Job overview

We are seeking an exceptional senior leader to join NHS England as Deputy Regional Director (People & Culture). This pivotal role will shape and drive the people, culture and talent agenda across our systems ensuring our workforce has the skills, support and environment needed to deliver compassionate, high‑quality care. You will lead one of our two system facing people teams. 

As a key member of the regional Workforce, Training and Education senior leadership team, you will translate the national People Strategy into effective system-wide delivery, providing expert oversight on culture, organisational development, HR professionals talent management, and workforce improvement programmes. You will lead a multidisciplinary team, build strong relationships with providers, and national partners, and ensure best practice in areas including EDI, staff experience, people professional transformation and pay and reward governance

We are looking for a highly credible and inclusive leader with Board‑level NHS experience or equivalent, exceptional influencing skills, and a strong track record of delivering transformational change. You will role‑model NHS values, champion diversity, and bring strategic insight, resilience, and political acumen to a complex and fast‑moving environment.

Main duties of the job

• Lead one of the regional People system-facing teams to deliver our People and Education Strategy.
• Provide assurance and oversight for pay, reward, governance and delivery of people and culture priorities.
• Drive culture, organisational development and workforce improvement across systems and providers.
• Oversee key programmes including EDI, staff experience, talent, leadership, and people profession transformation.
• Build strong relationships with system leaders, providers and national partners to support improvement.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team, creating an inclusive, high‑performing culture.

Working for our organisation

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

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.

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department. 

If you currently work within the NHS and 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 process.

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

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