Job summary
- Main area
- Programme management
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Fixed term: 6 months (Secondment only for current NHS employee. until 31st March 2027)
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job share
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 990-TDD-DIG-EC4350-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wellington Place (Leeds) / 10 South Colonnade or Wellington House (London)
- Town
- Leeds or London
- Salary
- £66,582 - £77,368 per annum (exclusive of London weighting)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 22/09/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Programme 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.
Job overview
The Frontline Productivity programme is a nationally significant programme, providing £2bn over four years to support regional investments that release productivity benefits across the NHS. As the programme moves into delivery, the Enterprise Programme Management Office (EPMO) will provide the central coordination, governance, assurance and reporting function needed to support effective delivery and demonstrate progress against programme objectives.
We are seeking to recruit a Band 8b Programme Manager to play a key role in establishing and maintaining a high-quality EPMO service for the programme. The postholder will lead and support core governance, assurance and reporting activities, including delivery against Department Major Projects Portfolio (DMPP) requirements and reviews. They will also ensure that lessons learned and closure actions from the previous Frontline Digitisation programme are embedded into the new delivery arrangements, helping to strengthen programme controls, decision-making and benefits realisation.
Main duties of the job
- Lead the planning, coordination and delivery of key EPMO activities for the Frontline Productivity programme, ensuring programme governance, assurance and reporting arrangements are robust, effective and aligned to national requirements.
- Support delivery against Department Major Projects Portfolio (DMPP) requirements, including coordinating evidence, preparing high-quality reports and supporting readiness for reviews, assurance checkpoints and senior decision-making forums.
- Develop, maintain and improve the programme plan and associated plan on a page, including resourcing requirements, risks and dependencies.
- Develop, maintain and improve programme controls, including delivery plans, milestone trackers, risk and issue logs, dependency management, action tracking, decision logs, highlight reports and dashboards.
- Provide high-quality analysis, insight and reporting to senior stakeholders, ensuring progress, risks, issues, dependencies, benefits and resource requirements are clearly presented and escalated where appropriate.
(continued below)
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
- Work collaboratively with regional teams, policy leads, finance, commercial, clinical and digital colleagues to coordinate programme activity, resolve delivery barriers and support consistent implementation of programme processes.
- Embed lessons learned and closure actions from the previous Frontline Digitisation programme into Frontline Productivity delivery arrangements, ensuring continuous improvement in programme management practice.
- Support benefits realisation and value-for-money reporting by ensuring productivity benefits, delivery milestones and investment outcomes are tracked, evidenced and reported consistently.
- Line manage and/or matrix manage colleagues as required, supporting team priorities, development, workload management and the delivery of a high-performing, responsive EPMO service.
- Prepare clear briefings, papers and recommendations for programme boards, senior leaders and external stakeholders, translating complex programme information into concise and actionable outputs.
- Promote best practice in programme and project management, contributing to the development of standard tools, templates, processes and ways of working across the programme.
If you like what you have read and think you have the skills and experience, we need then don't delay, apply today! We get lots of applications for our roles and so we sometimes have to close our posts early. Don't miss out!
Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.
You can find further details about the job, in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to master’s level in a relevant area of academic practice (e.g. programme management, project management, business management, digital transformation or a related discipline) or equivalent experience working at a commensurate band / level.
- To have one or more programme/project management training or qualification: Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner/Advanced Practitioner; P3O Practitioner; APM Registered Project Professional; Major Projects Leadership Academy or equivalent experience.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience of managing projects and delivering them within agreed timescales and budgets.
- Experience of providing support and input in to complex programmes.
Skills
Essential criteria
- Demonstrate the ability to plan over the short, medium and long term, altering plans to fit with the rapidly changing environment.
- Ability to anticipate problems before they arise and offer appropriate solutions.
- Able to draw qualitative and quantitative information from a range of sources and present it in a clear and concise way.
Interpersonal skills
Essential criteria
- Excellent communication and presentation skills and an ability to engage successfully with a wide range of people at all levels within the organisation.
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
- Lisa Austin
- Job title
- Deputy Director of Programmes
- Email address
- [email protected]
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