Facilities & Workplace Appointments for Sentiem

About Sentiem

Sentiem is a London-based venture capital firm investing in ventures across the Advanced Technology & Industrial, Finance & Fintech, and Healthtech & Human Performance sectors. It incubates, builds and accelerates ventures, and places significant emphasis on a productive, efficient and engaging workplace for its people. In a firm of this kind, the office is part of how the business presents itself to founders, investors and staff.

Our work with Sentiem

Maxwell Stephens has recruited two roles for Sentiem's workplace function:

• Head of Facilities Management, to lead the move into a new high-spec office in 2024 and then run it
• Facilities & Workplace Coordinator, within the Workplace & Operations team

Head of Facilities Management

As Sentiem prepared to move into a high-spec office in 2024, it needed a Head of Facilities Management who could balance strategy with hands-on operational expertise. The role covered every aspect of office management: building maintenance, catering, cleaning, security, health & safety, and hard and soft FM. With the move ahead, it also called for project management, third-party vendor management, regulatory compliance and business continuity planning, and a leadership style that fitted Sentiem's inclusive, action-oriented culture.

An office move raises the bar for any facilities appointment. The incoming Head of FM has to sequence the move, stand up new vendor contracts and service levels, get statutory compliance in place from day one and build continuity arrangements for a building nobody yet knows. A candidate who has only ever inherited a running office has not done that.

We searched for candidates with extensive property and FM experience in high-spec offices, contract negotiation and vendor management, compliance, business continuity and emergency response, and IOSH/NEBOSH qualifications and IWFM membership. Maxwell Stephens placed a Head of Facilities Management who:

• Took ownership of the transition into the new office and delivered a smooth move.
• Established high-quality facilities services, improving the workplace experience.
• Led vendor negotiations and contract management, improving cost and service quality.
• Ensured compliance with health & safety regulations and managed risk.
• Implemented business continuity plans and incident response protocols.

Facilities & Workplace Coordinator

To strengthen its Workplace & Operations function, Sentiem engaged Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Facilities & Workplace Coordinator to run day-to-day workplace operations. The remit covered facilities coordination, contractor and vendor management, SLA monitoring, health, safety and compliance support, maintenance coordination, access control and security administration, utilities and workplace services, space planning and reconfigurations, office moves, emergency response and incident management, and employee support.

Coordinator-level workplace roles are often underestimated. The title suggests an administrative post, but this list is the operational backbone of an office, and the pool of coordinators who are both operationally rigorous and service-minded is smaller than the title implies.

We assessed candidates on coordination, vendor management, compliance, stakeholder communication, problem-solving, incident management and cultural alignment. The coordinator placed brought experience of workplace moves and reconfigurations, integrated quickly and became a key member of the Workplace & Operations team.

Why it worked

Both briefs were run against the role as it actually operates. The Head of FM search treated the job as two jobs in sequence, deliver the move and then run the building, and assessed for both. The coordinator search was run against the full operational remit rather than as an administrative hire. In each, Sentiem's culture was given the same weight as technical competence.

If your organisation is planning an office move or building a workplace team, get in touch with our team.