Senior Finance Lead, Service Development | NHS England in London

The Specialised Commissioning, Finance Business Partner team in the NHS England Finance and Planning Directorate is now recruiting for a Senior Finance Lead role. This is a fantastic opportunity to be at the heart of work to support the NHS.

We:

• work closely with government to agree NHS funding;
• ensure the NHS lives within its annual budget;
• decide how to distribute the funding to the different NHS services and parts of England;
• support innovative programmes that improve the care and experience of NHS patients or people using NHS services;
• set out the financial and performance priorities the NHS should be delivering each year;
• report how much the NHS has spent on providing services each year;
• explore how the NHS can make the best use of its money;
• look at how spend on building or equipment can improve the care and experience of people using NHS services;
• consider how nationally we use these resources to improve healthcare outcomes, reduce inequality, improve health and support the NHS.

As a Senior Finance Lead, you will focus on:

• Developing and leading on the costing and financial modelling for National Clinical policies, Service specifications and assurance of clinical trials;
• Acting as finance lead for providing professional expertise and support to the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) and other committees as appropriate.

The team offers high profile, fast-paced projects. This requires adaptability, rigor and innovation and provides exciting development opportunities for those developing their careers in the NHS, health or the public sector.

Below are the types of skills and experience that we are looking for:

• Expert knowledge on the NHS national tariff and other costing mechanisms and an understanding of how the tariff is developed and applied in order to support development of the Clinical Policies;
• Experience of turning proposals for clinical or operational change into detailed costings and challenging these for efficiency and value-for-money gains;
• Experience of providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive and contentious information, negotiating with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and presenting complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups;
• Ability to plan, organise and effectively prioritise a broad range of complex activities, to reflect changing circumstances;
• Experience of budgetary responsibility, including budget setting with evidence of working knowledge of financial processes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This advert closes on Sunday 16 Aug 2026.