Assistant DirectorNHS

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to join NHS England's national Elective Care Programme as an Assistant Director to provide senior strategic and operational leadership across one of the NHS's highest national priorities. Working as part of the leadership team, you will play a pivotal role in driving forward priority programmes and shaping the future of outpatient services.

The Assistant Director will lead the priority clinical pathways work for the Targeted Delivery team within the Elective Care Programme, focussing on the design and delivery of optimised and reformed specialty pathways. This is a high-profile role that requires exceptional strategic thinking, experience in delivering large-scale change, operational credibility and the ability to influence at senior levels across NHS England and the system. You will work collaboratively with national, regional and local partners to drive improvement at scale and ensure the programme delivers measurable benefits for patients and the wider health and care system.

Main duties of the job

As Assistant Director for Outpatient Transformation - Targeted Delivery, the postholder will provide senior leadership across the outpatient transformation programme, with specific responsibilities to deliver optimised and reformed clinical pathways by working in collaboration and partnership across all parts of the NHS. In delivery the team also works together with other teams such as GIRFT, Diagnostics and beyond.

The post holder will have responsibility for a large and senior team and have significant cross-organisational delivery dependencies. This role needs someone with the ability to lead complex change, establish programme grip, resolve delivery barriers and influence at a very senior level.

The post holder will be recognised as a credible transformation and delivery leader, with strong knowledge of planned care including referral optimisation, outpatient follow-up reform, payment and incentive models, metrics, modelling and the evidence base for service transformation. The post holder will ideally have experience of working in an NHS Trust, ICB or APC alongside clinical leaders.

The post holder will have experience of working at senior level to identify delivery priorities, develop implementable plans, manage risks and dependencies, and work collaboratively across organisational boundaries to deliver measurable improvements in elective care.

Job description

Leading the continued scaling and implementation of pathway-specific initiatives that have been tested and shown to improve RTT performance, patient experience and outcomes.

Working with clinical and operational leads to convert strategic intent into clear specialty-level delivery.

Providing senior day-to-day grip across a complex programme, ensuring work across priority specialties is coherent, sequenced and delivery focussed.

Ensuring delivery plans are supported by robust programme management reporting, risk management, escalation routes and ministerial-quality reporting.

• Working across DHSC, NHS England national teams, regions, systems, providers and clinical partners to align expectations and unblock delivery barriers.

Maintaining a clear line of sight between national policy, specialty-level delivery activity, operational performance and measurable improvements in RTT outcomes.

Contributing subject-matter insight and expertise on elective and outpatient issues to the wider elective team, across NHSE, and outwards throughout the NHS system.

Leading, managing and developing the Targeted Delivery Team, ensuring capacity is prioritised against the highest-impact work.

Managing budgetary implications and ensuring value for money in the use of programme resources.

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.

About us

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.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.