This is an exciting opportunity to lead and coordinate high-profile projects that improve health outcomes for those within health and justice settings. The role involves managing multiple programmes, monitoring delivery against milestones, overseeing risks and budgets, supporting governance processes, and working with senior leaders and national stakeholders to ensure successful programme delivery.
The ideal candidate will be an organised, proactive, and strategic project professional with experience delivering complex projects in challenging environments. You will need strong stakeholder engagement, programme governance, risk management, financial monitoring, analytical, and communication skills.
This role offers the chance to make a real difference on a national scale, influencing programmes that directly improve services and outcomes across England. You'll work with senior NHS leaders, gain exposure to complex transformation programmes, develop your leadership and project management expertise.
The successful candidate will be responsible for coordinating and delivering multiple Health & Justice programmes across NHS England, ensuring projects are well-governed, aligned, and delivered successfully.
The role requires a strong blend of project management, analytical, and stakeholder management skills, including:
Project Management Expertise
Stakeholder Management
Communication Skills
Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills
Organisation and Planning
Financial and Risk Management
Beyond technical skills, we are looking for someone who demonstrates:
Leadership and initiative – able to take ownership and drive progress.
Collaborative working – works effectively with colleagues and partners across organisational boundaries.
Adaptability and resilience – comfortable working in complex, fast-changing environments.
Integrity and professionalism – maintains confidentiality and acts with openness and honesty.
Commitment to quality and improvement – continuously seeks better ways of working and improved outcomes.
Patient focus – understands how their work contributes to better services and outcomes for patients and the public.
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.
As a Project Manager , you will play a central role in supporting the delivery of NHS England's Health & Justice programmes. The role sits within the Health & Justice Delivery and Programme Management Team and focuses on coordinating multiple workstreams, ensuring robust governance, managing risks and performance, and supporting the successful delivery of national transformation programmes.
You will work closely with the National Governance, Assurance & Transformation Lead , senior leaders, regional teams, commissioners, providers, and external partners to ensure projects remain aligned with strategic objectives and are delivered effectively.
Main responsibilities include:
1. Project and Programme Management
2. Governance, Assurance and Reporting
3. Risk and Issue Management
4. Stakeholder Management
5. Performance and Information Management
6. Financial Management
7. Planning and Organisational Development
8. Team and People Management
Key Deliverables
You will be expected to:
Deliver projects on time and against agreed objectives.
Maintain accurate programme plans, risk registers, and governance reports.
Produce high-quality briefing papers and reports for senior leaders.
Ensure budgets, risks, performance measures, and programme activities are effectively monitored.
Build relationships with key stakeholders across NHS England and partner organisations.
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.
Secondments
Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.
