Associate Director of People Operations: Sponsorship Available

East London NHS Foundation Trust

Job summary

Associate Director: People Operations

Following recent changes within the leadership team, an exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced and ambitious Associate Director of People Operations to join the People & Culture Senior Leadership Team at East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT).

This is a pivotal leadership role with responsibility for some of the Trust’s most essential workforce services and programmes. Reporting to the Deputy Director of People & Culture and working closely with the Chief People Officer, the successful candidate will help shape and deliver the Trust’s workforce strategy, supporting our People Plan, Trust Strategy and wider NHS workforce priorities.

Main duties of the job

The Associate Director of People Operations will provide strategic leadership across a diverse People & Culture portfolio including Medical Staffing and Medical Education, Workforce Planning and Systems, Strategic Resourcing, Temporary Staffing, and the People & Culture Hub. The postholder will be responsible for ensuring these services are high-performing, customer-focused, financially sustainable, digitally enabled and aligned to the needs of our staff, services and communities.

Leading a number of experienced teams, the role will drive the development and delivery of key workforce priorities including workforce planning and intelligence, recruitment and retention, temporary staffing, medical workforce optimisation, workforce deployment, digital transformation and service modernisation.

A key part of the role will be leading workforce transformation and innovation, including the continued development of workforce systems, workforce planning capability and medical rostering solutions, ensuring the Trust is well positioned to respond to future workforce challenges and opportunities.

This is an exceptional opportunity for an experienced workforce leader who is passionate about delivering excellent services, developing high-performing teams and improving the experience of all our People across the organisation.

Person Specification

Education/ Qualification/ Training

Essential

  • Degree level qualification or equivalent experience.
  • Chartered Member/Fellow of the CIPD or equivalent senior workforce leadership experience.
  • Master’s degree or equivalent postgraduate qualification/experience in Human Resources, Workforce, Leadership, Management, Business Administration or a related discipline.
  • Evidence of continuous professional development.
  • Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of workforce management, workforce planning.

Experience

Essential

  • Significant experience operating at a senior leadership level within a large and complex organisation.
  • Extensive experience leading multidisciplinary workforce, P&C or corporate services teams.
  • Demonstrable experience of workforce planning, workforce information, workforce systems or workforce transformation.
  • Experience of delivering large-scale organisational change and service improvement programmes.
  • Experience of managing significant budgets, resources and financial performance.
  • Proven track record of developing and implementing strategic workforce plans and initiatives.
  • Experience of working collaboratively with senior clinical, operational and corporate leaders.
  • Demonstrable success in leading digital transformation, service redesign or process improvement initiatives.
  • Experience of developing and delivering performance management frameworks and governance arrangements.
  • Proven track record of driving innovation and continuous improvement.
  • Experience of line managing senior managers and leading high-performing teams.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

  • Extensive knowledge of NHS workforce challenges, workforce policy and strategic workforce priorities.
  • Strong understanding of workforce planning methodologies and workforce intelligence.
  • Understanding of medical staffing, medical education and workforce deployment requirements.
  • Knowledge of workforce information systems, ESR and workforce reporting frameworks.
  • Knowledge of NHS workforce governance, compliance and assurance requirements.
  • Highly developed analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex workforce, operational and financial information.
  • Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiation skills with the ability to build effective relationships at all levels.
  • Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving capability.

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).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Closing Date: 24 November 2026

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