Consultant Systems Engineer | NHS England

NHS England; Leeds; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization is seeking an experienced Head of Systems Engineering to drive the engineering for the NHS app and other digital services. This role involves technical leadership, collaboration with partners, and mentoring staff within a multi-team structure. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in mobile architectures, including Swift and Kotlin, and experience developing highly available systems. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the NHS's digital transformation efforts.

Benefits

Recruitment and Retention Premia (30% per annum)

Qualifications

• Strong technical grounding in iOS and/or Android architecture.
• Experience working on highly available systems.
• Mentoring and coaching team members.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering for the NHS app and other digital citizen national channels.
• Collaborate with partners to develop architecture and design of mobile apps.
• Mentor and coach team members.

Skills

Deep native mobile expertise

Technical leadership

Implementing system security

Agile delivery

Tools

Swift

Kotlin

Azure

Terraform

C#

Job description

Overview

Digital delivery is a cornerstone of the NHS's 10-year plan, aiming to revolutionise healthcare. Digital transformation is expected to improve patient outcomes and alleviate the burden on healthcare professionals by reducing paperwork and enabling personalised care.

Opportunity

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced systems engineer to join our Digital Citizen Portfolio as Head of Systems Engineering. The successful candidate will primarily focus on leading the engineering for the NHS app and will also be responsible for other parts of the digital citizen national channels, including the NHS.uk website. NHS.uk is a widely used medical resource for providing guidance to citizens across the UK.

Role significance

The NHS App and NHS.uk website services are pivotal in delivering the NHS 10-year plan. The NHS App is used by millions daily and will help citizens take control of their health and care, and the health of those they care for. The app enables booking appointments, managing medications, and accessing medical records.

Technical context

The NHS App is a mobile-native app built with Swift and Kotlin. Other technologies used by this team include Azure, Terraform, and C# for backend services.

Responsibilities

• Technical leadership and delivery of national, highly available mobile apps and distributed systems, adhering to NHS England’s engineering principles
• Collaborating with internal and external partners to develop architecture and design of mobile apps and systems
• Ensuring continued availability, resilience, and cost effectiveness of existing mobile apps and systems
• Maintaining service security and providing security controls for large volumes of highly sensitive data
• Building and leading high-performing teams (multi-team structure comprising 100+ engineers) with a culture of collaboration; driving continuous improvement through Agile, Lean and DevOps
• Mentoring and coaching staff in your team
• Engaging in peer-to-peer collaboration to solve engineering problems and drive organisation-wide engineering standards, including forming and leading communities of practice
• Working with peers to define the organisation’s engineering strategy, focusing on mobile app development standards and growing mobile app development communities of practice
• Presenting highly technical and complex information to non-technical audiences
• Acting as Subject Matter Expert for systems design, delivery, and operation, including with external suppliers/partners

Organisational context

Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers. Staff expertise spans clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial domains.

Leadership and strategic direction

• Enabling local systems and providers to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities
• Making the NHS a great place to work and enabling people to realise their potential
• Collaborating to ensure the healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
• Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
• Delivering value for money

Onboarding and remuneration

Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, aiming for a smaller, more strategic centre. If successful at interview, an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) will retrieve data to support onboarding, with opt-out available at any stage of the recruitment process.

Essential and desirable experience

• Deep native mobile expertise – strong technical grounding in iOS and/or Android architecture, native capabilities, security, biometrics, and app store compliance
• Implementing system security and resilience techniques/controls/practices
• Experience working on highly available systems
• Technical leadership for key systems

Desirable experience

• Experience in a mobile application where delivery is distributed across multiple engineering teams
• Hands-on full-stack engineering experience, including cloud infrastructure
• Mentoring/coaching team members
• Management of senior/non-technical stakeholders
• Agile delivery

Core competencies (interview)

• INFLUENCE: Uses evidence to make decisions and defend ideas; builds alignments with other teams
• KNOWLEDGE: Builds knowledge, stays updated, shares expertise; recognises evolving customer needs
• BUSINESS SKILLS: Develops and deploys strategies, makes commercially sound decisions, optimises resources
• COMPLEXITY: Synthesises complex information, deliverables, and stakeholder needs; communicates clearly
• AUTONOMY: Empowers and coaches others to develop talent and drive engagement; holds self and others accountable

Additional information

You can find further details about the role, responsibilities, and accountabilities, alongside organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and supporting documents.

The post of Consultant Systems Engineer has a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) of 30% per annum. RRP is non-contractual and subject to review.

Closing date

This advert closes on Monday 15 Dec 2025.