Job summary
- Main area
- IT
- Grade
- Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 025-AC215-0925
- Employer
- Digital Health and Care Wales
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Hybrid working
- Town
- Cardiff
- Salary
- £65,424 - £76,021 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 30/09/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Service Owner
Band 8b
Digital Health and Care Wales is an ambitious organisation created by Welsh Government to lead on the digital transformation of health and care. It builds on the digital architecture and national services put in place by the NHS Wales Informatics Service over the past decade.
The organisation will lead on large-scale developments that make a significant difference to the people of Wales as well as to health and care professionals, such as expansion of the digital patient record and the creation of a National Data Resource. It will improve the way data is collected, shared and used. Please check your email account regularly. Successful applicants will receive all recruitment related correspondence via the email account registered on the application form.
All applicants are invited to apply in Welsh, any application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application made in English.
Job overview
We are looking for an exceptional Product and Digital Leader to join the Primary Care, Community and Mental Health Directorate at Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW), the digital delivery organisation of NHS Wales.
This is a unique opportunity to shape how digital services support the shift from secondary care to primary, community and preventative care. You will lead a portfolio of products across Pharmacy, Dental and Optometry, bringing them together into coherent, user-centred services that transform how patients, clinicians and staff experience NHS care.
As Service Owner, you will take responsibility for the end-to-end lifecycle of your service: from discovery and design, through delivery and continuous improvement. You will own the vision, strategy and outcomes, aligning technology, operations, process and policy to ensure services are safe, effective and sustainable.
Main duties of the job
What you will do
• Lead product teams: manage a portfolio view, aligning multiple products and channels into a joined-up service.
• Own and represent your service: accountable for quality, benefits and performance, making sure it meets user needs and NHS priorities.
• Work in the open with senior stakeholders: represent your service at the highest levels across NHS Wales, Welsh Government and the wider UK health system.
• Mentor and advise: act as a trusted product and service leader, building capability across teams.
• Grow the Service Owner community: share best practice and help embed a product-led culture across DHCW.
Working for our organisation
Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) is an expert national body and part of NHS Wales. We work in partnership with NHS Wales colleagues and other key stakeholders to provide national digital and data services which support the delivery of health and social care in Wales. Modern health and care services depend on good digital tools, data and information. DHCW runs or works with more than 100 services and delivers major national digital transformation programmes to support this. In addition, DHCW provides expert advice in relation to cyber security and information governance. We give frontline staff the digital tools which help them provide safer and more efficient care. We are also giving patients and the public digital tools to better manage their own health and wellbeing, empowering people to live healthier lives. We put people at the heart of what we do, working to the highest standards to deliver quality and make digital a force for good in health and care.
Working for DHCW offers lots of employee benefits, including flexible working, a competitive salary, 28 days of annual leave plus Bank Holidays and opportunities for career development. We are committed to recognising and celebrating our staff as the most valuable part of our organisation.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Why this role?
This is not project or programme management. It is service leadership: you will own outcomes, not schedules; lead empowered teams, not task lists; and focus on solving real problems for users, not just delivering features.
If you’re an experienced Product Leader in the private sector looking to apply your skills to public impact, or you have Service Owner/Product leadership experience in government digital, this is a chance to shape one of the most impactful digital portfolios in NHS Wales — working at the intersection of healthcare, policy, and technology, in a culture that values openness, learning, and continuous improvement.
Person specification
Qualifications and/or Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Educated to Master’s degree or equivalent in associated professional field
- Evidence of continuing professional development
- Expert knowledge and experience of Service Ownership and Product Management in an IT/digital environment; managing large and complex services
- Expert knowledge and experience of the Agile tools and techniques to deliver large-scale programmes, services, and products, as well as financial, legal, and technical issues related to delivering at scale.
- Detailed knowledge and understanding of complex/ transformational change and of change management theory and processes
Desirable criteria
- Welsh Language Skills are desirable level 1, or above, in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing in Welsh.
- Specialist Knowledge of NHS and or local authority policies, strategies, and governance processes.
- Specialist Knowledge of NHS or other public sector planning, capital, and management processes.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Delivering high quality digital products and services that meet the service standards and are best in class for meeting users’ raised expectations of technology whilst taking responsibility for legacy technology in the service area, and tackling the risks associated with it
- Substantial experience of managing / leading teams to deliver project objectives on-time and on-budget
- Creating and communicating a compelling service vision and roadmap ensuring the right balance of meeting business/user objectives and managing technical risk
- Representing a service area to board-level officials and senior stakeholders, using information from diverse user, commercial and service sources.
- Embedding digital culture with your stakeholders, the organisation, and the wider NHS Wales
- Experience of dealing with major IT private sector providers in delivering major IT projects and solutions
Skills and attributes
Essential criteria
- Outcome-focused - balancing the needs of competing stakeholders, with a highly developed sense of customer awareness, ensuring that services are valuable and effective for the organisation.
- Excellent communication skills and interpersonal skills, when dealing with highly complex and sensitive information to a wide range of stakeholders across organisational boundaries, and excellent presentation, negotiation, and facilitation skills.
- Adept at finding ways of solving or pre-empting problems
- Excellent organisational, judgement, analysis, and decision-making skills on extremely complicated problems
- Able to operate effectively in a changing environment.
- Leadership and development of high performing multidisciplinary teams that use service design and user-centred, data-driven, cloud based delivery practices.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
Welsh language skills are desirable
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Marged Cother
- Job title
- Deputy Director for Primary Care
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
Joshua Hunt
Head of Agile Delivery (Community and Mental Health)
Caroline Busby
Head of Agile (Primary Care)
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