Job summary
- Main area
- Service Management
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job share
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 990-TDD-TEC-EC6056-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wellington Place - Leeds or Hexagon House - Exeter
- Town
- Leeds or Exeter
- Salary
- £66,582 - £77,368 Per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 24/11/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Senior Service Manager
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Our Organisation
We share the core values set out in the NHS Constitution, which all colleagues are expected to demonstrate.
We support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you and your colleagues. 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.
As part of our commitment to improving patient safety and maintaining safe and trusted services, all successful candidates will be subject to Baseline Personnel Security Screening (BPSS), which includes a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. By submitting your application, you are confirming your agreement to these checks being undertaken as part of the recruitment process.
Anyone who has received a voluntary or compulsory redundancy payment from NHS England since the start of the 2026/27 financial year is not eligible to apply.
Job overview
Digital Operations and Service Management (DOSM) sits within the Technology Digital and Data Directorate of NHS England.
The Technology Digital and Data Directorate's vision is to deliver the best care and outcomes for the NHS and people that it serves, by improving population health and patient pathways, rapidly adopting effective technologies, building on insights from data and cutting-edge research, and by transforming the way that care is delivered.
DOSM operates and manages business critical infrastructure, and digital and data services, that underpin the health and social care system. We ensure the highest levels of reliability and availability of national digital and technology services, so that they can be relied upon by the NHS and social care system.
Our aim is to prevent system disruption but, if it does occur, to restore service as quickly as possible. We coordinate complex operational activities across environments, teams and organisations in order to achieve this.
Main duties of the job
As a Senior Service Manager, you will manage suppliers against targets, identify contract negotiation constraints and opportunities, ensure agreed service levels and corrective action, support change and continuous improvement, implement supplier improvements and develop your team for optimum performance.
Single Patient Record (SPR) duties:
- Lead safe, resilient, secure SPR operations aligned with NHS England service management standards.
- Work with Service Managers on daily operations, ownership, governance and escalation.
- Manage incidents, major incidents, problems, changes, releases and service transition.
- Ensure new/changed capabilities have ready support models, documentation, monitoring, reporting and escalation.
- Monitor agreed service measures, risks, trends and improvement opportunities.
- Govern supplier/contract obligations, responsibilities, performance issues, risks and escalations.
- Report service health, performance, risks, issues, incidents, changes and improvements for governance.
- Capture and embed lessons to improve quality and reduce recurring issues.
- Collaborate with product, delivery, technical, clinical, commercial and supplier teams on risks, issues and decisions.
- Meet user, clinical and operational needs, prioritising patient safety, resilience, data quality and user experience.
- Help develop and implement frameworks, controls and governance to scale and adopt SPR across NHS England and wider health and care.
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.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
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
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
- Specialist knowledge of various methodologies used to manage IT and Digital services and an ability to tailor methodologies and management practices dependant on the characteristics of the service being delivered
- Broad knowledge of techniques and approaches that can be used to deliver value, such as Agile, DevOps and Lean
- Broad understanding of managing products and services across the lifecycle
- Extensive knowledge of evolving and emerging technologies used to deliver IT and Digital Services and ability to adapt management practices to those emerging technologies
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- A master’s degree or equivalent experience
- ITIL Practitioner, VeriSM Foundation or equivalent experience
- Evidence of continuous professional development
- A recognised management qualification or equivalent experience
Skills
Essential criteria
- Leadership and People Management: Demonstrates effective leadership of individuals and teams, creating an inclusive, high-performing environment through clear objectives, appropriate delegation, constructive feedback, coaching and workforce planning.
- Stakeholder Management: Builds trusted relationships with a broad range of stakeholders, manages differing needs and priorities, facilitates constructive dialogue, and effectively addresses risks, issues, conflicts and dependencies.
- Service Level Management: Ensures services meet agreed standards by maintaining clear service definitions, identifying and resolving service delivery issues, and continually reviewing operational processes for effectiveness and efficiency.
- Contract Management: Effectively manages the full contract lifecycle, including supplier relationships, compliance, performance monitoring, contract reviews, renewals, variations and negotiations, within appropriate governance, procurement and regulatory requirements.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Robert Marsh
- Job title
- Head of Service Management
- Email address
- [email protected]
List jobs with NHS England in Administrative Services or all sectors