance service standards with commercial awareness. Assessing for independence and relationship-building alongside the technical checklist is what produced a Facilities & Building Manager capable of supporting one of London's premier photographic production facilities.
"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."
If you are recruiting a facilities lead for a studio, venue or other specialist customer-facing site, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief and reach candidates who have run comparable environments. Get in touch with our team.
If you are recruiting for a similar role, our team can help you define the brief, reach the right candidates and manage the process through to appointment.
