The household is beautiful old manor house with 16 acres of land that has recently renovated located in Oxfordshire near the Warwickshire border. The estate includes the main house, 3 flats, several outbuildings, swimming pond, both formal and naturalistic gardens, vegetable and cut flower production, glass house, pottery studio, wood shop, painting studio, drawing studio etc. It will also soon have animals.
The house serves a dual function as a private home and a place to host the principal’s retreats, guests and clients. The principal’s primary residence is in London so the focus is on weekends and holidays, though may also include some weekday use.
The principals are seeking to build a long term, dedicated and experienced team who can work flexibly. The family is a blended family, with children, grown children and two dogs. The family have a dynamic lifestyle with high standards for personal life and entertaining and have created their home not only as a showcase for their passions of art, nature and design but as a warm, comfortable and inviting sanctuary for busy lives. The
There is currently a garden team of 4 full time and 1 part time employees, who are managed by the Head Gardener who are working on establishing the gardens. The roles are supported by a wider team of PAs and an established family office.
Duties/responsibilities:
- Single point of contact for the principals for everything related to this home.
- Focus on keeping the household running smoothly with the help of a team and shifting priorities. Everyday movements within the household can be quite dynamic; sometimes only the child and nanny are in residence, sometimes the principal will be hosting a retreat or workshop for paying clients, sometimes they just want to have friends over, sometimes extended family is staying etc.
- Build a team and manage the other household staff, so that everyone knows what to do and the best is brought of our them – including and in addition to the house manager role – housekeepers, chef/cook.
- Manage freelancers, additional support staff and subcontractors as needed including – freelance cleaners, repair men, A/V consultants, lift maintenance, decorators, gardeners, plumber, dog walkers, florists, waiters/catering for events, storage facility, steam room specialist, sauna, hot tub, swimming pond maintenance, window washer, etc.
- Keep in good communication with the London house manager, the family office, the principal’s PAs, the principal’s driver and other people outside of the household. Make sure everyone in the household has clear understanding of the family’s and dogs’ movements to limit surprises.
- Oversee good care of the family’s animals – currently two small dogs but may include in future – horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, etc.
- Set up, organises and oversees all the organisational administration including house manual, inventories, details of supplies across the board aligned with storage spaces, maintenance schedules, packing lists, Ocado orders, etc. Keep excellent household records. Keep house manual up to date. Make sure the team follow the guidance within the house manual.
- Lead on house maintenance, organise repair and minor renovation. Get quotes, book in and oversee any repair or minor renovation works as needed (the house had a full gut renovation that completed in fall of 2026). Seek out best value for money with subcontractors and maintenance agreements.
- Recruit, trial and train other housekeepers on the team, manage their holiday requests and sick cover, bring out the best of each member of the team and act as their day-to-day manager with help from external HR consultant.
- Manage packing and unpacking to ensure the principals have everything they need for each trip. Coordinate the movement of items between the house, London and abroad as necessary.
- Manage a large wardrobe with help from the housekeepers. The principals have a lot of vintage clothes and seasonal wardrobes, with a high level of care for fashion.
- This household is very creative, highly aesthetic with strong attention to detail, both principals have their own businesses and offices out of the house but occasionally work from home.
- Main point of contact for all household purchases (outside of the nannies) including food, toiletries & sundries, cleaning products, wine, scented candles, animal care, any homewares that need replacing (approved by principal). Maintain good inventories and supplies across the board aligned with the storage spaces.
- Manage accounts for the household (in collaboration with Family Office team)
- Maintain a house full of valuable art and design objects, work closely with the principals’ art installers, restorers etc.
- Pitch in at the house when other members of staff are on holiday or sick
Our ideal candidate:
- Must be technology proficient. Keep the Wi-Fi and TVs working including troubleshooting AppleTV. Keep door entry system up to date, Lutron lighting and heating system digital interface etc.
- Must have a hands-on, collaborative attitude, ideally that has previous experience as a head housekeeper, and happy to be “in the trenches” with the other housekeepers.
- Must care or be willing to take instruction around health and sustainability – this household is organic and focused on being as sustainable as possible, this person needs to understand about reducing exposure to chemicals, sourcing products that are compostable/do not have forever chemicals, etc. and seeking the best ways forward to reduce waste. The estate is certified organic and the principals will continue to seek this certification.
- Caring about nature is a plus, as the whole property is designed with the notion of connection to nature and creativity.
- Must be very organised with high attention to detail, good at organising spaces so that everyone can easily find anything – clutter is reduced and nothing is purchased unless needed. Very important that the household is not wasteful.
- Proficient in Outlook, Excel, Dropbox, Word, Google Docs and other similar platforms.
Accommodation on-site provided.
Working days: Thursday to Monday (flexibility depending on the family’s movements)
Salary: £60-70,000GPA
REF: S&W#3616431
