Development Director in Welwyn Garden City

Main area Commercial Grade Non NHS Banding Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (This is a hybrid role – site based with home working) Job ref 4265 -8154353

Site HUC HQ Town Ascots Lane, Welwyn Garden City Salary £95,000 per annum Closing 31/07/2026 23:59

Job overview

Are you a commercially astute leader with a passion for healthcare innovation and system-wide transformation?

HUC is seeking an ambitious Development Director to drive our next phase of growth, helping us expand services, build strategic partnerships, and improve patient outcomes across local and national healthcare systems.

This is a high-profile leadership role where you will work closely with Executive and Board colleagues to identify and secure new opportunities, develop sustainable service models, and position HUC as the partner of choice for commissioners and healthcare providers.

You will lead strategic growth initiatives, oversee commercial development activity, and inspire teams to deliver innovative solutions that improve access to care, reduce waiting times, and create lasting value for patients and communities.

Main duties of the job

• Lead the delivery of HUC’s growth and development strategy, identifying and securing new business, partnership, and service diversification opportunities.
• Build and manage a high-value pipeline of commercial opportunities across existing and new geographical areas.
• Lead negotiations with commissioners, including Indicative Activity Plans (IAPs), contract expansions, and strategic partnerships.
• Develop strong relationships with commissioners, providers, and executive-level stakeholders to enhance HUC’s market position.
• Assess commercial opportunities, ensuring financial viability and alignment with HUC’s vision, values, and governance processes.
• Drive market analysis and service development activity to support sustainable growth and innovation.
• Present business cases and commercial proposals to senior leaders, governance groups, and external partners.
• Collaborate with operational, clinical, finance, HR, recruitment, digital, and quality teams to deliver effective service solutions.
• Strengthen commercial processes, manage risks, and ensure robust governance across all development activities.
• Participate in HUC’s leadership, on-call, performance review, and organisational development programmes.

This is an exceptional opportunity for an experienced leader looking to influence healthcare transformation at scale while developing towards future executive-level commercial leadership.

Working for our organisation

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early, should we receive sufficient applications for the role.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For further information about this role please see attached job description and person specification.

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

• Degree Level Education- typically in healthcare managements, business administration, operational management or a related field
• Post-graduate qualification / Master – in health services management, or equivalent in a relevant subject area
• Knowledge and Experience
• Significant senior-level experience in bid management for complex bids of £20m+ per annum
• Demonstrable experience of modelling complex services and sound financial understanding
• Demonstrable experience leading high-performing teams within a matrix environment.
• Excellent analytical, communication, negotiation, and influencing skills.
• Ability to interpret operational understanding to ensure they translate into clear concise commercial models
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence at senior leadership level.
• Evidence of using data analytics to support data driven decision making and service improvements
• Implementing a culture of high performance and high quality throughout all services with visible accountability at levels
• Proven understanding of budget management, cost controls and departmental transformation to generate efficiencies.
• Strong understanding of the NHS, and wider health sector at a senior level with experience of developing and maintaining partnerships within the political landscape
• Able to successfully deal with a wide range of challenging demands, timescales and diversity of challenges
• Demonstrable commitment to, and understanding of, equity, equality, diversity & inclusion.
• Able to collaborate constructively with internal and external partners to create conditions for successful system working approach.
• Extensive knowledge of primary and urgent care services including NHS 111 operational delivery and performance management.
• Practical experience of project management processes and systems
• Experience in supporting and contributing to strong integrated governance, learning and improvement
• Ability to demonstrate understanding and behaviours associated with HUC values
• Experience of large-scale change management and service redesign projects

Skills and Abilities

• Strong visible leadership and motivation skills, acting with integrity whilst valuing diversity
• A natural influencer, good communicator / presenter with proven negotiation skills, comfortable debater with sound business and technical reasoning plus commercial awareness with the ability to anticipate alternative scenarios and prepare according.
• Ability to display a sound and comprehensive understanding of the complex needs of many stakeholders in HUC; engaging successfully with colleagues at all levels and building successful working relationships when it comes to working with our executive, commissioners and agencies.
• Motivational with a genuine desire & concern for quality & appropriateness of patient services.
• A problem solver who provides solutions that make a difference with the ability to evaluate complex decision-making processes and ensure outcomes are clearly understood and acted upon.
• Strong use of data to understand problems, find solutions and evaluate success
• IT literate with proven use of Office 365 products
• Display resilience, courage and curiosity Service performance management, transformation and change
• Evidence of experience in and / or has good senior knowledge of the healthcare sector Interested in the use of technology to improve the efficiency of services, patient experience and sustainability
• Other
• Full valid UK driving licence with access to a car or willing to use public transport where appropriate.
• Flexible to travel to other sites across the HUC geographical footprint.

You must have the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application. We are not able to offer sponsorship for this role.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early, should we receive sufficient applications.

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