Job vacancy: P23 Cost Lead, NHS England, Leeds

Job summary

Main area: Estates & Facilities
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 8c
Contract: Fixed term: 8 months (Secondment only for current NHS employees (Until 31st October 2026))
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 990-FIN-19606-E

Employer: NHS England
Employer type: NHS
Site: Any NHSE office base
Town: Leeds
Salary: £76,965 - £88,682 Per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 19/02/2026 23:59

P23 Cost Lead

NHS AfC: Band 8c

Our Organisation

The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.

As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.

As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and waste.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in-person.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

Application Form Supporting Statement Guidelines

We would like you to respond to the following questions in the Supporting Statement section in the job application form:

· What values, behaviours and leadership expertise will you bring to our team and how will this help us in achieving our goals?

· How does this role fit with your career so far and your long-term career aspirations?

· What sets you apart from the other candidates?

· Give an example of a commercial issue you had to resolve and what made it challenging?

· Give an example of a great team working experience and you style of leadership?

· What work achievement are you most proud of and why?

Key Functional Responsibilities

Operational requirements

· Provides expert support on commercial matters with suppliers and services in respect of the ProCure framework to maximise the commercial benefit from the framework and other work areas within the remit of the capital/commercial team. Leads on specific identified agreed programmes.

· Working within the overall strategic objectives, devise, implement and monitor the strategy. Evaluate, interpret and locally implement best practice.

· Develop and implement qualitative and quantitative measures to determine performance against the organisational strategy. Report progress against the strategy through personal representation at senior management forums and by written reports. Tailoring delivery to meet the needs of the audience.

· Personally lead, support and contribute to formal negotiations with senior level internal and external stakeholders, providing a high level of negotiating expertise to secure the most advantageous arrangements.

Key Working Relationships

· Participate in relevant internal and external working groups/projects, services and initiatives to provide project, information and analytical advice and expertise.

Present verbal, written and numerical information and issues, explaining complexities, to a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

Secondments

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

Person specification

Knowledge/Qualification

Essential criteria

Educated to masters level or equivalent.
Excellent knowledge and practice of working to leading Commercial principles, processes and practices.
Strong stakeholder engagement ideally in both NHS England and Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC), and across wider Government including Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Services.
Knowledge of design and construction efficiency techniques, such as repeatability, standardisation, net zero and modern methods of construction.

Skills & Experience

Essential criteria

Capability and skill to collaboratively engage within NHSE, DHSC and across wider Government including Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Services.
Recognises commercial sensitivities and keeps appropriate confidences
Competent and confident with public presentation and speaking on a national level and chairing a number of ProCure 23 working groups to drive value added benefits and best practise to the NHSE ProCure Framework.

Values & Behaviours

Essential criteria

Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves , respects and learns from the contribution of others.
Demonstrable commitment to partnership working with a range of external organisations.

Our commitments to you

We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better patient outcomes. We strive to ensure our people feel trusted, valued and empowered. We’re passionate about nurturing and developing people. When you join us, we want you to grow and excel, and we offer many opportunities for you to do that. We welcome your talent and enthusiasm irrespective of age, disability, neuro-divergence, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have policies and procedures to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability and/or who are neuro-divergent.

We welcome applications from disabled candidates. If you meet all the essential criteria, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. Whilst we appreciate that you may have had support with your application (e.g., using AI technology or guidance from a trusted individual), it’s important that the information contained within your application reflects your own knowledge, skill, and experience and we trust that you apply on that basis.

If applying for this role on a secondment basis, please make sure you have obtained prior agreement from your current line manager to apply for this position.

Please note that we currently do not accept applications via recruitment agencies.

Please note that we cannot offer visa sponsorship for any of our vacancies.

To comply with the HM Government Functional Standard GovS 007, and specifically the Personnel Security Standards 2024, individuals employed or contracted by NHS England may be required to undergo a Baseline Personnel Security Standards check, dependent on the role.

The NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for the processing of your application; a privacy notice can be accessed directly on the application page when you select to apply.

If you have applied via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any emails sent to us via NHS Jobs. If you have a query relating to your application, please contact the recruitment team on [email protected] or 0300 330 1369.

NHS England