Deputy Director of Systems Engineering

NHS; Leeds; On-site; GBP 141,000 - 164,000; Full time

Job summary

A national health service in the UK seeks a Deputy Director of Systems Engineering to lead engineering for identity and access management. The successful candidate will manage software development, ensure service reliability, and evaluate new security technologies. A Master's degree and experience in health or public services are essential. The role offers competitive compensation from £141,932.70 to £163,328.10 per year, including an RRP payment of 30%.

Qualifications

• Subject matter expertise in Identity Management.
• Experience in developing projects in OpenAuth.
• Experience building access management solutions.
• Experience building and running high availability solutions.
• Experience in resolving large or high-risk commercial management issues.
• Significant management experience at a senior level in the NHS or related industry.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for Identity and Access Management.
• Manage software development from suppliers and internal teams.
• Ensure high availability service design includes appropriate monitoring.
• Evaluate new security offerings like passwordless access.

Skills

Ability to lead and inspire multi-disciplinary teams

Ability to analyze complex issues

Education

Masters or equivalent qualification

Job description

Product and Platforms takes responsibility for the nationally required digital products of the new NHS England, working closely with the business areas across the NHS that own related services. We enable a consistent approach to digital products, underpinning technology strategy, and digital transformation, supporting the best outcomes for health and care.

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced systems engineer to join Platforms Portfolio as Deputy Director of Systems Engineering.

The successful candidate will have a number of areas they are responsible for primarily:

• Leading the engineering and product development for Staff Identity services as well as working closely with the workforce team and the broader system on the identify verification and authentication needs of the NHS workforce
• Leading engineering for the Citizen identity (NHS login) service, which is an existing service providing a single, easy to use system for securely verifying and authenticating the identity of people accessing a wide range of services used across to health and social care including the NHS app and supporting over 70 million logins per month
• Providing leadership across the broader engineering teams across NHS England including how to best leverage Agentic AI for development, improvements in security and resilience for key NHS services and overall guidance in improving the development practices for Engineering supporting the Executive Director of Engineering for NHS England

Main duties of the job

The Deputy Director of Engineering will be responsible for the direction and oversight of 2 key programmes of work, Identity and Access Management and NHS login. You will be required to:

• Set technical direction for the Identity and Access Management area including which industry standards should be adopted, which tools and technologies are used, selection of supplier products compared to where we build internally.
• Manage software development from suppliers and in-house teams.
• Contribute to the engineering standards for digital sub directorate.
• Be responsible for the running and operation of high availability services ensuring the design includes appropriate monitoring, scalability, and failover to support high availability services.
• Manage transition of suppliers and the system to appropriate services and standards as security standards evolve and improve.
• Evaluate new forms of security offering such as passwordless access and biometrics to ensure the identity processes make use of new industry capabilities.
• Run the transform program for IAM, developing strategy, agreeing with stakeholders and managing delivery.
• Ensure commercial contracts and suppliers are held to account for their timeliness, value and quality.

About us

Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers.

Our staff bring expertise across hundreds of specialisms -- including clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

We lead the NHS in England by:

• Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities
• Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential
• Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
• Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation

Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, leading to full integration. The aim is to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and eliminates waste.

If successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the recruitment process.

Job responsibilities

The post of Deputy Director of Systems Engineering has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 30% per annum.

Please be aware that RRP is none contractual and subject to review.

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

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Masters or equivalent qualification or equivalent experience

Experience & Knowledge

• Subject matter expertise in Identity Management
• Experience in developing projects in OpenAuth
• Experience building access management solutions
• Experience building and running high availability solutions with low latency
• Experience in resolving large or high risk commercial management issues
• Significant management experience at senior level in the NHS or other public healthcare related industry

Skills

• Demonstrable ability to lead and inspire multi-disciplinary teams working across multiple functions and organisations
• Ability to analyse highly complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources (verbal, written and numerical)

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.

£141,932.70 to £163,328.10 a year(this includes a RRP Payment of 30%)