Deputy Director, Digital Service Owner: Sponsorship Available

  • Full Time
  • United Kingdom
  • 94,356 to 108,814 £ / Year

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

Job summary

Are you passionate about creating digital services that make a real difference for patients and staff?Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an exceptional digital leader to become our Deputy Director, Digital Service Owner. This is a unique opportunity to establish and lead a modern digital service ownership function, ensuring our digital services deliver meaningful outcomes, exceptional user experiences and lasting value across the organisation.Reporting to the Chief Digital & Data Officer, you will be accountable for ensuring digital services meet the needs of patients, clinicians and staff throughout their lifecycle. You will work closely with clinical, operational and corporate leaders to understand challenges, identify opportunities and ensure services continuously evolve in response to changing user needs and organisational priorities.This role is ideally suited to a senior leader with experience in service ownership, product management, service design or agile delivery who is passionate about user-centred design and improving outcomes through digital innovation. You will have the opportunity to influence strategy, shape investment decisions and lead multidisciplinary teams that are transforming how healthcare services are delivered.

Main duties of the job

As Deputy Director, Digital Service Owner, you will be accountable for the quality, performance, outcomes and benefits delivered by the Trust’s digital services. Your focus will be ensuring services continue to meet the needs of patients, staff and the organisation, delivering measurable improvements to experience, efficiency and care.You will:Lead multidisciplinary teams across service ownership, product management, digital delivery and business analysis.Act as the accountable owner for digital services, ensuring they remain aligned to user needs and organisational priorities.Champion user-centred design and agile delivery approaches, using insight and evidence to drive decision-making.Work directly with clinicians, operational teams and service leaders to understand needs and improve digital experiences.Ensure services deliver measurable clinical, operational and workforce benefits.Establish robust governance, performance and benefits realisation arrangements.Lead business cases, funding opportunities and strategic partnerships that support innovation and transformation.Foster a culture of continuous improvement, learning and user-focused delivery.

Person Specification

Qualifications and/or professional registration

Essential

  • Master’s degree or equivalent experience in Digital, Informatics, Technology, Business Change or related discipline.
  • Extensive specialist knowledge acquired through postgraduate study or equivalent senior experience.
  • Agile, Scrum qualification. NHS Digital Leadership Programme.

Desirable

  • Evidence of senior leadership development. Portfolio, Delivery, Product, Service Management or Change qualification.

Experience

Essential

  • Significant senior leadership experience within NHS, healthcare or similarly complex organisations.
  • Experience of service ownership, product management or digital delivery leadership.
  • Experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
  • Experience managing complex digital products and services through their lifecycle.
  • Experience developing digital strategies and roadmaps.
  • Experience managing substantial budgets.
  • Proven experience of developing successful business cases, funding bids, investment proposals or transformation programmes that have secured external funding or investment.
  • Experience of benefits realisation and service performance management.
  • Experience engaging with senior stakeholders at executive level.

Skills and knowledge

Essential

  • Expert understanding of service ownership principles.
  • Strong understanding of NHS digital strategy and transformation.
  • Strategic planning and organisational leadership capability.
  • Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills.
  • Financial and commercial management capability.
  • Strong risk and governance management skills.
  • Ability to analyse highly complex information and make evidence-based decisions.
  • Expert knowledge of user-centred design and service improvement methodologies.
  • Strong understanding of agile delivery methods and digital product management.
  • Strong understanding of NHS funding mechanisms, national transformation programmes and digital investment routes.
  • Ability to influence regional and national stakeholders and develop compelling investment cases that secure funding and support organisational priorities.

Other requirements

Essential

  • Strategic thinker with ability to translate vision into delivery.
  • Strong focus on outcomes and benefits realisation.
  • Collaborative and inclusive leadership style. Ability to manage ambiguity and complexity.
  • Passion for improving patient and staff experience through digital services.
  • Demonstrates SCFT values and behaviours.
  • Able to bring pace, value and innovation.

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: 13 September 2026

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