Facilities Manager CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a facilities manager running a corporate portfolio of offices and a distribution site, with in-house technicians and contracted services. The name and employers are invented. If you manage a single building, a hospital or a manufacturing plant, keep the layout and change the numbers and the compliance list.

Facilities hiring managers are looking for someone who will keep the building running, keep the auditors and insurers happy and hold the budget. They read for four things.

• Portfolio size and type. Square footage, number of buildings, whether it is office, industrial, healthcare, education, lab or retail. Building types are not interchangeable; a lab or hospital has compliance a warehouse never sees.
• Whether you run a programme or answer the phone. PPM completion rate, backlog, mean time to repair. These separate a manager from a coordinator.
• Money. Operating budget, capital plan, variance against budget, contract savings, energy savings. Facilities is a cost centre, so managers who can show control get hired.
• Compliance record. Fire risk assessments and fire safety testing, lifts, water hygiene, gas and electrical testing, F-Gas records, health and safety. "No failed inspection since 2021" is worth more than any adjective.

“Give me square feet, sites, headcount and budget in the first three lines, then a PM completion number. If your CV says you "oversaw building operations and vendor relationships" and never says how big or how well, I cannot tell whether you ran a campus or a broom cupboard.”

There is no licence to be a facilities manager in the UK, so qualifications and professional membership are how the market signals seriousness. List the exact names and awarding bodies.

• IWFM (Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management), the UK professional body: regulated qualifications at several levels, from supervisor to senior manager, and membership grades that reflect experience. Name the qualification and level exactly.
• IFMA credentials such as the Facility Management Professional (FMP) and Certified Facility Manager (CFM) are also recognised, mainly by international and US-owned employers. BOMI designations are less common in the UK.
• Energy and sustainability: energy management training, working knowledge of Display Energy Certificates and EPCs, and LEED AP O+M or BREEAM In-Use experience if you manage existing buildings.
• Trade and safety: the NEBOSH National General Certificate or IOSH Managing Safely, an F-Gas certificate if you handle refrigerants, electrical safety training, First Aid at Work, and a trade qualification such as an NVQ Level 3 if you came off the tools.
• Project side: PRINCE2 or APM qualifications if you run capital projects, and an understanding of client duties under CDM 2015.
• Sector-specific: NHS and healthcare estates managers should name their experience with Health Technical Memoranda (HTMs) and supporting CQC inspections, since that is a different job market.

1. 1Start with the management verb: manages, owns, delivered, negotiated, rebuilt, reduced, coordinated.
2. 2Add the scale: square footage, sites, assets, staff, contractors, pounds.
3. 3Name the system or standard where it matters: your CAFM system, your building management system, the statutory testing regime, the regulator.
4. 4Add the result with a number: completion rate, backlog, downtime, cost per square foot, savings, inspection outcome.
5. 5Check the bullet answers "how big and how well". If it only answers "what", it is not finished.

Group them by what a hiring manager is buying: technical understanding, systems, money and people.

• Building systems: HVAC and chilled water, electrical distribution and emergency power, plumbing, fire protection, lifts, roofing and envelope, controls
• Programmes: planned preventive and predictive maintenance, asset management and lifecycle planning, backlog maintenance, condition surveys
• Software: CAFM and CMMS platforms such as Maximo, Corrigo, ServiceChannel, Fiix, Limble, Archibus, FM:Systems or Tririga, plus building management systems and space planning tools
• Compliance: fire risk assessments and fire safety testing, legionella control (L8), gas safety, fixed wiring testing (EICR), lift examinations (LOLER), F-Gas records, Equality Act accessibility, indoor air quality, emergency preparedness and drills
• Commercial: operating and capital budgeting, forecasting, cost per square foot, tenders and supplier sourcing, contract negotiation and service level management
• Projects: fit-outs, moves, refurbishments and equipment replacements as the client's representative, from scope through handover and defects period
• People: leading trades staff and contractors, scheduling shifts and on-call rotas, training and safety programmes

One thing worth saying in plain words: you are the person who takes the call at 2 am when a pipe bursts, and you know who to send. Give an example of an emergency you handled and what it cost or saved. It reads better than "strong problem-solving skills".

Most facilities managers came off the tools or out of a coordinator seat. The step up is proved by budget exposure, programme ownership and contractor management, so pull those out of your current job even if they are not in your title.

• Any budget you touched: purchase approvals up to a limit, invoice coding, quotes obtained, spares stock value.
• Any programme you built: the PPM schedule you set up, the asset list you cleaned, the compliance calendar you started.
• Contractors you managed: how many, what services, whether you scoped, scheduled or scored them.
• Projects you ran end to end, with value and outcome, even small ones such as a £50,000 roof section or a lighting retrofit.
• Cover periods when the manager was out, with how long and what you handled.
• Qualifications in progress. An IWFM qualification in progress with a completion date is worth stating.

• Two pages is standard in the UK; one page only if you are early in your career. A portfolio summary line for each job keeps a two-page CV readable.
• Single column, no graphics. Corporate facilities roles are almost always screened by a tracking system first.
• Adverts for this job also appear as facility manager, facilities supervisor, building manager, estates manager, site services manager, operations manager and head of facilities. Use the advert's exact title on your CV.
• Mirror the vocabulary: CAFM, PPM, reactive backlog, statutory compliance, lifecycle and capital planning, tender, service level agreement, fire risk assessment, L8, energy use intensity, soft services, hard services, TFM.
• No photo, no date of birth. US employers call the same document a resume and often expect one page for under ten years' experience; the content advice here still applies.
• State whether you are on call, willing to travel between sites, and how much. Multi-site roles filter on it.