Head of Real Estate and Facility Services

Orange Contract | CFO | Experienced | Belgium | 20 | 092968 | Lead Facility Management V I

Your role and work environment

The overarching goal of CREFS (Corporate Real Estate and Facility Services) is to continuously improve both employee and customer experience through a service and workplace offering that meets their evolving needs, while maintaining quality, efficiency, and cost control. You play a strategic role in shaping the ING way of working, by creating high-performing and motivating work environments for employees and delivering smooth and consistent experiences for our customers across all branches.

The Centre of Expertise for Corporate Real Estate & Facility Services (CREFS) is responsible for designing, developing, and managing innovative, sustainable, and user-centric workspaces, while ensuring the performance and quality of facility services.

CREFS manages actually 250K sqm representing 251 buildings (three main buildings, 14 regional buildings, 150 branches and other properties, for a total annual cost base of 81 M€.

Most operational and tactical activities are outsourced to a managing agent, who operates under a structure where contracts are signed directly with ING for specific services. CREFS ensures strategic coherence, stakeholder alignment and performance monitoring across all outsourced services.

The essence is to know which requirements the customer organizations have for accommodation and facility services and to know what the supplier can deliver. Based on this, a portfolio of accommodation and services is established to be provided by the supplier. Subsequently, the provision of the services is tested against the desired quality level and the agreed costs. This is done in partnership with the supplier and in close cooperation with the professional disciplines Human Resources and Workplace Services. 

CREFS is structured into 5 key pillars:

- Real Estate & Real Estate Projects: real estate strategy, workplace design, asset management, transactions, lifecycle maintenance, energy management, project delivery and ESG compliance. CREFS manages actually 250K sqm

- Facility & Space Management: soft services, workplace experience, logistics and physical security across all locations.

- Managed Services Provider (MSP): data management, risk governance, performance tracking and contract management for all service providers.

- Internal Service for Prevention and Protection at Work (SIPP/IDPB)

- People & Experience: a dedicated focus on human-centric design, continuous improvement of the employee and customer experience, and cross-functional collaboration with HR and Workplace Services.

The CREFS organization consists of approximately 35 internal staff. You directly lead 4 team managers and report to the CFO of ING Belgium, while also maintaining a functional reporting line to the Global Head of CREFS. In addition, the organization is supported by ING staff departments like Human Resources, Finance Business Advice, Procurement and Operational and Information Risk Management.

Your key responsabilities

As Head of CREFS, you:

• define and implement the real estate and facility services strategy for ING Belgium based on local business strategy and relevant group guidelines and policies
• lead the CREFS Centre of Expertise and chair its management team
• ensure effective governance of outsourced services delivered through the managing agent model
• maintain strong alignment and collaboration with executive leadership and core functions (HR, Finance, Procurement, Risk…)
• ensure full compliance with local and global regulations and risk frameworks
• oversee and manage the full CREFS budget (staff, CAPEX, OPEX)
• foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• enhance employee and customer experience through inspiring, flexible, and sustainable environments
• build and develop a high-performing, multidisciplinary team focused on operational excellence

How to succeed

We hire smart people like you for your potential. Our biggest expectation is that you will stay curious. Keep learning. Take on responsibility. In return, we will back you to develop into an even more awesome version of yourself.

You are an energetic, driven and inspirational leader.

You strive to bring fresh ideas to life and embrace challenges in a fast changing and complex environment.

You are a naturally collaborative person who listens and invests in others to achieve common goals.

You have a strong resilience and are able to navigate through ambiguity.

As Head of CREFS, you also need : 

• a relevant Master level

• experience in the fields of Real Estate and/or Facility Services is an asset

• experience in strategic sourcing and key supplier relationship management is an asset

• fluency in French or Dutch and English

• effective communication and interpersonal skills

• successful track record in senior leadership role

• ability to develop and maintain a strong team culture and values, creating a positive and enjoyable workplace and a multidisciplined team which strives to be best-in-class at all times

• excellent stakeholder management skills and a partnership mindset

Questions

Contact the recruiter attached to the advertisement for more information. Want to apply directly? Please upload your CV and motivation letter by clicking the “Apply” button.

Please note, multiple interview steps involving various business stakeholders will be part of the selection process.