Director of Client Services

Salary: £95,000–£105,000 depending on experience

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

Join Us at The Centre for ADHD Research and Excellence: Lead a function that shapes the experience of thousands of people every week.

At Care ADHD, we are improving access to high-quality neurodevelopmental services for adults and children across private and NHS pathways. We are client‑centred and outcomes‑focused, with a strong emphasis on operational excellence: clear structures, consistent standards, and leaders who know how to build teams that perform.

Our Client Services function has grown rapidly — from the first hire to more than 120 staff in under two years. It has been built on strong foundations, and it is ready for its next chapter. As the organisation continues to grow in complexity, we are introducing a Director of Client Services to lead the function’s long‑term development: shaping the strategy, building the leadership team, and ensuring that every patient, family, referrer, and partner experiences a service that is warm, clear, and consistently excellent.

This is a senior strategic role with real scope and real accountability. You will have three direct reports — including two department Heads — and ultimate responsibility for the performance, quality, culture, and operating model of a department that touches thousands of people every week. The structures you build, the leaders you develop, and the standards you set will define how Care ADHD scales for years to come.

This role is ideal for a seasoned service leader who combines strategic thinking with deep operational credibility, and who is genuinely energised by the opportunity to build something that matters at scale.

What We Are Looking For

• We’re looking for an experienced senior leader with a proven track record of leading large, multi‑layered, patient‑facing or customer‑facing service functions in a complex, high‑stakes environment.
• This role is best suited to someone who has already led through Heads of Department or senior managers, and who is confident owning strategy, operating model design, performance governance, workforce planning, and organisational development at scale.
• You will know the difference between being a good service leader and building a function that consistently delivers well through others.
• Equally important is how you lead. You will be credible and direct with the COO and Executive team, honest about risk and reality, and genuinely committed to the development of the people around you.
• You understand that your success will be measured not by what you solve personally, but by the strength of the leaders you build, the clarity of the systems you create, and the quality of the service delivered through others.
• Because this role spans adult and Under 18s pathways — including NHS services — we’re especially interested in people who bring experience from regulated, healthcare, or other high‑stakes environments where governance, quality, and the lived experience of the people being supported are not negotiable.
• This is a non‑clinical role. You do not need to be a clinician, but you do need to be a credible and collaborative partner to clinical and operational colleagues.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Holding overall responsibility for the performance, quality, consistency, and strategic direction of the Client Services function across adult and Under 18s services, private and NHS pathways.
• Defining and owning the operating model for the function, including team structures, leadership layers, decision rights, escalation routes, service standards, governance, and management rhythms.
• Leading and developing three senior direct reports – building a confident, accountable, and high‑performing leadership team.
• Translating organisational strategy into a clear functional roadmap covering service performance, patient and family experience, people capability, digital enablement, and scalable growth.
• Owning the function‑wide performance framework, including KPIs, dashboards, service levels, OKRs, reporting cadences, and review mechanisms across all Client Services teams.
• Maintaining clear executive‑level visibility of service performance, workforce risks, complaints themes, quality concerns, and operational pinch points — and ensuring timely action where needed.
• Overseeing the governance architecture for Client Services, including non‑clinical complaints oversight, service recovery standards, quality assurance, audit activity, escalation controls, and risk reporting.
• Leading departmental workforce strategy across adult and Under 18s services, including headcount planning, demand and capacity management, and the strategic drawdown of temporary staffing as appropriate.
• Overseeing Client Services performance against NHS and partner pathway requirements, working closely with the NHS Pathway Manager to ensure contractual obligations are met and NHS pathways are operationally robust and well supported within the wider function.
• Leading the Client Services contribution to transformation initiatives, including patient portal rollout, automation, workflow redesign, and process standardisation.
• Preparing high‑quality papers, business cases, and decision‑support materials for the COO and, where required, for Executive‑ and Board‑level discussions.
• Acting as the senior functional owner for Client Services in company‑wide planning, ensuring patient and family experience is represented in major decisions affecting growth, access, systems, staffing, and service design.

To Thrive in This Role You’ll Need To

• Have significant senior leadership experience in a large, multi‑layered, patient‑facing, customer‑facing, or service‑led environment, with accountability for performance, quality, people, and operational delivery.
• Be proven at leading through Heads of Department, senior managers, or equivalent senior leaders, and creating the conditions for them to lead effectively and independently.
• Have a strong track record of building management layers, organisational structure, and operating discipline in growing or changing environments.
• Be comfortable using performance data, service insight, complaints themes, and operational reporting to make decisions and drive measurable improvement.
• Be financially and commercially literate, with experience owning or materially influencing headcount planning and budget stewardship.
• Be highly organised and able to create structure, governance, and clarity at scale — not just manage within existing frameworks.
• Be honest, direct, and credible at senior levels — including being willing and proactive in telling the COO and executive team what they need to hear.
• Be outcomes‑first in instinct, with genuine care for the lived experience of patients, families, and the teams who serve them.
• Be energised by building, improving, and scaling — not by maintaining the status quo.
• Be calm, decisive, and high‑quality in your judgement at all times, but especially under pressure and ambiguity.

This Role Is Likely To Suit Someone Who Has

• Led a large service, operations, or patient services function at Director or VP level, with accountability for multiple teams and senior managers.
• Worked in healthcare, healthtech, regulated services, or another high‑stakes, people‑centred environment.
• Experience owning strategy, operating model design, workforce planning, and governance at scale.
• Managed through a period of significant growth, transformation, or structural change.
• Oversaw complaints, service recovery, and quality governance at a senior level.
• Built and developed senior managers, not just managed outcomes through them.
• Produced high‑quality reporting, business cases, and papers for Executive or Board audiences.

Bonus Points If You Have

• Direct experience in healthcare or another regulated patient‑facing environment.
• Familiarity with neurodevelopmental pathways, or children and young people’s services.
• Experience working with NHS pathways, commissioners, or external referral partners.
• Experience leading operational teams through digital or systems transformation, including automation and workflow redesign.
• Experience integrating newly acquired or launched services into an existing operating model.
• Experience leading hybrid or geographically dispersed teams at scale.

This Role Is Less Likely to Be a Fit If

• Your experience is primarily as a Head of Department or operational manager rather than leading through senior leaders or Heads.
• You have not previously worked in regulated, healthcare, or similarly high‑stakes environments where quality, governance, and trust are critical.
• You prefer to lead through personal delivery rather than building the capability and clarity for others to lead well.
• You are more comfortable in highly established, stable environments than in ones that require you to build, evolve, and improve.
• You have not previously owned strategy, operating model design, and governance at a function‑wide level.
• You are looking for a clinical leadership role or one with responsibility for clinical decision‑making.

What We Value

Care is at the heart of who we are — in how we support patients, and in how we treat each other as colleagues. We believe the way we show up for each other is just as important as what we do. Skills matter, but it’s our mindset, behaviours, and willingness to learn, adapt, and improve that protect the supportive culture we’ve built, and help us thrive together.

• Kindness — treating colleagues, partners, and everyone we support with respect and care.
• Transparency — being open and honest so that trust can grow.
• Reflection — pausing to learn from experience and improve together.
• Growth mindset — always welcoming feedback and challenges as opportunities to develop.
• Accountability — taking ownership of our actions and outcomes, not to assign blame, but to learn, adapt, improve, and move forward.
• Solution‑seeking — focusing on constructive ways forward, even when things are tough.
• Collaboration — sharing ideas, supporting one another, and celebrating collective success.

What You Can Expect From Us

• Competitive salary of £95,000–£105,000 depending on experience.
• Based at our Canary Wharf office with the option to work from home 1–2 days per week.
• 33 days holiday (including UK public holidays).
• Team get‑togethers.
• A paid day off on your birthday.
• Office equipment when you join.
• Pension contribution.
• A genuine opportunity to shape one of the UK’s most ambitious HealthTech scale‑ups.

Our Hiring Process

• Application review.
• Introductory screening call.
• First‑stage interview.
• Final‑stage panel interview.
• Offer.

Apply with Confidence: Studies show that men apply for roles when they meet around 60% of the qualifications, whereas women and other marginalised groups often apply only if they meet every requirement. If you believe you’re a great fit but don’t meet every single requirement, we encourage you to apply! At Care ADHD, we’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive environment. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, especially those from historically marginalised communities, as we work together to create a more equitable future.