Delivery Lead

We are currently supporting a consultancy delivering the Alpha phase of a digital transformation project. This is your chance to lead delivery on a programme that will have real impact on how NHS services are designed and delivered.

As Delivery Lead, you'll be the engine room of a multidisciplinary team bringing structure, pace, and clarity to a complex stakeholder environment. Alpha phases move fast and require someone who can balance rigorous delivery disciplines with the flexibility to adapt as the team learns.

What You'll Be Doing

• Leading day-to-day delivery across a cross-functional agile team, ensuring the project progresses against Alpha objectives and timelines.
• Establishing and embedding ways of working from the outset: sprint ceremonies, backlogs, retrospectives, and adapting them as the team matures.
• Owning the delivery roadmap for the Alpha phase, tracking milestones, managing risks, issues, and dependencies with rigour and transparency.
• Acting as the primary point of contact for delivery across internal and external stakeholders including clinical leads, operational managers, digital and technology teams, and senior NHS leadership.
• Facilitating clear and effective communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders, translating complexity into actionable decisions.
• Working closely with the Product Manager and User Researchers to ensure delivery stays aligned to user needs and Alpha outcomes.
• Identifying and removing blockers proactively, escalating where necessary, and keeping the team focused on delivering value.
• Contributing to Alpha phase reporting and preparing the groundwork for a successful Beta assessment, including documentation of delivery approach and lessons learned.
• Coaching and supporting team members on agile principles and delivery best practice where needed.

What You'll Bring

• NHS experience is essential. You'll have worked inside NHS organisations whether a Trust, ICB, NHS England, NHSX, or equivalent and understand the cultural, operational, and political landscape that comes with it. Candidates without direct NHS experience will not be considered for this role.
• Demonstrable experience leading delivery through Alpha phase (or equivalent Discovery/Alpha in a GDS or public sector context), with a clear understanding of what good looks like at each phase gate.
• Strong agile practitioner comfortable with Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid approaches and able to flex methodology to the team's needs without losing rigour.
• Experience managing complex, multi-layered stakeholder relationships across clinical, technical, and operational functions simultaneously.
• Excellent risk and dependency management skills; you don't just flag problems, you come with solutions.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and able to bring calm, structure, and direction when things are uncertain.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; you can write a clear risk log as easily as you can run a productive retrospective or present a progress update to a Director.
• Familiarity with GDS Service Standard, NHS Digital delivery frameworks, or equivalent public sector delivery approaches is highly desirable.
• Agile or delivery certifications (SAFe, AgilePM, PRINCE2 Agile, Scrum Master) are advantageous but not a substitute for real-world experience.