Hard Services Facilities Manager for Liberty London

Background

Liberty London is one of the UK's most iconic retail destinations, known for its luxury goods, distinctive brand heritage and landmark Tudor Revival building in the heart of London's West End. Founded in 1875, Liberty has built a global reputation for curating fashion, beauty, homeware and lifestyle brands.

The building is both a retail destination and a historic architectural asset, so its infrastructure has to remain safe, compliant and operationally resilient while the store trades. To support the ongoing performance of the estate, Liberty London asked Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Hard Services Facilities Manager to oversee critical building services, engineering operations and maintenance programmes across a complex and highly visible retail environment.

The Challenge

Liberty London needed a technically strong facilities professional to lead hard services across a historic and operationally demanding estate. The appointee would be responsible for the reliability, safety and compliance of critical building infrastructure while supporting the commercial objectives of a busy flagship store. The remit covered:

• Mechanical and electrical infrastructure
• Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) programmes
• Building management and engineering services
• HVAC systems
• Fire detection and suppression systems
• Electrical distribution and lighting systems
• Plumbing and water services
• Specialist heritage building assets
• Contractor and supplier management
• Health, safety and statutory compliance
• Budget management and cost control

Three things made the search harder than a standard hard services appointment:

• Operational delivery and strategic asset management in one role. The position needed someone who could keep plant running day to day while planning for the long-term condition of the estate, with minimal disruption to customers, retail operations and building occupants.
• A heritage building that trades. Engineering work in a historic building that stays open to the public cannot follow the playbook of a modern commercial unit; access, materials and methods all need more thought, and the customer experience cannot be compromised while work is done.
• Leadership of an in-house team and multiple specialists. The role managed an in-house engineering team and coordinated multiple specialist service providers, so technical credibility had to sit alongside the ability to direct people and hold suppliers to account.

Our Approach

Maxwell Stephens worked closely with Liberty London's leadership team to understand the technical, operational and commercial requirements of the role. The organisation needed a Hard Services Facilities Manager who combined engineering expertise with leadership, stakeholder management and a commitment to high operational standards. That definition shaped the search.

Search

Drawing on our Facilities Management and Building Services network, we ran a targeted search focused on candidates with backgrounds in hard facilities management, building services engineering, retail facilities management, heritage and listed buildings, mechanical and electrical services, critical building infrastructure, contractor management, health, safety and compliance, and asset management and lifecycle planning.

Particular emphasis went on strong electrical expertise, leadership experience and a proven record of managing complex operational estates. Electrical depth is the competency most often missing from otherwise strong hard services CVs, so we tested for it early rather than taking it on trust.

Assessment

Candidates were assessed against a range of technical and behavioural competencies:

• Mechanical and electrical systems management
• Planned and reactive maintenance delivery
• Team leadership and performance management
• Contractor and supplier oversight
• Health, safety and statutory compliance
• Budget management and procurement
• Technical problem-solving and operational resilience
• Stakeholder engagement and customer service

The process confirmed that every shortlisted candidate had both the technical depth and the commercial awareness to succeed in a customer-focused retail environment.

The Outcome

Maxwell Stephens placed an experienced Hard Services Facilities Manager with extensive expertise in building services engineering, maintenance management and operational leadership. The successful candidate brought a strong technical background and proven experience managing complex estates and engineering operations in customer-facing environments. Their key strengths included:

• Extensive hard services and building services expertise
• Strong electrical engineering knowledge
• Experience managing engineering teams and specialist contractors
• A proven record in statutory compliance and risk management
• Effective budgetary control and procurement management
• Strong stakeholder communication and leadership capability

Following the appointment, the Hard Services Facilities Manager took responsibility for the operational performance of Liberty London's critical building infrastructure, working with internal teams, contractors and external stakeholders to keep the estate reliable, safe and efficient.

Why This Placement Worked

Hard services roles in heritage retail draw on three disciplines that rarely appear together on one CV: engineering depth, sensitivity to historic building fabric, and the service instinct to keep work invisible to customers. Recruiting for one in isolation tends to produce a technically competent appointment that struggles with the other two.

This search was defined around all three from the outset and assessed against all three. The result was a manager equipped for the estate as it actually operates: a working store inside a historic building, where reliability and compliance underpin the customer experience.

Maxwell Stephens recruits hard services, technical services, building services engineering, M&E, engineering leadership, asset and maintenance, and compliance and risk roles for organisations across retail, commercial property, corporate real estate and heritage environments. If you are recruiting a technical facilities role in a complex or historic estate, get in touch with our team.