Chief Delivery Officer

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Job summary

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an exceptional Chief Delivery Officer (CDO) to join the Trust Board and Group Executive Team. This is a pivotal executive leadership role responsible for driving operational excellence across the Group, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, sustainable services that improve patient outcomes and meet national performance standards.

As a voting member of the Trust Board, the Chief Delivery Officer will contribute to the development of organisational strategy and policy while providing leadership across operational performance, service transformation, productivity, business intelligence, emergency preparedness and system-wide collaboration. The post holder will be responsible for developing and implementing a Group-wide operating model, ensuring effective systems, processes and governance arrangements are in place to support service delivery across hospital sites and corporate functions.

Working closely with Executive Directors, clinical leaders and system partners, the Chief Delivery Officer will lead the delivery of key operational priorities, optimise capacity and resources across the Group, and drive innovation and continuous improvement to ensure outstanding care for patients and communities across Mid and South Essex.

Main duties of the job

The Chief Delivery Officer will:

  • Lead operational delivery and performance across Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.
  • Drive achievement of key constitutional and regulatory performance standards, including Urgent and Emergency Care, Referral to Treatment (RTT), Cancer and Diagnostic targets.
  • Develop and implement a Group-wide standard operating model to support operational excellence and consistency.
  • Provide strategic leadership for demand and capacity planning across the Group.
  • Support the implementation of the Trust’s clinical strategy and medium-term planning objectives.
  • Lead large-scale transformation, productivity and service improvement programmes.
  • Promote effective utilisation of capacity across hospital sites, including theatres, outpatientservices and diagnostics.
  • Develop and oversee robust performance reporting and business intelligence frameworks to inform decision-making and support delivery.Lead collaboration with local, regional and national partners to improve population health and service integration.Act as the Executive lead for emergency preparedness, resilience and business continuity.Ensure the effective management of resources, productivity programmes and cost improvement initiatives.Provide visible leadership that promotes a culture of accountability, empowerment, inclusion and continuous improvement.Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders across the NHS, Integrated Care System and wider health community.

Person Specification

Qual

Essential

  • Master’s degree or equivalent related to Health, Leadership or Management.

Desirable

  • Registered doctor, nurse or AHP

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

  • Demonstrable experience operating at a senior level and experience of working with a Board, in an acute NHS setting.
  • Exceptional leadership and communication skills with experience of dealing with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders
  • Experience of comprehensive business planning and translating organisation strategy and vision into operational objectives.
  • Evidence of successfully leading, influencing and motivating large teams with differing levels of seniority, grade and experience.
  • Experience of leading a culture of continuous improvement, that harnesses quality improvement with value for money and efficiency through service delivery development.
  • Experience of capacity planning and translating organisational strategy into operational objectives

Desirable

  • Experience of working with an organisation going through large scale changes, e.g. following a merger.

Personal and People development

Essential

  • Experience of improving staff experience.
  • A collaborative management style, which recognises and values personal contributions and agenda and encourages team working.
  • Effectiveness in conflict resolution and management.
  • The skills to evaluate and learn from outcomes, with a clear commitment to innovation, learning and improvement
  • A credible Leader to all within the team – effective leadership influencing, negotiating and interpersonal skills
  • Ability to make decisions that encourage innovative ways of working and drive organisational change

Physical Requirements

Essential

  • Stamina, energy and enthusiasm and the ability to work effectively under pressure
  • The Temperament and ability to act effectively in highly emotive situations

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Closing Date: 9 August 2026

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.