Senior Programme Manager

NHS England; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

NHS England's Product and Platforms Directorate seeks a Senior Programme Manager (Band 8c) to lead the Single Unique Identifier programme and related services within the Demographics Platforms domain. You will oversee complex, high-profile delivery end-to-end, ensuring alignment with NHS England priorities, governance and policy.

The role combines delivery leadership with governance and assurance to define and realise outcomes, benefits and progress.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering complex programmes with measurable outcomes.
• Ability to lead process analysis and improvements across projects, programmes and portfolios.
• Experience developing business cases and investment decisions.
• Knowledge of Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban) and applying them in delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of the SUI programme and related programmes end-to-end.
• Ensure strong governance across the portfolio.
• Manage plans, risks, issues and reporting.
• Coordinate subject matter expertise across teams and track measurable outcomes.

Skills

Programme management

Governance

Stakeholder management

Agile delivery

Job description

The Product and Platforms Directorate designs, builds and runs the core infrastructure that supports digital health and care services across the UK.

We are recruiting a Senior Programme Manager (Band 8c) to lead delivery of the Single Unique Identifier (SUI) and related services within the Demographics Platforms domain.

You will lead complex, high‑profile programmes end‑to‑end. You will ensure delivery is aligned to NHS England priorities, governance, and policy.

You will combine strong delivery leadership with clear governance and assurance. You will ensure outcomes, benefits and progress are well defined, measured and achieved.

The Demographics and GP Registration service sits within Product and Platforms, part of the Transformation Directorate in NHS England.

We lead the development of a future, tech‑enabled, person‑centred health and care system by:

• Delivering national platforms and services
• Working with Department of Education, Local Government, NHS regions, ICBs, and frontline services
• Supporting priority national programmes
• Enabling innovation and adoption at scale

The Demographics and GP Registration portfolio delivers the core services that help connect digital health and care systems across the NHS.

As Senior Programme Manager for the Single Unique Identifier programme you will:

• Lead Programme delivery of SUI and associated programmes
• Ensure strong governance across the portfolio
• Manage plans, risks, issues and reporting
• Develop and assure business cases and investment decisions
• Coordinate subject matter expertise across teams
• Track and deliver measurable outcomes and benefits
• Provide challenge, insight and direction to senior stakeholders

As a Senior Programme Manager you will have experience in:

• delivering complex initiatives and achieving measurable outcomes
• leading process analysis and improvement across project, programme, and portfolio environments, driving efficiency and better delivery outcomes
• delivering programme management functions, including establishment of effective management controls, governance, assurance, strategic planning and analysing, reporting and decision making
• developing business cases and other investment justification
• working knowledge of Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban) and experience applying them in delivery environments.

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

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

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and 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 process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.