Facilities Positions
Who runs the function — and who is on the team you assemble before the first viewing?
The Apex
Every facilities position reports up to one decision maker.
The Head of Facilities is the apex. They own the gauge, hold the lease calendar, ratify the renewal decision, sign the operational SLAs, and tell the executive the trade-offs. Every other role on this page feeds the Head of Facilities. Every agent on this page works under one of these roles.
The Head of Facilities is not the largest team — it is the smallest team that can hold the loop. In a seed-stage business this role sits on the founder or COO. In a growth-stage business it becomes a named hire. The title does not matter, the accountability does.
The Head of Facilities role is detailed in Role — Head of Facilities below. Everything else is the team — internal + external — that lets the Head of Facilities sleep.
Internal Position Inventory
Three internal roles. Each lists responsibility, touchpoints, hand-off contract, human-AI split with named agent, failure mode.
Role — Head of Facilities
- Responsibility: The function's gauge sits in good. Every decision in the four asymmetric-field moves — assemble the team, build the playbook, use AI as leverage, time the engagement — actually happens. The seven workflows in Process run on their clocks.
- Touchpoints: CEO/COO (strategic property decisions), CFO (envelope, lease vs buy, capex), HR (headcount projection, density), Legal (lease terms, disputes), executive (recommendation memos).
- Hand-off contract: Owns recommendation, not authorisation. Routes board-level decisions (new long-term lease, purchase, multi-location strategy) to the executive with the W2 memo. Owns operational decisions (vendor selection, fit-out scope, renewal-vs-renegotiate) directly.
- Human-AI split: Human owns judgment, relationships, and the executive narrative. AI does lease analysis, NPV modelling, comparable-rent synthesis, due diligence sweeps, negotiation-prep briefs. Named agent: facilities-agent (orchestrator pattern, calls sub-agents per workflow).
- Failure mode: Gets seduced into deal-making and loses the gauge. Symptoms — Performance G1 in bad for more than one quarter without a routed decision; W5 trigger missed; W2 evaluation skipped one of the four lenses.
Role — Building Coordinator
- Responsibility: W7 (ongoing facilities management) runs cleanly. Incidents triaged same business day. Maintenance schedule on calendar. Vendor SLAs met. Safety / compliance calendar current.
- Touchpoints: Tenants of the space (employees, customers), landlord (incident escalation), maintenance vendors, safety inspectors.
- Hand-off contract: Owns operational continuity. Escalates to Head of Facilities when incident threatens W5 / W6 decision or breaches lease covenant.
- Human-AI split: Human owns relationships and physical-presence triage. AI does scheduling, vendor SLA tracking, incident pattern analysis. Named agent: maintenance-agent.
- Failure mode: Manages incidents reactively instead of using the incident log as input to G5 / G6 and the renewal decision.
Role — Ops Manager / COO (when Facilities reports up to ops)
- Responsibility: Holds facilities accountable to operating-model fit. Owns the link from headcount and revenue projections (HR + Finance) to facilities decisions.
- Touchpoints: CEO, CFO, HR lead, Head of Facilities.
- Hand-off contract: Owns the "does this space serve the operating model" question across functions. Ratifies major facility decisions against business plan.
- Human-AI split: Human owns cross-functional judgment. AI generates the scenarios (headcount up 20% → facility implications; revenue model pivots → facility implications).
- Failure mode: Treats facilities as a back-office cost line instead of a load-bearing operating decision; defers to broker recommendations without challenging the operating-model fit.
The External Player Network (Buyer-Side)
The internal team runs the function day to day. The external player network is what levels the asymmetric-field disadvantage at the moment of every transaction.
The Real Estate Players page maps the industry side — who works in real estate professionally. This page's external network is the inverse: the team a non-real-estate operator assembles to make good facilities decisions.
The repeat-player landlord has all of these on retainer. The one-shot amateur tenant tries to do without. The fix is to assemble the team before the first viewing.
| Role | What they do for the operator | Asymmetry they close | Cost model | Relationship test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tenant rep broker (not the landlord's broker) | Represent your interests in search and negotiation | Market data, lease terms, comparable rents | Usually paid by landlord — check incentives | Will they walk you away from a bad deal? |
| Commercial property lawyer | Read the lease, negotiate terms, flag hidden risks | Legalese designed to favour landlords | Fixed fee or hourly — get quote first | Have they negotiated leases for businesses your size and sector? |
| Independent commercial valuer | Validate rent vs market, advise on purchase price | Pricing opacity | Fixed fee per valuation | Are they on the landlord's panel? (conflict check) |
| Quantity surveyor / fit-out estimator | Cost the fit-out before you commit to the space | Fit-out cost blowouts | Fixed fee | Have they done fit-outs for your sector? |
| Commercial finance broker / banker | Structure debt for purchase or fit-out cashflow | Loan terms, covenants | Commission or fee | Will they show 3+ lender options? |
| Town planner / consenting expert | Confirm zoning, change-of-use, signage | Planning rules | Hourly | Have they worked with your council? |
| Commercial insurance broker | Place required cover, advise on business-interruption | Insurance terms | Commission | Will they reduce cover where the landlord over-asks? |
| Accountant with CRE experience | Lease vs buy modelling, depreciation, tax treatment | Tax / accounting impact | Hourly or fixed | Have they done lease-vs-buy for similar businesses? |
| Existing tenants in target buildings | Ground truth on landlord behaviour, hidden costs | Landlord reputation | Coffee | Will they tell you the truth about their landlord? |
| Other operators in your sector | What rent levels are actually being paid (asking rents lie) | Real market rate vs published rate | Reciprocity | Are they competing for the same site? |
| Local council economic development | Incentives, grants, change-of-use support | Government leverage | Free | Do they have a real program or just a website? |
| Workplace strategist / interior designer | Right-size m² to operating model (often 20–40% less than broker estimate) | Headcount density vs space spec | Fixed fee | Will they push for less space if that is right? |
The Assembly Discipline
The asymmetric-field principle says: assemble the network before you need it. That principle has three operational tests for this function.
- Have at least one trusted name for each external role before the next W5 trigger fires. Building the network during a deal = paying premium fees under time pressure with no comparables.
- The asymmetry hack — coffee not retainers. Most relationships in this network are formed and maintained at zero cost. The lawyer, the QS, the workplace strategist, the peer operators — all available for a coffee at low frequency, and willing because the next deal might land their way.
- The cheapest version of the network that works. For a small business, three or four deep relationships beats twelve thin ones. One excellent tenant rep + one excellent commercial lawyer + one trusted QS + one peer operator who'll tell you the truth — that quartet handles 80% of the asymmetry-closing job. Add the rest as the function scales.
Role Evolution as the Business Scales
The internal team thickens as the property footprint grows.
- Seed (1–10 FTE, single location): No internal Facilities role. Founder owns Head of Facilities accountability. External network is the entire team — lawyer + tenant rep + QS as a minimum.
- Growth (10–50 FTE, 1–3 locations): Head of Facilities accountability sits with COO or Ops Manager. Building Coordinator appears (often as a 0.3 FTE allocation to the office manager). External network is institutionalised — named lawyer, named tenant rep, recurring workplace strategist.
- Scale (50+ FTE, portfolio): Dedicated Head of Facilities. Building Coordinator full-time. External network is documented in a counterparty database. AI agents do the volume work; humans hold the relationships and the judgment.
Add internal positions when a Performance gauge starts breaking. Add external network relationships before the next workflow trigger fires.