Job summary
- Main area
- IT / Digital Directorate DT&I
- Grade
- Band 8d
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 196-ITCS155
- Employer
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Education Centre
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £99,808 - £113,803 p.a inc. HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Head of Service Management
Band 8d
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
The Head of Service Management is a pivotal leadership role at GSTT, responsible for driving excellence across ITSM, and IT Training. You will be responsible for shaping strategy, improving service performance, and modernising how digital services are delivered across one of the UK’s most complex healthcare environments.
To succeed, you’ll need to bring deep service management expertise, strong commercial acumen, and the ability to lead transformation at scale. You’ll be a cultural leader as much as a strategic one—building high-performing teams, influencing senior stakeholders, and embedding innovation, automation, and continuous improvement into every layer of service delivery.
You will be joining a leadership team that is bold in ambition. I am a dynamic and transformational leader, driving GSTT toward the highest standards of digital delivery in the NHS and beyond. This role offers the freedom to shape strategy, deliver real impact, and set a national benchmark for operational excellence. If you want a role where you can build, transform, and leave a legacy—this is it.
This is more than a job. It’s a mandate to modernise, to innovate, and to lead. Are you ready to set a new national benchmark for digital service excellence?
Main duties of the job
As Head of Service Management, you will:
- Lead the development, implementation, and maintenance of the service management strategy.
- Oversee IT Training and all Service Management disciplines.
- Manage large and complex third-party and outsourcing arrangements.
- Act as Senior Responsible Officer for major technology-led programmes.
- Drive operational performance, ensuring services are fit for purpose and aligned with Trust requirements.
- Develop and embed benchmarks and metrics for continuous improvement.
- Build and maintain strategic relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Lead, motivate, and develop high-performing teams, fostering a culture of excellence and inclusivity.
Key skills and qualities sought:
- Extensive senior leadership experience in large, complex environments.
- Deep expertise in service management, strategic planning, and transformation.
- Strong commercial acumen and negotiation skills.
- Highly developed communication, influencing, and leadership abilities.
- Ability to analyse complex data, drive performance, and deliver innovation.
- Commitment to Trust values: Caring, Ambitious, Inclusive.
Working for our organisation
You’ll join a dynamic, forward-thinking team within the DT&I Directorate, working alongside technical and service delivery experts who are passionate about enabling patient-facing colleagues and delivering outstanding digital services. The team culture is collaborative, supportive, and driven by a shared commitment to continuous improvement and innovation. You’ll benefit from a positive, inclusive atmosphere where professional development is encouraged, and your contributions are valued. The Trust is committed to flexible working, equality, diversity, and supporting staff wellbeing. You’ll have the opportunity to work across multiple sites and with partner organisations, contributing to a culture that puts patients first and values every team member’s input.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key responsibilities include:
- Deputising for the Director of Information Technology as required.
- Developing and delivering the Service Management strategy, aligned with Enterprise Technology Strategy.
- Leading Trust-wide strategic programmes and initiatives.
- Overseeing policy development, governance, and performance reporting.
- Managing budgets (circa £8–10m revenue, 70 WTE staff) and capital investment for service improvement.
- Building effective relationships with Clinical Directors, General Managers, Heads of Nursing, and corporate leads.
- Managing direct reports: Service Management Leads
- Representing the Trust at national and sector-wide forums.
- Driving cultural and process change, embedding continuous improvement.
- Ensuring robust financial management and delivering value for money.
- Promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion across the directorate.
Key relationships:
- Internal: Director of Information Technology, Clinical Directors, General Managers, Heads of Nursing, Corporate leads, DT&I senior leadership, and Trust Senior Leadership.
- External: NHS Digital, NHS England, partner Trusts, professional networks, third-party suppliers, and clinical influencing networks.
Person specification
Qualifications/ Education
Essential criteria
- Master’s degree, and additional in-depth professional training and knowledge of financial management, performance management, transformation and service improvement, to doctorate or equivalent level, acquired through training and experienced over an extended period
- Formal qualification in a Technology or Services discipline
- Evidence of continued professional and managerial development
Desirable criteria
- MBA qualification, or equivalent professional qualification or experience
Knowledge and Experience
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience of leadership and achievement at a senior level in a relevant field in a large, complex environment.
- Extensive, in-depth experience of formulating long term, organisation-wide strategic plans and development of projects resulting in positive value for money outcomes, adjusting plans and strategies in anticipation of complex environmental and political changes
- Extensive experience of delivering successful transformation in operational services and implementing innovation in practice.
- Excellent in-depth understanding and specialist knowledge of improvement methodology, tools and techniques
- Highly developed communication skills, with ability to communicate highly complex and sensitive information where barriers to understanding and acceptance exist and exceptional influencing skills are required.
- Highly developed leadership skills with the ability to enthuse, motivate and involve individuals and teams, and have them understand the Trust-wide and local performance expectations.
Skills & abilities
Essential criteria
- Track record of effective engagement and partnership working with senior internal and external stakeholders. Highly developed negotiating skills within complex, challenging and at times antagonistic environments.
- Ability to analyse, synthesise and interpret highly complex data, filtering and interpreting often conflicting information to develop Trust-wide policy
- Intellectual flexibility with the ability to cut through ambiguity and complexity and to shape and implement a vision that looks beyond existing structures, ways of working, boundaries and organisations to produce more effective and innovative service delivery models.
- Independent self-starter, able to work with a very high level of autonomy
- Flexible and resilient approach, able to work under pressure
- Team player, able to motivate and inspire
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Omar Perreira White
- Job title
- IT Director DT&I
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- +44 7756502922
If you have problems applying, contact
- Address
-
Yasamin Omary
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