About this role
Job summary
This is an exciting opportunity to lead and coordinate high-profile projects that improve health outcomes for those within health and justice settings. The role involves managing multiple programmes, monitoring delivery against milestones, overseeing risks and budgets, supporting governance processes, and working with senior leaders and national stakeholders to ensure successful programme delivery.
The ideal candidate will be an organised, proactive, and strategic project professional with experience delivering complex projects in challenging environments. You will need strong stakeholder engagement, programme governance, risk management, financial monitoring, analytical, and communication skills.
This role offers the chance to make a real difference on a national scale, influencing programmes that directly improve services and outcomes across England. You'll work with senior NHS leaders, gain exposure to complex transformation programmes, develop your leadership and project management expertise.
Main duties of the job
The successful candidate will be responsible for coordinating and delivering multiple Health & Justice programmes across NHS England, ensuring projects are well-governed, aligned, and delivered successfully.
The role requires a strong blend of project management, analytical, and stakeholder management skills, including:
Project Management Expertise
Stakeholder Management
Communication Skills
Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills
Organisation and Planning
Financial and Risk Management
Beyond technical skills, we are looking for someone who demonstrates:
Leadership and initiative - able to take ownership and drive progress. Collaborative working - works effectively with colleagues and partners across organisational boundaries. Adaptability and resilience - comfortable working in complex, fast-changing environments. Integrity and professionalism - maintains confidentiality and acts with openness and honesty. Commitment to quality and improvement - continuously seeks better ways of working and improved outcomes. Patient focus - understands how their work contributes to better services and outcomes for patients and the public.
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 announcedthat 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.
Job description Job responsibilities
As aProject Manager, you will play a central role in supporting the delivery of NHS England's Health & Justice programmes. The role sits within the Health & Justice Delivery and Programme Management Team and focuses on coordinating multiple workstreams, ensuring robust governance, managing risks and performance, and supporting the successful delivery of national transformation programmes.
You will work closely with the National Governance, Assurance & Transformation Lead, senior leaders, regional teams, commissioners, providers, and external partners to ensure projects remain aligned with strategic objectives and are delivered effectively.
Main responsibilities include:1. Project and Programme Management2. Governance, Assurance and Reporting3. Risk and Issue Management4. Stakeholder Management5. Performance and Information Management6. Financial Management7. Planning and Organisational Development8. Team and People ManagementKey Deliverables
You will be expected to:
Deliver projects on time and against agreed objectives. Maintain accurate programme plans, risk registers, and governance reports. Produce high-quality briefing papers and reports for senior leaders. Ensure budgets, risks, performance measures, and programme activities are effectively monitored. Build relationships with key stakeholders across NHS England and partner organisations. You can find further details about the role,including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside theorganisational structureand person specificationin the attached Job Descriptionand other supporting documents.
Secondments 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.
Person Specification
Qualifications Essential
Educated to Post-graduate degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level qualification or extensive experience of working at a similar level in specialist area. Further training or extensive experience in project management, fiscal management or supporting change management processes.
Knowledge and experience Essential
Demonstrable experience of delivery of successful projects Experience of managing a team. Extensive experience of successfully operating in a politically sensitive environment. Evidence of continued professional development. Demonstrated experience of co-ordinating projects in complex and challenging environments. Experience of managing risks and reporting. Experience of drafting briefing papers and correspondence at senior management team level. Comprehensive knowledge of project principles, techniques, and tools, such as Prince 2 Foundation and Microsoft Project. Experience of setting up and implementing internal processes and procedures. Knowledge of Financial Systems e.g., monitoring budget management, processing invoices and procurement.
Desirable
Demonstrable specialist knowledge in a relevant discipline Experience of monitoring budgets and business planning processes. Understanding of the public sector. Demonstrated experience in a Healthcare environment. Experience of setting up and implementing internal processes and procedures.
Skills Capabilities and Aptitudes Essential
Ability to deliver against key milestones and timelines Demonstrated organisational skills Clear communicator with excellent written and presentation skills; capable of constructing and delivering clear ideas and concepts concisely and accurately to a diverse and varied range of audiences consisting of internal and external stakeholders. Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required. Ability to analyse very complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources. Demonstrated capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decision making. Numerate and able to understand complex financial issues combined with deep analytical skills. Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales.
Values and Behaviours Essential
Commitment to and focused on quality, promotes high standards in all they do. Able to make a connection between their work and the benefit to patients and the public. Consistently thinks about how their work can help and support clinicians and frontline staff deliver better outcomes for patients. Values diversity and difference operates with integrity and openness. Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects, and learns from the contribution of others. Consistently looks to improve what they do, look for successful tried and tested ways of working, and seeks out innovation. Actively develops themselves and supports others to do the same. Understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships. An ability to maintain confidentiality and trust. Adaptability, flexibility, and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
Other Essential
Able to travel across various sites where applicable
Employer details Employer name NHS England
Address Wellington House
133-155 Waterloo Rd
London
SE1 8UG
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)