Job vacancy: Head of Hospital Operations, NHS England, National

Job summary

Main area: Hospital Operations
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 8d
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 990-NHP-EC862-E

Employer: NHS England
Employer type: NHS
Site: Any NHS England Office base
Town: National
Salary: £91,342 - £105,337 per annum (exclusive of London Weighting)
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 01/04/2026 23:59

Head of Hospital 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, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

For more information on the NHP programme

Due to ongoing organisational change and developments, aspects of this role may be subject to change.

By applying for this position, you acknowledge and understand that NHS England is currently undergoing a consultation process to finalise its structure, which may impact this role.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Educated to master’s level or equivalent experience in specialist field.
Project management or leadership qualification
Evidence of continuing professional development

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Experience of working at a senior operational management level within an acute healthcare environment
Experience at senior operational level of leading an organisation through a large-scale new hospital build including operational readiness planning, commissioning, activation, decommissioning and post occupancy evaluation
Subject matter expertise across several key areas relating to operational management and leadership within acute healthcare environments
Significant knowledge and understanding gained through experience of: - Problem solving - Change management - Quality Improvement - Stakeholder management and communications - Risk management and issue resolution - Experience of service redesign and development
Experience of delivering against competing priorities and deadlines while also directing the work of teams/individuals
Experience of a range of management disciplines, including some of the following - finance, people management, risk management and performance management
Experience of critically analysing service level business cases

Desirable criteria

Experience of participating in a formal assurance process, either as an assurer or being assured i.e., IPA or CQC
Experience of writing and/or critically appraising capital project business cases: SOC, OBC, FBC

Skills

Essential criteria

Negotiate on difficult and very complex and detailed issues
Strategic thinking – ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise
Takes decisions on difficult and contentious issues where there may be several courses of action
Highly developed communication and facilitation skills

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