Viacom International Head of Building Services UK Recruitment

Background

Viacom International (now part of Paramount Global) is one of the world's largest media and entertainment companies, home to globally recognised brands including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Channel 5, Paramount Pictures and BET. Operating within a fast-paced, highly creative environment, Viacom's workplaces are designed to support collaboration, innovation and a strong employee experience.

To support its UK operations and future workplace strategy, Viacom partnered with Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Head of Building Services UK (Planning, Design & Office Facilities) — a senior leadership role responsible for shaping the organisation's workplace environment, managing complex building services and delivering strategic facilities initiatives across the UK portfolio.

The Challenge

This was a strategically important appointment. The successful candidate would lead the Planning, Design and Office Facilities function, ensuring that Viacom's workplaces supported both business performance and employee wellbeing while maintaining consistently high operational standards. That meant combining technical expertise with commercial awareness and a genuine understanding of how modern workplaces are used.

The role demanded expertise across multiple disciplines, including:

• strategic Facilities Management
• workplace planning and office design
• building services engineering
• capital project delivery
• office refurbishments and fit-outs
• space utilisation and workplace optimisation
• Health & Safety and statutory compliance
• budget ownership and financial management
• contractor procurement and supplier management
• stakeholder engagement across multiple business functions
• leadership of multidisciplinary facilities teams

Beyond technical capability, Viacom needed someone who could thrive within its entrepreneurial, fast-moving and highly creative culture — equally comfortable presenting to senior executives and leading major workplace transformation projects. In media and creative businesses the workplace is part of how the organisation attracts and keeps talent, which raises the bar on design judgement well above a conventional corporate facilities brief.

Our Approach

Maxwell Stephens ran a bespoke executive search focused on senior Facilities and Workplace leaders with experience of complex corporate environments. We worked closely with Viacom's senior leadership team to build a detailed understanding of the organisation's culture, workplace philosophy and long-term property strategy.

The search targeted candidates with experience across corporate real estate, strategic facilities management, workplace design and planning, media and creative industries, financial and commercial management, building services engineering, major capital projects and workplace transformation.

Each candidate was assessed on:

• strategic leadership capability
• technical building services knowledge
• workplace design expertise
• financial and commercial management
• stakeholder engagement
• change management
• leadership style
• cultural alignment with Viacom's collaborative, innovation-led environment

The objective was not simply to fill a vacancy but to identify a leader capable of influencing the future direction of Viacom's workplace strategy.

The Outcome

Following an extensive executive search, Maxwell Stephens appointed a Head of Building Services UK (Planning, Design & Office Facilities) whose experience matched the complexity and ambition of the role. The successful candidate brought extensive expertise in strategic facilities management, workplace design and operational leadership, and quickly became a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders across the business.

In post, the appointment delivered:

• Strategic workplace leadership. A senior leader able to align workplace strategy with wider business objectives, so that facilities became an enabler of organisational performance and creativity.
• Workplace transformation. Improvements across workplace planning, office design and building services, creating environments that enhanced collaboration, flexibility and employee experience.
• Streamlined operations. Building services, maintenance programmes and operational processes were streamlined for greater efficiency while maintaining the high standards expected across Viacom's corporate estate.
• Financial performance. Strong commercial leadership improved budget control, procurement and supplier management, delivering value while supporting continued investment in workplace improvements.
• Stakeholder engagement. Strong relationships across the organisation, working with senior leadership, project teams, contractors and business units to deliver workplace initiatives.
• Support for future growth. Strategic planning and long-term asset management positioned Viacom's UK workplace portfolio to support growth, organisational change and evolving ways of working.

Why This Placement Worked

The appointment strengthened Viacom's workplace leadership by combining strategic direction with operational delivery across planning, design and facilities management. By delivering a modern, efficient workplace environment, the new Head of Building Services has helped support employee engagement, operational performance and long-term business objectives.

Head of Building Services roles with a design and planning remit sit where property, engineering and workplace experience meet, and they are frequently briefed with one of the three missing. This search held all three in view from the start, alongside cultural fit, which is why the appointment was able to influence strategy rather than simply maintain the estate.

If you are recruiting a senior Workplace, Corporate Real Estate or Facilities leader for an organisation where technical capability, strategic thinking and cultural fit matter equally, Maxwell Stephens can help. Get in touch with our team.