Head of Security

About Role
Queen Mary University of London is seeking an experienced and strategic security professional to join the Estates and Facilities Directorate as Head of Security (Operations & Emergency Planning). This senior leadership role is responsible for leading the University's 24/7 Security Service, ensuring a safe and welcoming environment for students, staff and visitors across our campuses.

You will lead a large operational workforce, oversee service performance, and play a key role in supporting the University's readiness for major incidents and emerging compliance requirements, including Protect Duty (Martyn's Law).

About You
You will be an experienced security, policing or public safety professional with a proven track record of leading large operational teams in complex environments. You will be a visible and credible leader, capable of balancing strategic thinking with operational delivery and decisive leadership during high-pressure situations.

You will bring:

• Senior-level experience within security, policing or a related field.
• Experience of leading operational teams and driving service improvement.
• Knowledge of emergency planning, incident management and organisational resilience.
• Excellent leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience of working collaboratively with external agencies and partners.
• Strong commercial and financial management capability.
• A valid non-frontline SIA Licence.

About the Directorate
The Directorate is one of the largest departments within Queen Mary, University of London and is committed to supporting and promoting student wellbeing at the College, and providing the highest standards of estates and facilities across the university, preparing and helping to sustain the University’s working and learning environmental for students, staff, stakeholders, and guests by ensuring safe environments, security and cleanliness.

This is a campus-based leadership role. Given the operational nature of the position and responsibility for emergency response and incident management, regular on-site presence across Queen Mary campuses is essential. The postholder will also participate in out-of-hours escalation and emergency response arrangements.

About Queen Mary
At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.

Our reformer heritage informs our conviction that great ideas can and should come from anywhere. It’s an approach that has brought results across the globe, from the communities of east London to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.

Benefits
We offer competitive salaries, access to a generous pension scheme, 30 days’ leave per annum (pro-rata for part-time/fixed-term), a season ticket loan scheme and access to a comprehensive range of personal and professional development opportunities. In addition, we offer a range of work life balance and family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, and campus facilities.

Queen Mary’s commitment to our diverse and inclusive community is embedded in our appointments processes. Reasonable adjustments will be made at each stage of the recruitment process for any candidate with a disability. We are open to considering applications from candidates wishing to work flexibly.

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