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Australia relies on Facilities Managers to operate complex, valuable and increasingly demanding assets. Yet the workforce is ageing, formal training numbers remain relatively small, and for many people Facilities Management is still a career they discover rather than one they deliberately pursue.
A recent search of SEEK in Perth returned 767 jobs under Facilities Manager and 2,652 under Operations Manager.
Job-board search results are not the same as individual vacancies. They capture related positions and overlapping terminology. But they provide a useful snapshot of just how much demand exists for people capable of operating buildings, facilities and organisations.
The demand itself is hardly surprising.
The contemporary Facilities Manager can carry responsibility for building operations, maintenance, contractors, procurement, essential services, statutory compliance, safety, budgets, energy, sustainability, customer experience and capital works.
Increasingly, they are also being asked to contribute to asset strategy, lifecycle planning, technology, ESG objectives, NABERS performance and the transition towards more efficient buildings.
But there is another side to the story.
Australia has approximately 19,400 Facilities Managers, according to Jobs and Skills Australia. Their median age is 48, compared with 40 across all occupations, and the occupation remains heavily male at 76.8%. [jobsandskills.gov.au]
That raises a much bigger question than how we fill today’s vacancies:
Where are Australia’s next Facilities Managers coming from, and are we actually building a profession people aspire to join?
Facilities Management is often a career people find
Ask a room of Facilities Managers how they entered the profession and you are likely to hear a broad range of answers.
There is no single pathway.
Some come through engineering or building services. Others through trades, construction, property, maintenance, security, cleaning, project management or general operations.
My own journey wasn’t particularly conventional either.
I originally completed a degree in Sports Management, left that industry, gained consulting experience and subsequently returned to operational and facilities roles. I eventually moved back into consulting and advisory work and today, through Helm, once again find myself working closely with Facilities Managers and asset owners.
I certainly didn’t leave university with a plan to build a career in Facilities Management.
In retail property in particular, I have seen cleaning and security supervisors seek opportunities to advance into broader facilities roles.
The people who succeed are often practical, hands-on and resourceful. They know the property. They understand contractors. They can communicate with tenants and customers. They’re comfortable solving problems and, importantly, they’re prepared to take responsibility.
Given an opportunity and the right support, some become excellent Facilities Managers.
There is nothing wrong with this pathway.
In fact, the diversity of backgrounds within FM is probably one of the industry’s strengths.
The problem is that this development often happens by opportunity rather than by design.
And that raises an uncomfortable question.
If we genuinely value Facilities Management as a profession, why are so few people deliberately setting out to become Facilities Managers?
Are we looking at the wrong problem?
The property industry regularly talks about the difficulty of finding good Facilities Managers.
Perhaps we need to turn that question around.
Rather than asking where we can find good Facilities Managers, should asset owners and employers be asking how we create them?
For many organisations, Facilities Management remains something that an asset simply has to have.
Someone has to look after the building.
Someone has to manage the contractors.
Someone needs to review the invoices, keep the compliance records current, address maintenance issues, respond to complaints and deal with whatever failed overnight.
As a consequence, the FM position can become viewed as a necessary operational cost, rather than a role capable of contributing directly to the performance of the asset.
That distinction matters.
Because the responsibilities placed upon Facilities Managers have evolved enormously.
The way we structure, resource and develop the role arguably hasn’t always evolved at the same rate.
A good FM does far more than keep the building running
Consider the information available to a capable Facilities Manager.
They know which assets repeatedly fail.
They know where money is being spent.
They know which contractors are performing and which ones aren’t.
They know where maintenance has been deferred.
They see which recurring problems are actually symptoms of larger asset issues.
They understand how occupants use the building.
They often know which capital projects are genuinely necessary and which ones can wait.
They can see the relationship between maintenance practices, energy consumption, building performance, tenant experience and lifecycle expenditure.
And increasingly, that knowledge is relevant to NABERS performance, decarbonisation strategies, lifecycle planning, capital forecasting and asset investment decisions.
That is valuable intelligence.
Yet in some organisations the FM only becomes involved after many of the important asset decisions have already been made.
A capital plan prepared without meaningful operational input can miss the practical reality of the asset.
A sustainability strategy disconnected from operations can become difficult to implement.
A procurement model focused principally on cost can create operational consequences that only become apparent later.
There is an enormous difference between asking a Facilities Manager to maintain an asset and enabling them to help improve its performance.
The training pathway exists, but it remains small
Australia does have a dedicated formal FM qualification.
The Diploma of Facilities Management was developed through UNE Partnerships in collaboration with the Facility Management Association of Australia. Its curriculum extends well beyond maintenance and covers areas including lifecycle programs, sustainability, risk and safety, budgeting, procurement, stakeholder relationships, leadership and operational management. [unep.edu.au], [unep.edu.au]
The current dedicated qualification is 11477NAT Diploma of Facilities Management, replacing 10938NAT, whose accreditation ended on 30 September 2026. [https://tr…s/10938NAT], [https://tr…s/10938NAT]
The current course is delivered online, can take up to two years and is priced at $6,990, with discounts available to members of several FM industry associations. [unep.edu.au]
That is encouraging.
The scale of the formal pipeline, however, deserves attention.
According to the Jobs and Skills Atlas, 240 people were enrolled in 10938NAT in 2025 and 38 completions were recorded that year. [jobsandskills.gov.au]
Those figures shouldn’t be interpreted as 38 new FMs entering the workforce.
Many people undertake the qualification while already working in the profession, and enrolments cannot sensibly be compared directly with same-year completions where a qualification takes considerable time to complete.
Nor does everyone entering FM undertake an FM-specific qualification.
But against a national workforce of approximately 19,400 Facilities Managers, the figures illustrate something important:
The dedicated formal education pipeline into Facilities Management remains relatively small.
That puts even greater importance on what occurs inside the workplace.
The qualification cannot do it alone
Professionalising Facilities Management cannot simply mean requiring people to earn another qualification.
A course provides knowledge.
A workplace builds experience.
An experienced FM learns from buildings, contractors, projects, incidents, budgets, customers and, inevitably, mistakes.
What matters is whether those experiences are supported by an organisation that deliberately develops the individual.
A meaningful FM career pathway might look something like this:
Enter
Create pathways through coordinator, assistant FM and junior operational roles, including deliberate opportunities for capable people coming from adjacent fields such as security, cleaning, maintenance, trades, hospitality and property.
Learn
Support formal education, FM-specific training and continuing professional development.
FMA already offers options including FM 101, risk and compliance education and other professional-development activities. [fma.com.au]
Education should be seen as an investment in asset capability, rather than something practitioners are expected to undertake entirely in their own time and at their own expense.
Operate
Give Facilities Managers genuine accountability.
But accountability also needs to be accompanied by authority, resources and organisational support.
Calling somebody a manager while restricting their ability to influence budgets, contractors, asset decisions or operational strategy does little to develop management capability.
Lead
Expose experienced Facilities Managers to lifecycle planning, capital works, sustainability, procurement strategy, financial planning and leadership.
This is often the point at which a technically strong operator begins developing into a broader asset leader.
Influence
Bring operational knowledge into asset strategy.
The strongest Facilities Managers should not sit outside conversations about lifecycle, capital investment, sustainability and asset performance.
They should be contributing to them.
Asset owners have a responsibility here
There is a tendency to view professionalisation as the responsibility of the practitioner or the industry association.
Get a qualification.
Attend a conference.
Join an association.
Complete some CPD.
Network.
All of those things matter.
But an employer ultimately determines the scope, authority, resources and development opportunities attached to an FM position.
If we want more strategic Facilities Managers, we need to give Facilities Managers exposure to strategy.
If we want commercially capable Facilities Managers, we need to expose them to budgets, procurement and investment decisions.
If we want FMs thinking about lifecycle outcomes, we need to involve them in lifecycle and capital planning.
And if we want talented people to deliberately choose Facilities Management as a career, the role needs to look like one capable of taking them somewhere.
That means showing a career beyond simply managing increasingly complicated buildings.
Assistant FM → Facilities Manager → Senior FM → Operations/Asset Manager → Portfolio or Regional Leadership → Head of Operations/Property/Assets
The exact titles will vary.
What matters is that people can see the next step.
We also need to value what good looks like
One of the peculiar characteristics of Facilities Management is that operational excellence can be almost invisible.
The building opens.
The air conditioning works.
The contractor arrives.
The lift runs.
The compliance record is current.
The lights stay on.
The emergency systems are tested.
The customer goes about their day.
Nothing appears to have happened.
That is often precisely because somebody made sure it didn’t.
When Facilities Management works well, there may be very little drama.
When something fails, everybody notices.
That dynamic can make the contribution of FM difficult to articulate, particularly to an organisation primarily focused on revenue, investment, leasing, capital transactions or development.
Perhaps one component of elevating the profession is simply getting better at demonstrating what successful FM actually contributes.
Not just cost avoided, but value created.
Not just compliance maintained, but risk actively managed.
Not just maintenance completed, but asset life extended.
Not just energy bills paid, but performance improved.
Not simply buildings operated, but assets enhanced.
Mentoring may be as important as training
There is another form of professional development that is harder to put into a course curriculum.
Talking to somebody who has dealt with the problem before.
An experienced Facilities Manager has often spent decades accumulating knowledge that is difficult to document.
They know what worked.
They know what didn’t.
They recognise warning signs.
They understand the practical difference between a problem that can wait until Monday and one requiring action immediately.
And they have probably made some mistakes along the way.
That knowledge has significant value to the people coming behind them.
Internationally, IFMA formalises this through Mentor Match, a structured nine-month one-to-one mentoring program for FM professionals. [pages.ifma.org]
IFMA also operates more than 120 chapters along with industry councils and communities of practice that provide opportunities for facilities professionals to connect around geography and areas of expertise. [ifma.org]
Here in Australia, FMA provides education, conferences, professional development, awards, site visits, networking and state-based activities, and has represented the Australian FM industry since 1988. [fma.com.au], [linkedin.com]
All of this contributes to professionalisation.
But there may also be room for something much less formal.
Sometimes you just need another FM to talk to
A few years ago I ran a series of informal FM Sundowners in Perth.
They continued for around 18 to 24 months, before my own career moved away from the profession.
There wasn’t an elaborate program.
There were no presentations.
There wasn’t somebody standing at the front of the room telling everyone how Facilities Management should be done.
The point was simply to put Facilities Managers in a room with other Facilities Managers.
People talked about projects they were working on. Contractors. Difficult building issues. Career challenges. Things that had succeeded. Things that hadn’t.
Sometimes it was an opportunity to ask:
“I’m dealing with this at the moment. Has anyone else been through it?”
That sort of conversation can be remarkably valuable.
Facilities Management can also be an isolating occupation.
Often there is only one person within an organisation or at an asset carrying a particular problem.
The cleaner, security contractor, engineer, property manager, tenant and owner may all be looking to the FM for the answer.
Sometimes the useful thing isn’t another technical course.
It’s having another FM to call.
Perhaps it is time to bring the FM Sundowner back
Today, through Helm, I find myself back working with Facilities Managers and asset owners, although from a different perspective.
And many of the underlying challenges haven’t really changed.
If anything, the expectations placed on FM have increased.
Buildings are becoming more technologically complex.
Energy and sustainability targets continue to grow.
Compliance obligations remain substantial.
Operating costs are under constant scrutiny.
Capital increasingly needs to be prioritised against long-term asset strategies.
And owners rightly expect more from their assets.
That means we should expect more from Facilities Management.
But correspondingly, perhaps Facilities Managers should also expect more from us.
More support.
More professional development.
More exposure to asset strategy.
More authority appropriate to their accountability.
More deliberate career pathways.
And greater recognition of the role they can play in protecting and enhancing asset value.
The opportunity is bigger than filling vacancies
The question facing the industry isn’t simply:
Where will we find our next Facilities Managers?
It is:
What are we doing to make talented people want to become one?
There is already considerable capability inside the FM community.
There are also capable people working in security, cleaning, maintenance, engineering, trades, property and operational roles who could become the next generation of outstanding Facilities Managers if we give them the pathway and opportunity.
The challenge for asset owners and employers is to create an environment that allows that capability to develop.
Enhance the role.
Resource it properly.
Develop the people.
Give them exposure beyond reactive operations.
Create the pathway.
Value the profession.
Because ultimately, better Facilities Managers should lead to better operated assets.
And better operated assets should deliver better outcomes for owners, occupiers and the communities that use them.
One small place to start
For us, perhaps that means bringing back the Perth FM Sundowner.
Not another industry conference.
Not a sales event.
Just FMs talking to FMs.
A regular, informal and supportive place for Facilities Managers to talk openly with people facing similar challenges.
If there is enough interest from the Perth FM community, I’m happy to get the first one back on the calendar in the new year.
I’d be interested to hear from people working across Facilities Management, operations and property:
How did you get into Facilities Management?
Was it a career you deliberately chose, or one you found?
And what would make the profession stronger for the people coming behind you?
Matt Holmes is co-founder and CEO of Helm Asset Advisory, an independent owner-side property and asset advisory practice based in Perth. Helm works with asset owners and operational teams across asset strategy, lifecycle and capital planning, project delivery and operational performance.
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