Digital Medicines Programme Lead

Transformation Unit; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 67,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced Pharmacist or Pharmacy Technician to lead the organisation’s Digital Medicines agenda. The Digital Medicines Programme Lead will drive strategy, governance, and delivery of ePMA solutions across the Trust to improve safety and efficiency.

You will provide senior professional and operational leadership to the Digital Medicines team, work with the CCIOs, and ensure alignment with national policy and clinical priorities.

Qualifications

• Registered healthcare professional (e.g. GPhC)
• Master’s degree level or equivalent or demonstrable senior NHS leadership experience
• Evidence of CPD relevant to digital medicines, informatics or leadership
• Postgraduate qualification in Digital Health, Clinical Informatics, Leadership or Management
• Clinical Safety Officer (CSO) accreditation or willingness to obtain

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for the Trust’s Digital Medicines function and develop delivery of ePMA services
• Lead multidisciplinary teams and governance for digital medicines projects
• Ensure safe, effective and interoperable digital medicines systems
• Collaborate with senior clinical and digital leaders to shape strategy and policy

Skills

Senior leadership experience

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Clinical governance

Data analysis (Power BI, SQL)

Education

Master’s degree or equivalent

Postgraduate qualification in Digital Health/Clinical Informatics/Leadership

Registered healthcare professional (GPhC)

Tools

SQL

Power BI

Job description

Employer Northumbria Healthcare - NHCT Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub Town Seaton Delaval Salary £66,582 - £77,368 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 13/09/2026 23:59

NHS AfC: Band 8b

Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work for an organisation that was voted the best acute and combined acute and community trust in the country, based on the experience of its staff (NHS Staff Survey 2022). Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathing in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isnt, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare and, this is… the Northumbria Way!

What the Northumbria Way means for you:

• Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
• Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
• A range of flexible working opportunities
• Generous annual leave and pension scheme
• Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
• Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
• Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank

We work closely with Kids First Nurseries that are based within our trust grounds at Wansbeck, North Tyneside and Hexham hospitals to care for our Trust family's children, they offer care for children from 6 weeks old up to 4 years. There are a number of funding options run by the government to help working parents, including Early Years Funding and Tax Free Childcare.

Flexible working offers choice in where, when, and how we work, ensuring patients remain at the heart of all we do. It’s open to everyone, and we aim to find solutions that work for both you and the organisation. All arrangements must be reasonable and balanced to maintain safe and effective patient care.

We are proud to be one of the country’s top performing NHS trusts – rated ‘outstanding’ overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We provide a range of health and care services to support more than 500,000 people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside across the largest geographical area of any NHS Trust in England. Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes. Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.

We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy.

If Northumbria Healthcare sounds like somewhere you could belong we would love to hear from you. Visit our website to catch up on our latest news.

Whilst Northumbria Healthcare are a highly innovative organisation, the use of Third Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes. If you use AI, and it poses a risk to the integrity your individual recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process.

Job overview

We are seeking an experienced, innovative and forward-thinking Pharmacist or Pharmacy Technician to provide senior programme leadership for the organisation’s Digital Medicines agenda. This high-profile leadership role will drive the strategic development, governance, and delivery of digital medicines systems and services, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities, national policy, and the evolving needs of clinical services.

As Digital Medicines Programme Lead, the postholder will provide professional, operational, and strategic leadership across the Digital Medicines team. The role will be responsible for directing the delivery, optimisation, and continuous improvement of digital medicines solutions, ensuring systems are safe, effective, interoperable, and support excellence in patient care.

The postholder will act as expert lead for digital medicines programmes working closely with Chief Clinical Information Officers and Digital Medicines Lead. They will provide oversight and assurance across multiple complex projects and services, working closely with the wider digital and informatics teams to deliver transformational change at scale.

Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the closing date once the required number of suitable applications have been received.

Main duties of the job

• Accountable for delivery and performance of the Trust’s digital medicines services impacting all clinical areas
• Leads a multidisciplinary team including Digital Medicines Operational Lead, clinical informatics specialists and wider digital/clinical staff
• Responsible for organisation‑wide ePMA systems used by prescribers, nursing, pharmacy and AHP staff
• Manages complex programmes covering system optimisation, upgrades, integrations and transformation initiatives
• Accountable for quality assurance, governance, risk management and compliance with legislation and national standards
• Responsible for prioritisation and allocation of digital medicines resources and contributing to financial planning
• Provides organisation‑wide expert leadership on digital medicines safety and system design decisions
• Leads development of integrations with clinical and corporate systems
• Responsible for ensuring effective use of digital medicines data for performance, safety and decision-making

Working for our organisation

We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, covering one of the largest geographical areas of any NHS trust in the country. Leading in innovation and quality – opening a state of the art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathing in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare, this is the Northumbria Way!

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• The post holder will provide strategic leadership and management of the Trust’s Digital
  Medicines function, with responsibility for the development, delivery and optimisation of
  electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) services across the
  organisation.
• As the Trust’s Digital Medicines Programme Lead, the post holder will work in association
  with the trust CCIOs (Chief Clinical Information Officers) and Digital Medicines Lead to
  develop trust wide strategy around digital medicines and set the strategic direction for ePMA
  and clinical informatics, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities, national policy and
  regulatory frameworks.
• The role is accountable for the safe, effective and efficient design, implementation and
  governance of digital medicines systems, ensuring that services deliver improved patient
  safety, clinical outcomes and operational efficiency at organisational scale.
  The post holder will lead complex programmes of work spanning multiple clinical and
  corporate services, overseeing system lifecycle management, digital transformation, and
  continuous service improvement, while managing associated risks, resources and
  performance.
• Working in partnership with senior clinical, digital and operational leaders, the post holder
  will influence organisational strategy, investment decisions and innovation in digital
  medicines, ensuring delivery of high‑quality, sustainable and future‑focused services.
• The role provides professional and operational leadership to multidisciplinary teams,
  building organisational capability in digital medicines, and ensuring compliance with all
  statutory, governance and clinical safety requirements.
  There will be a requirement to maintain a level of clinical practice within their area of
  professional registration.
• To role model compassionate and inclusive leadership in order to shape the creation of a
  collective leadership culture within the trust. This means demonstrating a consistent
  leadership style which (a) engages, enables and empowers others (b) uses coaching to
  promote ownership of learning and quality improvement and (c) facilitates team working and
  collaboration within teams / departments and across organisational boundaries.

Qualifications / Professional Registration

• Registered healthcare professional (e.g. registered with GPhC)
• Educated to master’s degree level or equivalent, or able to demonstrate extensive senior‑level experience within an NHS organisation, evidencing advanced specialist and leadership expertise
• Evidence of continuing professional development relevant to digital medicines, informatics or leadership
• Postgraduate qualification in Digital Health, Clinical Informatics, Leadership or Management
• Clinical Safety Officer (CSO) accreditation or willingness to obtain

Experience and Knowledge

• Significant senior leadership experience within: Digital medicines / clinical informatics / pharmacy services in the NHS
• Demonstrable experience of leading organisation‑wide programmes or services
• Demonstrable experience of delivering complex digital or transformation projects
• Demonstrable experience of managing multidisciplinary teams and services
• Demonstrable experience of working with senior stakeholders, including clinicians and executives
• Demonstrable experience of leading service improvement and redesign initiatives
• Experience of managing financial resources, budgets or service investment decisions
• Experience of clinical risk management and governance processes
• Experience of maintain practice clinically within area of professional registration
• Experience leading the development, implementation and review of policies and service standards within a healthcare setting
• Experience interpreting national policy and guidance and translating into local strategy and delivery
• Evidence of leading service redesign resulting in improvements to safety, quality or efficiency
• Experience ensuring compliance with governance, clinical safety and risk management frameworks
• Experience leading large‑scale ePMA implementation or optimisation programmes
• Experience working across organisational or system‑wide partnerships
• Experience of research, audit, or innovation in digital healthcare
• Experience using advanced data analysis tools or reporting methodologies (e.g. SQL, Power BI).
• Experience coordinating regional or multi-Trust digital projects.
• Experience presenting at regional or national digital forums.
• Experience with automated testing tools, scripting or custom configuration environments.
• Experience in participating in regional or national ePMA development networks.

Applicants who are members of the Armed Forces, those who have a disability that requires support in the work place (two ticks pledge) and those who have been looked after by the care system as a child or young person (for example, in foster care, children's homes, kinship or local authority care) who meet the essential criteria will be interviewed under the Trust's interview guarantee scheme.

We recognise the positive value of diversity and inclusion and are committed to a workforce that is diverse, equal and inclusive. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME people are currently under-represented in our workforce as well as other under-represented groups such as LGBT+ and disabled candidates. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, we have a Gold award from the Defense Recognition Scheme, and we are delighted to support Apprenticeships, Age Posi+ive and are a mindful employer.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend interview please make the recruitment team aware as soon as possible by calling our HR Recruitment Team on 0191 203 1415 option 2.

Applicants who meet the Fit and Proper Person Requirements (FPPR) will require additional pre-employment checks in line with CQC and NHS England statutory guidance.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Certificate of Sponsorship

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust proudly hold a sponsor licence. In order to provide sponsorship you and the role you are applying for must meet UKVI eligibility requirements. Please check your eligibility prior to submitting an application. Skilled Worker visa: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Please note that it is a requirement of this Trust that all successful applicants pay for their own DBS certification if a DBS check is required for the post. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first monthly pay.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Name Sarah Chandler Job title Deputy Chief Pharmacist / Digital Medicines Lead Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 07500 783229