Deputy Chief Finance Officer

NHS; Woolstone; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare organization in England is seeking a Deputy Chief Finance Officer to provide strategic leadership for financial governance and sustainability. This role involves managing finance teams, overseeing financial controls, and ensuring compliance with NHS standards. The successful candidate will have a strong background in finance within a healthcare environment and demonstrate leadership in cost-saving initiatives and stakeholder engagement. This is an excellent opportunity for professional growth in a supportive workplace.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in finance at senior level within the healthcare sector.
• Proven leadership in managing finance teams and processes.
• Strong understanding of NHS policies and financial regulations.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic oversight of financial governance.
• Lead teams including Procurement and Financial Management.
• Drive efficiency through financial initiatives.

Skills

Strategic financial leadership

Cost-saving opportunities

Financial governance

Team management

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Masters in Finance or equivalent

Professionally qualified accountant

Job description

Go back Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Deputy Chief Finance Officer

The closing date is 06 February 2026.

Hours: 37.5 per week, all MKUH roles will be considered for flexible working.

Are you ready for the next big step in your financial career?

We are hiring for a Deputy Chief Finance Officer (DCFO). Our Trust is growing rapidly, and we are looking for a candidate who has ideally had experience in a healthcare environment and has experience with finance and expansion.

As Deputy Chief Finance Officer, you will provide strategic financial leadership across the Trust, supporting the Chief Finance Officer in delivering robust financial governance and sustainability. The successful candidate will lead teams including Procurement, Financial Management, Financial Control & Capital, and Income & Commercial Contracting.

• Commissioner contract agreement and income reporting
• Business and commercial advice across a range of service changes
• Providing financial input into strategic decision making
• Developing and standardising the use of costing reporting

Furthermore, this role offers exposure to executive decision‑making, progression to Board‑level positions, leadership development, involvement in major projects, and a supportive environment for ongoing professional growth.

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role at this current time.

Main duties of the job

To provide strategic and operational leadership of the Trust's finance function, ensuring robust financial governance, effective resource allocation, and delivery of value‑for‑money services.

You will oversee financial controls, reporting, budgeting, and compliance to ensure efficient resource management and adherence to NHS regulations.

You will identify cost‑saving opportunities and support service transformation to enhance financial efficiency while maintaining quality.

You will provide direct line management to the senior finance team, fostering a high‑performance culture. Additionally, you will take responsibility for establishing and maintaining an effective finance team structure and recruiting, retaining, and developing talented individuals to operate within it.

You will be an advocate of continuous improvement, driving the ongoing support and development of the finance team to ensure it delivers in a best‑of‑class manner for the Trust.

Working closely with colleagues, you will ensure that the Trust is well represented within the ICs, has constructive relationships with commissioners and is influential nationally.

You will be responsible for ensuring statutory accounts and returns represent a true and fair view, meet required timescales and legal requirements.

Participation in the on‑call rota is a requirement of the role.

Job responsibilities

Strategic Finance Leadership

The post holder will ensure financial direction, challenge, and guidance is embedded in all aspects of organisational performance and planning.

They will deliver a proactive and enabling finance service that supports clinicians and operational leaders to deliver high‑quality, cost‑effective care.

Driving Value, Efficiency and Productivity

Working closely with the Head of Transformation, the post holder will provide strategic oversight of value‑based healthcare initiatives, ensuring alignment of financial resources to clinical outcomes and patient experience.

They will lead on the development and implementation of efficiency frameworks, embedding financial insights into improvement programmes.

Inclusion, Leadership and Culture

The post holder will embed a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in financial leadership, recruitment, progression and staff engagement.

They will ensure finance policies, development programmes and staff networks reflect Trust EDI commitments and NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES).

NHS One Finance & Professional Development

The post holder will champion the MKUH One Finance journey, including re‑accreditation, embedding the principles of professionalism, leadership and inclusivity.

They will lead the implementation of the One NHS Finance Talent Management Strategy within MKUH.

Digital Finance and Intelligence

The post holder will lead the modernisation of financial systems through automation and wider use of AI.

They will drive the use of Service Line Reporting (SLR) and Patient‑Level Costing (PLICS) to support decision‑making.

Corporate Responsibilities

The post holder will assist the Chief Finance Officer to provide strategic leadership and professional financial advice to the Trust to ensure its long‑term financial success.

They may deputise for the Chief Finance Officer when required and represent Finance at relevant Board Committees, system, internal and external meetings.

General

The post holder will proactively support the Chief Finance Officer to develop strategy, deliver agreed initiatives and implement agreed plans.

They will attend Trust Board & Committee meetings as required.

About us

Milton Keynes University Hospital, in proud partnership with the University of Buckingham, is a University Teaching Hospital committed to advancing patient care through cutting‑edge research and education. With a "Good" rating from the CQC and significant investment underway, this is an exciting time to join our team and grow your career.

As a medium‑sized general hospital, we provide a full range of general medical and surgical services, including a busy Emergency Department, Maternity, and Paediatrics. As the population of our city and surrounding areas continues to grow rapidly, we are expanding and enhancing our facilities to meet rising demand and improve access to care for all our communities.

We are also proud to offer a growing portfolio of specialist services. In January 2025 we opened our state‑of‑the‑art Radiotherapy Centre, bringing advanced cancer treatment closer to home. Our services also include neonatology, specialist surgical care and a wide range of diagnostics, supported by the new Community Diagnostic Centre at Whitehouse Health Centre.

Further investment is underway, including the construction of Oak Wards – a new ward block featuring two 24‑bed wards – and the recently approved Women and Children’s Centre, set to open by 2030.

Person Specification – Qualifications and Knowledge

• Educated to Masters (or equivalent) level or equivalent experience and skills developed across a number of fields i.e. financial management, people management, financial information systems etc.
• Significant experience through working at a senior level in a Finance function in a complex organisation in a Healthcare setting (e.g. NHS Trust, NHS Commissioning, NHS England) or through Level 8 financial qualification.
• Professionally qualified accountant
• Evidence of recent and ongoing continuous professional and personal development
• Significant knowledge of current financial legislation
• Postgraduate management or other relevant postgraduate qualification (e.g. Masters degree)

Experience

• Significant, substantial and extensive post‑qualification experience at a senior level in a complex organisation in a healthcare setting (e.g. NHS Acute Trust, NHS Commissioner, NHS England)
• Demonstrable track record operating at near board level, in a complex health care organisation, with clear evidence of system leadership remit, with the professional credibility and ability to influence Directors and senior managers and clinicians across the health system, and to retain the confidence of regulators and other external stakeholders
• Evidence of successful and sustained financial leadership in an environment of organisational change and improvement
• Sound understanding of NHS strategic change agenda and political environment
• Sound understanding of the commercial environment and the national healthcare policy and strategic direction
• Current knowledge of all aspects of finance, corporate governance and controls assurance
• Proven experience of developing and reviewing large‑scale business cases and capacity plans
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills (both verbal and written) with experience of dealing directly with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders

Please refer to the Job Description for further details.

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