Job summary

The Senior Project Manager - Commercial is a senior delivery role within the Commercial Function, working in the Commercial team and answerable to the Assistant Director of Commercial. The postholder will lead significant elements of the function's first-year programme of work and its enduring activity, translating an evolving commercial design into delivered capability. This is a broad role, suited to an experienced project manager with commercial credibility who is comfortable operating with ambiguity in a function that is still being defined, and who can work effectively across NHS England Commercial, DDaT, the Investment Areas, Regions, providers and the supplier market.

Main duties of the job

Support the mobilisation of agreed elements of the Commercial Function, including the design and embedding of processes, governance forums, reporting routes and ways of working.

Support the whole lifecycle of commercial programmes of work containing multiple projects and workstreams - planning, resourcing, reporting on progress and managing risks, issues and dependencies.

Support the development and implementation of the Programme commercial strategy and its alignment with the wider NHS England commercial strategy, Government Commercial Function policy, and applicable DDaT, cyber and data standards.

Support the assessment of Programme demand and the review of regional plans, working with the Investment Areas and the EPMO to build a consolidated view of the investment pipeline and to identify commercial risks, dependencies and opportunities for aggregation.

Support major procurement activity undertaken on behalf of the Programme, including the Delivery Partner procurement - developing the route to market, scope and requirements, managing the process to timetable, and supporting evaluation, award and mobilisation.

Support the establishment of supplier relationship management activity, including supplier segmentation, market intelligence, price benchmarking and strategic supplier relationships, to improve supply chain resilience and ensure market readiness ahead of regional investment.

About us

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.

Details

Date posted

08 October 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£57,528 to £64,750 a year per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time, Job share, Flexible working

Reference number

990-TDD-DIG-EC5230-E

Job locations

Wellington House/10 South Colonnade/Wellington Place

133–155 Waterloo Road

London/Leeds

SE1 8UG

United Kingdom

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Frontline Productivity Programme has been established to raise the digital productivity of the NHS frontline, ensuring that investment in technology and IT infrastructure translates into measurable improvements in productivity, patient safety and the quality of care. It does this by setting national strategy and guardrails, allocating funding through NHS England Regions, and providing the standards, guidance and specialist expertise that individual organisations cannot effectively deliver alone.

Background

Frontline Productivity (FP) is one of the largest digitally enabled transformation programmes in the country. Following the Chancellor of the Exchequers Spending Review announcement of 11 June 2025, funding has been confirmed for the four years from 2026/27 to 2029/30 covering infrastructure for frontline organisations, cyber for frontline organisations, Connecting Care Records, Electronic Patient Records (EPR) and associated productivity technologies for all care settings, and support to change management.

Across the spending review period the Programme represents capital of £0.8bn and revenue of £1.4bn, alongside a further £0.3bn capital and £0.6bn revenue invested by provider organisations. It builds on the achievements of the Frontline Digitisation, Network Connectivity and NHS Wi-Fi programmes, which will have supported 90% of organisations to achieve core EPR implementation targets by March 2026, delivered over 16,000 gigabit-capable network connections and enabled 95% of organisations to begin using cloud infrastructure.

The Programmes scope covers all health care settings primary care (general practice) and secondary care (acute, community, mental health and ambulance services) and includes both NHS and Community Interest Company providers. At least 50% of funding and support is expected to be directed to organisations delivering non-acute care, supporting the shift towards neighbourhood health services. Social care funding is out of scope.

The Programme directly supports the NHS 10-Year Plan, the Governments health and growth missions, and the NHS ambition of 2% annual productivity growth. It addresses an ageing digital estate that consumes up to 40% of secondary care IT budgets, unreliable infrastructure that costs frontline staff clinical and administrative time, an absence of standardisation that prevents the NHS from realising economies of scale, a rising cyber security threat, and a shortage of digital adoption and change management capability.

Delivery is coordinated nationally by NHS England and led locally by Regions, which aggregate need across their provider communities, set local priorities within nationally defined guardrails and oversee delivery. The national Programme decides overall strategy and priorities, determines regional allocations, and provides change management, risk management, implementation and PMO support, knowledge management, skills development and Centres of Excellence. The Programmes investment areas are:

Infrastructure networks and connectivity, wireless, end user devices, hosting and cloud.

Electronic Patient Records full digitisation, core capability and optimisation, including usability and digitally enabled pathway redesign.

Connected Care Records meeting minimum national criteria and achieving national interoperability coverage.

Digital Medicines closed loop medicines systems and the structured transfer of medicines information.

Frontline elements of the Cyber Improvement Programme.

Change management and digital adoption.

Support the mobilisation of agreed elements of the Commercial Function, including the design and embedding of processes, governance forums, reporting routes and ways of working.

Manage the whole lifecycle of commercial programmes of work containing multiple projects and workstreams planning, resourcing, reporting on progress and managing risks, issues and dependencies acting as a point of escalation for project managers within the team.

Support the development and implementation of the Programme commercial strategy and its alignment with the wider NHS England commercial strategy, Government Commercial Function policy, and applicable DDaT, cyber and data standards.

Support the assessment of Programme demand and the review of regional plans, working with the Investment Areas and the EPMO to build a consolidated view of the investment pipeline and to identify commercial risks, dependencies and opportunities for aggregation.

Lead or contribute to major procurement activity undertaken on behalf of the Programme, including the Delivery Partner procurement developing the route to market, scope and requirements, managing the process to timetable, and supporting evaluation, award and mobilisation.

Establish and run market and supplier relationship management activity, including supplier segmentation, market intelligence, price benchmarking and strategic supplier relationships, to improve supply chain resilience and ensure market readiness ahead of regional investment.

Develop and deliver the Programmes commercial support offer to Regions and providers guidance, templates, contract management frameworks, business case review and specialist advice and oversee the collection and cascade of commercial lessons learned.

Support the interface with NHS England Commercial, DDaT, the New Hospital Programme and the Investment Areas, ensuring that activity delivered on the Programmes behalf is visible, coordinated, and free from duplication or gaps.

Support commercial input to Programme business cases and funding decisions, including navigating NHS England, Department of Health and Social Care, Cabinet Office and HM Treasury approvals governance.

Manage budgets for allocated programmes of work, including budget setting, monitoring and forecasting, and contribute to resourcing and delivery model decisions for the function.

Deliver detailed programme reports to senior NHS England team members and to various Boards across the health and social care system, including where necessary the Department of Health and Social Care.

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.

Job description Job responsibilities The Frontline Productivity Programme has been established to raise the digital productivity of the NHS frontline, ensuring that investment in technology and IT infrastructure translates into measurable improvements in productivity, patient safety and the quality of care. It does this by setting national strategy and guardrails, allocating funding through NHS England Regions, and providing the standards, guidance and specialist expertise that individual organisations cannot effectively deliver alone. Background Frontline Productivity (FP) is one of the largest digitally enabled transformation programmes in the country. Following the Chancellor of the Exchequers Spending Review announcement of 11 June 2025, funding has been confirmed for the four years from 2026/27 to 2029/30 covering infrastructure for frontline organisations, cyber for frontline organisations, Connecting Care Records, Electronic Patient Records (EPR) and associated productivity technologies for all care settings, and support to change management. Across the spending review period the Programme represents capital of £0.8bn and revenue of £1.4bn, alongside a further £0.3bn capital and £0.6bn revenue invested by provider organisations. It builds on the achievements of the Frontline Digitisation, Network Connectivity and NHS Wi-Fi programmes, which will have supported 90% of organisations to achieve core EPR implementation targets by March 2026, delivered over 16,000 gigabit-capable network connections and enabled 95% of organisations to begin using cloud infrastructure. The Programmes scope covers all health care settings primary care (general practice) and secondary care (acute, community, mental health and ambulance services) and includes both NHS and Community Interest Company providers. At least 50% of funding and support is expected to be directed to organisations delivering non-acute care, supporting the shift towards neighbourhood health services. Social care funding is out of scope. The Programme directly supports the NHS 10-Year Plan, the Governments health and growth missions, and the NHS ambition of 2% annual productivity growth. It addresses an ageing digital estate that consumes up to 40% of secondary care IT budgets, unreliable infrastructure that costs frontline staff clinical and administrative time, an absence of standardisation that prevents the NHS from realising economies of scale, a rising cyber security threat, and a shortage of digital adoption and change management capability. Delivery is coordinated nationally by NHS England and led locally by Regions, which aggregate need across their provider communities, set local priorities within nationally defined guardrails and oversee delivery. The national Programme decides overall strategy and priorities, determines regional allocations, and provides change management, risk management, implementation and PMO support, knowledge management, skills development and Centres of Excellence. The Programmes investment areas are: Infrastructure networks and connectivity, wireless, end user devices, hosting and cloud. Electronic Patient Records full digitisation, core capability and optimisation, including usability and digitally enabled pathway redesign. Connected Care Records meeting minimum national criteria and achieving national interoperability coverage. Digital Medicines closed loop medicines systems and the structured transfer of medicines information. Frontline elements of the Cyber Improvement Programme. Change management and digital adoption. Support the mobilisation of agreed elements of the Commercial Function, including the design and embedding of processes, governance forums, reporting routes and ways of working. Manage the whole lifecycle of commercial programmes of work containing multiple projects and workstreams planning, resourcing, reporting on progress and managing risks, issues and dependencies acting as a point of escalation for project managers within the team. Support the development and implementation of the Programme commercial strategy and its alignment with the wider NHS England commercial strategy, Government Commercial Function policy, and applicable DDaT, cyber and data standards. Support the assessment of Programme demand and the review of regional plans, working with the Investment Areas and the EPMO to build a consolidated view of the investment pipeline and to identify commercial risks, dependencies and opportunities for aggregation. Lead or contribute to major procurement activity undertaken on behalf of the Programme, including the Delivery Partner procurement developing the route to market, scope and requirements, managing the process to timetable, and supporting evaluation, award and mobilisation. Establish and run market and supplier relationship management activity, including supplier segmentation, market intelligence, price benchmarking and strategic supplier relationships, to improve supply chain resilience and ensure market readiness ahead of regional investment. Develop and deliver the Programmes commercial support offer to Regions and providers guidance, templates, contract management frameworks, business case review and specialist advice and oversee the collection and cascade of commercial lessons learned. Support the interface with NHS England Commercial, DDaT, the New Hospital Programme and the Investment Areas, ensuring that activity delivered on the Programmes behalf is visible, coordinated, and free from duplication or gaps. Support commercial input to Programme business cases and funding decisions, including navigating NHS England, Department of Health and Social Care, Cabinet Office and HM Treasury approvals governance. Manage budgets for allocated programmes of work, including budget setting, monitoring and forecasting, and contribute to resourcing and delivery model decisions for the function. Deliver detailed programme reports to senior NHS England team members and to various Boards across the health and social care system, including where necessary the Department of Health and Social Care. 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

Education/Training/Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to Masters level in a relevant area of academic practice or equivalent experience working at a commensurate band/level.
• Have one or more of the programme/project management qualifications below or equivalent level of experience: oManaging Successful Programmes Practitioner oManaging Successful Programmes Advanced Practitioner oP3O Practitioner oAPM Registered Project Professional oProject Leadership Programme

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Significant experience of managing projects and delivering them within agreed timescales and budgets.
• Experience in managing stakeholders, taking account of their levels of influence and particular interests.
• Experience of preparing briefing papers and correspondence at project board level.

Skills

Essential

• Able to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and contentious information.
• Good analytical skills with an ability to analyse and consider complex information, and develop a range of options.

Interpersonal Skills

Essential

• Ability to build relations with internal and external partners which are critical in securing the strategic objectives of the business

Person Specification Education/Training/Qualifications Essential Educated to Masters level in a relevant area of academic practice or equivalent experience working at a commensurate band/level. Have one or more of the programme/project management qualifications below or equivalent level of experience: oManaging Successful Programmes Practitioner oManaging Successful Programmes Advanced Practitioner oP3O Practitioner oAPM Registered Project Professional oProject Leadership Programme Knowledge and Experience Essential Significant experience of managing projects and delivering them within agreed timescales and budgets. Experience in managing stakeholders, taking account of their levels of influence and particular interests. Experience of preparing briefing papers and correspondence at project board level. Skills Essential Able to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and contentious information. Good analytical skills with an ability to analyse and consider complex information, and develop a range of options. Interpersonal Skills Essential Ability to build relations with internal and external partners which are critical in securing the strategic objectives of the business

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.

Employer details

Employer name

NHS England

Address

Wellington House/10 South Colonnade/Wellington Place

133–155 Waterloo Road

London/Leeds

SE1 8UG

United Kingdom

Employer's website

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details

Employer name

NHS England

Address

Wellington House/10 South Colonnade/Wellington Place

133–155 Waterloo Road

London/Leeds

SE1 8UG

United Kingdom

Employer's website

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)