Deputy Chief Finance Officer in Prestwich

We are looking for an exceptional finance leader who believes that finance and procurement are not back-office functions. They are enablers of safer, more effective and more sustainable care. This is a role for someone who combines professional grip with humanity, curiosity and the courage to challenge. Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust is moving forward with ambition and honesty. We are proud of the progress we are making and equally clear that there is more to do. As Deputy Chief Finance Officer, you will help turn that ambition into consistently excellent delivery. You will lead a talented finance function, bring insight to difficult choices, and ensure every pound supports the best possible outcomes for the people and communities we serve.

Main duties of the job

You will provide senior leadership across the full finance and procurement portfolio, including financial planning and strategy, financial management, financial services and technical accounts, costing, value improvement, procurement, capital and cash management, financial systems and innovation, audit, governance, productivity and finance workforce development. You will deputise for the Chief Finance Officer as required and support the Trust to make clear, evidence-based decisions in a demanding and changing environment.

Working for our organisation

We are one of the largest specialist mental health providers in the country, with approximately 7,500 colleagues, annual income of around £550m, services delivered across a large and diverse Greater Manchester geography spanning the five boroughs of Bolton, Manchester, Trafford, Salford and Wigan. We have four operational Care Groups and strong partnerships across the Greater Manchester Integrated Care System. That scale gives this role real breadth, visibility and influence. This is a pivotal time to join GMMH. We have stronger foundations, a clearer five-year direction and real ambition for the next phase of our improvement. Our strategy connects three priorities: delivering care that matters, working together and being fit for the future. Finance sits across all three. The Deputy Chief Finance Officer will make that connection real, every day.

Why this opportunity matters

You will work at the heart of an organisation whose purpose is to improve lives and whose ambition is to provide great places for care and great places to work. You will help translate clinical, operational and financial information into choices that improve outcomes, reduce unwarranted variation and protect long-term sustainability. You will shape how we use automation, AI and better data to reduce repetitive work, improve insight and release finance capacity to spend more time alongside services. You will influence beyond the Trust, working with NHS Greater Manchester, NHS England and partner organisations to support integrated funding, transformation and sustainable mental health pathways. You will help strengthen a culture of openness, constructive challenge and evidence-based assurance at Executive, Board and committee level.

The kind of leader we want

You will care about the work we do, not only the numbers we report. You will listen carefully, seek to understand the reality facing services and service users, and build trust through consistency and follow-through. You will also be confident enough to challenge assumptions, explain financial consequences plainly and say when something is not sufficiently evidenced. We do not expect you to know everything. We do expect you to be curious, to admit when you are unsure, to ask the right people and to come back with a considered answer. That combination of humility and professional courage matters to us.

We are looking for someone who:

• Is professionally qualified (CCAB / CIMA), with significant post-qualification experience and a strong track record in NHS finance leadership.
• Can operate confidently with Executive Directors, Non-Executive Directors, clinical leaders, operational teams and system partners.
• Combines strategic grip with analytical curiosity, commercial awareness and the ability to turn complex information into clear choices.
• Builds trusted relationships, supports constructive challenge and creates the conditions for high-performing teams to thrive.
• Brings energy, resilience, professional courage and a genuine commitment to improving lives through better use of NHS resources.

If you want to lead a finance function with purpose, help shape the future of mental health care across Greater Manchester and turn better financial insight into better care, this is an opportunity to make a lasting difference.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Education to degree level or equivalent.
• Hold a professional accounting qualification and be a current member of a CCAB/ CIMA organisation.
• Undertake demonstrable and relevant continuing professional development.

Experience

• Significant senior finance leadership experience within a large, complex organisation.
• Extensive financial management experience, including substantial experience operating at sub-director or equivalent senior leadership level within a large organisation.
• Experience of working effectively across organisational boundaries with commissioners, system partners, regulators or other external stakeholders.
• Extensive experience of negotiating, establishing and managing SLAs and contracts for healthcare or other services.
• Extensive experience of managing large and highly complex financial services.
• Experience of leading financial improvement, productivity, efficiency or value programmes in a complex organisation.
• Experience of working with, or providing senior oversight of, procurement systems and processes.
• Experience of leading large and diverse teams.
• Experience of financial risk management within a large and complex organisation.
• Experience of leading change projects/programmes within a large organisation.
• Experience of preparing and presenting complex financial advice and reports to Board, Committees and senior management meetings.
• Significant senior finance experience within the NHS, wider health sector or similarly complex public sector organisation.
• Knowledge of national cross functional strategies/policies relevant to healthcare.
• Experience of developing wider business proposals and pulling together commercial packages.
• Experience of managing capital programmes.