Job vacancy: Head of ICT Function (Infrastructure Operations), NHS England, Leeds/ London/Exeter

Job summary

Main area

Cloud Technology

Grade

NHS AfC: Band 8d

Contract

Fixed term: 12 months (Secondment only for current NHS employees) (Contract ends on 31/10/2026)

Hours

Full time
Flexible working

37.5 hours per week

Job ref

990-TD-IT-15106-E

Employer: NHS England
Employer type: NHS
Site: Wellington Place/Wellington House/ Hexagon House
Town: Leeds/ London/Exeter
Salary: £96,822.52 - £111,657.22 Salary range includes RRP at 6%. (Excluding London Weighting)
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 12/10/2025 23:59

Head of ICT Function (Infrastructure Operations)

NHS AfC: Band 8d

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

You can find further details about the role, organisational structure, recruitment profile, expected outcomes and benefits information in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Please note that this is a fixed term contract as this is a short term vacancy.

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.

The post of Head of ICT Function has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 6% per annum.

Please be aware that RRP is non-contractual and subject to review.

To meet National Security Vetting requirements, SC clearances require 5 years continuous UK residency. In certain cases, this can be reduced to three years continuous UK residency, with additional overseas checks for the previous two years.

Candidates who were posted abroad for service with HM Government, Armed Forces or within a UK government role - will still be considered.

Please make sure you meet these requirements before applying for this role. You don’t need to have security clearance level already, however, failure to achieve the requirements for security clearance level after offer, will result in the job offer being withdrawn.’

For further advice please check https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels#security-check-sc.’

For further information on National Security Vetting please check National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK, information on the Security Vetting and Clearances Intranet page or contact [email protected].

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 & Experience

Essential criteria

Experience leading and building an engineering team within an Agile environment
Deep understanding of industry wide cloud technology strategies and best practice
Hands-on experience in building distributed / service oriented / microservice-style, composable and cloud-based architectures
Strong experience developing modern cloud architectures, working with container platforms, with a special focus on scalability, security and resilience
Experience with public cloud infrastructure and platforms, AWS and Azure

Skills - Leadership, People Management and Development

Essential criteria

Lead with care: provide a safe environment to enable others to do their work effectively
Engage the team: stretch them for excellence and encourage cooperation with the end goal of generating creative ideas
Hold to account: agree clear performance goals and targets, supporting individuals and teams to take responsibility for results but also challenging them to continually improve, creating a mindset for innovative change
Has set clear team objectives and priorities and monitors their achievement
Has championed individual and collective team development
Experienced in building the team’s capability to match changing delivery needs

Skills - Personal Attributes

Essential criteria

Works across boundaries, looks for collective success, listens, involves, respects and learns from the contribution of others
Actively develops themselves and others
Very strong leadership: able to motivate, inspire and lead groups of managers and staff towards corporate aims and objectives
Decisive with effective political and negotiation skills
Dynamic personality with the ability to build trusted stakeholder relationships and wide support networks
Highly analytical with a structured and methodical approach to problem solving and able to translate and interpret large amounts of data

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Masters or equivalent qualification, specifically in a computer, scientific or mathematical subject or equivalent experience
Evidence of specialist knowledge in Cloud and DevSecOps

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.

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 is attached to advise you on how we will process your personal data.

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. You can view our Privacy Notice here.

NHS England