Job summary
- Main area
- Medical Leadership
- Grade
- Medical Leader Level 2
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 10 sessions per week (40 hours)
- Job ref
- 990-SE-17847-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wellington House
- Town
- London (or South East Offices)
- Salary
- £135,000 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 15/10/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Regional Medical Director (South East)
Medical Leader Level 2
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.
Job overview
The Regional Chief Medical Officer will be a key role within the South East Regional team.
The Regional Chief Medical Officer is a key leadership role in the Regional health system, with responsibility, in conjunction with other leaders from across the professional spectrum, for delivery of high-quality clinical services for the Region’s population, in line with NHS and other governmental priorities. The prime aim is to secure ongoing improvement in clinical outcomes and the experience of care for the population.
The post holder will be a member of the senior Regional Executive Team, and will be accountable to the Regional Director, with professional accountability to the National Medical Director. There may be opportunities to undertake National work at the request of the National Medical Director. The post holder will provide professional and clinical leadership to regional and local networks of clinicians to support and drive change in collaboration with the Regional Chief Nurse.
Main duties of the job
- providing system leadership and clinical advice and ensuring system resilience with a focus on positive outcomes and overall quality and safety of patient care.
- overseeing clinical commissioning of specialist services, health and justice services and leading strategic medical input to primary care and public health service commissioning.
- regional surveillance and quality assurance of NHS healthcare providers.
- determining clinical support for trusts in National Oversight Framework (NOF) to ensure that trusts receive the necessary support to improve.
- oversight of professional standards systems and processes to ensure doctors are supported, fit to practice and are delivering high quality of care for patients.
- leading Clinical Senates, with responsibility for developing and overseeing implementation of senate work plans.
- providing clinical leadership to digital transformation to enhance patient care and to support self-directed care by patients.
This individual will drive and oversee implementation of system wide improvement bringing together multiple players in the NHS landscape to address both short term and longer-term issues surrounding patient care and safety. They will have the opportunity to effect significant transformation and improvement in health inequalities and outcomes for the people of the South East.
Working for our organisation
Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers.
Our staff bring expertise across hundreds of specialisms — including clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
We lead the NHS in England by:
- Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities
- Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential
- Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
- Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
- Delivering value for money
Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, leading to full integration. The aim is to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and eliminates waste.
If successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the recruitment process.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Medically qualified with current licence to practice
Experience and Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience at senior level working as a Board Director within an NHS organisation
- Good understanding of health system dynamics and policy
- Knowledge of best practice on quality in healthcare
- Credible professional knowledge, appreciation of complex healthcare systems and recognised as a clinical leader
- Significant experience of setting strategic direction that will have major and significant impact across a large-scale function
- Evidence of practical application of the professional regulatory framework and associated policies across a variety of complex situations
- Recent and relevant experience of effectively leading and managing teams of multi-disciplinary staff through contemporary smart working methods and achieving high levels of staff satisfaction
Skills, Abilities and Attributes
Essential criteria
- High degree of emotional intelligence, self-awareness and resilience
- Ability to work effectively between strategic and operational activities as required.
Values and Behaviours
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable commitment to and focus on quality, promotes high standards to consistently improve patient outcomes and seeks out innovation
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- James Watkins
- Job title
- Regional Chief of Staff
- Email address
- [email protected]
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