Director of Physical Plant

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Position Summary:

Florida Atlantic University is seeking a Director of Physical Plant - Boca Raton, FL.

The Director of Physical Plant is directly responsible for the building maintenance including but not limited to HVAC, plumbing, electrical, bldg. envelope, etc.), grounds, and custodial care of approximately 3.4 million square feet of E&G and Auxiliary building space located at the Boca Raton main campus and campuses located in Jupiter, Pine Jog, Davie, Sea Tech, and downtown Ft. Lauderdale.  The Director is provided an annual operating budget for the Physical Plant department and coordinates with the Facilities Management Business Office. The position reports to the Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management.  

Summary of Responsibilities:

• Oversee outsourced functions including custodial and landscaping.  Landscaping/grounds is a hybrid model with a small internal crew to manage irrigation and small landscaping projects.  Managing the contract includes ensuring the vendors are meeting contractual obligations, reviewing staffing levels and service levels, assessing quality of service delivered, providing internal staff to inspect and review grounds and custodial staff, and general contract management.  There is an expectation of a very hands-on approach to managing these contracts which includes the Director inspecting campuses on a regular basis.

• Oversee the university’s maintenance unit which includes preventative maintenance, deferred maintenance, capital improvement, special projects (minor projects) and so on. Maintain this process using the FAMIS system and develop, review, and provide management data reports on all associates aspects of managing university maintenance. This includes performance reports, work order volume, and the like. Oversee the maintenance staff and provide the staff with sufficient supervision, safety training, staff development, and the like.  Work with external employment agencies to ensure sufficient staffing levels for managing maintenance on all applicable campuses.  Seek ways to improve efficiency while reducing costs.  Work with external vendors where necessary to complete projects/work orders.

• Work closely with FAU’s Procurement department for annual maintenance contracts to ensure compliance with FAU and State of Florida purchasing requirements. This includes developing ITN’s when formal bids are required and working with Procurement to manage the process.

• Participate in the planning process for capital projects to ensure maintainability of buildings and landscape.  Be involved through the entire process of a capital project to ensure that selections are consistent with existing materials and work closely to be involved in a building hand off so that the PP team is ready to manage the new facility from a maintenance standpoint. This includes coordinating with the Director of Engineering and Utilities and the Director of Design and Construction. Coordinate work planning efforts with other directors and the AVP for Facilities Management to ensure alignment, consistent prioritization of projects and appropriate allocation of resources across the department.

• Work closely with Risk Management to ensure areas determined safety issues are corrected (i.e. trip hazard, concrete cracks, etc.).  Work closely with Risk Management when claims due to failed applicable PP systems happen.  This includes building plumbing failures, floods, damage due to weather events, and the like.

• Coordinate, plan and communicate with academic and administrative units to ensure planned maintenance efforts do not conflict with instructional and research activities or priorities.  Proactively inform the university leadership of any disruptions that would negatively affect the university community.   Respond to afterhours corrective and emergency work orders.  Coordinate with other university departments, state agencies, consultants, and contractors to mitigate impacts to classroom, laboratory, pedestrian, transit and parking programs for planned or unplanned maintenance and repair activities.

• Provide direction to staff during emergency operations (inclement weather, utility outages, etc.).  This position and majority of staff are determined Essential Personnel and as such as required to be on sit