Director of Strategy

Job Title: Director of Strategy
Function: Strategy and Business Architecture
Location: Hybrid Worker – Expectation is two/three days per week on site at our Nottingham office
Contract type: Permanent
Salary: Offered on a starting salary of £116,038 with the potential to increase to £136,515 over the course of three years, plus a car allowance of £8500 per annum
Closing Date: Tuesday 15th September

NHS Supply Chain currently has an opportunity for a to join our team during an exciting period of transformation, working to make it easier for the NHS to put patients first.

This role will set the strategic direction for the company to ensure it maximizes the value it brings to the NHS, in collaboration with the Board, ensuring organizational understanding and alignment in its delivery. Translates the strategy into an annual business plan and targets to drive organizational performance. The role is responsible for monitoring and working to design responses to external opportunities and threats, as well as supporting directorates in their translation of the corporate strategy into directorate plans. Strong relationship and communication skills are needed to ensure the role is able to influence effectively.

Every day you will …

• Take accountability for Corporate Strategy development: Working with the Board, Executive Directors, wider NHS colleagues and the leadership of the organization, ensure there is a clear and appropriate corporate strategy for the organization, anchored on Board and Executive strategy away days. Lead the team to ensure the strategy remains relevant in the context of the evolution of the health service and wider opportunities and threats.
• Have ownership of multi-year strategic plans, operating model evolution, and connectivity into wider planning: Accountable for medium / long range business planning, the shape and capability requirements of the organization, and working with wider teams to ensure alignment with budgets, workforce plans etc
• Deliver a clear and compelling annual business plan: Approved by the Board and shareholder on an annual basis, ensure the organization has a clear plan for the year, underpinned with clear KPIs, underpinned by a budget, workforce plan and comms plan. Connect the plan to the performance framework to ensure delivery
• Lead the corporate market research and operational excellence capabilities: The business has strong capabilities in both market research and operational excellence – help provide leadership to both teams, ensuring the right focus is in place to deliver maximum insight and value back to the business.
• Provide strong values based leadership to the team: Leading a team of circa 10 – 12, provide strong experienced leadership to the team, to help to develop the team, hold them to account on performance, and to enable strong partnering across the business.

What can we offer you?
We want to reward you for your passion, enthusiasm, and hard work so we offer much more than a competitive salary:
• Hybrid working opportunities, giving you the flexibility to work collaboratively in the office and remotely.
• We recognise our employees' hard work and contributions with annual bonus schemes, long service, and colleague recognition awards.
• 27 days holiday plus bank holidays
• We are dedicated to your development, through in-house training, support, and access to external qualifications to maximise your potential.
• A focus on your well-being offering 1 day of paid well-being leave and free access to the 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
• Generous pension scheme (with us contributing 12% when you contribute 6%)
• Access to our Flexible Benefits Scheme, where you can choose from a variety of benefits such as Life Insurance, Critical Illness Cover, Income Protection, Health Cash Plan, Dental Insurance, and additional pension contributions that suit you.
• 2 days of paid volunteering leave allowing you to give back to your community.
• Access to many discounts from the Blue Light Card to NHS Discounts.

NHS Supply Chain, who are we?
Our role is to support the NHS to save lives and improve health. We are a part of the NHS family, and our role is to source, deliver and supply healthcare products, services and food for NHS trusts and healthcare organisations across England and Wales.

We serve every NHS Trust and operate a national network of distribution centres, managing relationships with more than a thousand suppliers and delivering more than 8,000,000 orders each year to more than 17,000 locations. Doing all of this on behalf of the NHS gives NHS staff more time to focus on their main priority of providing excellent patient care.


What skills will help you thrive in this role?
• Excellent collaboration skills: Capable of partnering with senior leadership across the business and across the wider NHS, to help shape strategic thinking and opportunities. Close collaboration will also be required with teams including change, finance, IT and people to plan the implementation of the strategy.
• Bring a natural curiosity to help make connections with opportunities for the business: from the development of AI, to sustainability, to the connection of healthcare and social care – the role requires a natural curiosity and desire to bring new thinking into the organization and challenge the status quo.
• Compelling communicator: The role requires someone who can simply articulate the strategy and understands how to engage in the organization in the strategy to ensure it is understood and provides the north star for the business.
• Functional expertise in strategy development, and ideally healthcare or commercial / supply chain businesses: This role requires a strategic thinker, but with the right behaviours to influence and collaborate across the business. Experience in either the industry or functional specialism of the business would be an advantage but would not be a priority above the right behavioural skill set.

Our Inclusive Commitment
At NHS Supply Chain, we are committed to building an inclusive environment where difference is not only valued, but celebrated, giving everyone the opportunity to thrive in their career. Developing our people is key to our success, so if this role sounds like the right next step in your career but your experience doesn’t match perfectly with the job advert, we encourage you to still apply.

Struggling to complete our application form, and require additional support? Reach out to our Talent Acquisition team at careers@supplychain.nhs.uk who will be happy to help you with alternative ways to apply.


We reserve the right to close any vacancy from further submissions when we have received sufficient applications from which to make a shortlist. Please apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

SCCL is a company Registered in England and Wales, with company number 10881715, to act as the management function of the NHS Supply Chain.