Associate Director- Programme Delivery

• PLEASE APPLY VIA DIRECT HEALTH INNOVATION WEBSITE LINK
• Base: The Beehive, Crawley/Gatwick, West Sussex
• Reports to: Chief Operating Officer (COO)
• Direct reports: Heads of Portfolio, Programme Managers
• Budgetary responsibilities: Up to £500k per project: Up to £1.5m in total

Income generation ambition: To be agreed as part of annual objective setting and in relation to business need.

• Salary Banding: up to £88k per annum
• Closing Date - 3rd August 2026

Main duties of the job

Job purpose

The Associate Director(s) will have full managerial responsibility for the development and delivery of a portfolio of projects.

This includes team and project performance, client satisfaction, the quality of work delivered and financial oversight of projects.

This role exists to specifically influence, lead and deliver successfully in a complex, multi‑organisational and multi‑professional networked context.

The postholder will be responsible for leading engagement, planning and delivery of work related to all of the KSS Integrated Care System (ICS) This will include

Facilitating the development, agreement and execution of agreed ICS delivery plans, overseeing that local business planning priorities are agreed and executed to the highest possible standard within agreed governance and reporting frameworks, based on strong engagement with communities and key stakeholders across the system.

Working in partnership with the wider SLT as appropriate to individual roles and responsibilities, ensuring that resources are aligned.

About us

Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) is the health innovation network for the Kent and Medway, Surrey and Sussex regions.

There are 15 health innovation networks across England, established by NHS England in 2013.

We transform lives through innovation by supporting health and social care teams to find, test and implement new solutions at scale to the NHS’s greatest challenges, driving economic growth.

We connect citizens, NHS and academic organisations, local authorities, the third sector and industry to facilitate change across whole health and social care economies.

Our impact comes from our ability to bring people, resources and organisations together, delivering benefits that could not be achieved alone.

Job responsibilities

Key responsibilities

Stakeholder leadership

Supports the COO, with ICS relationships on behalf of Health Innovation KSS, as well as national stakeholder relationships, building support for and commitment to the networks portfolio of programmes and projects.

Builds long term networks & relationships in localities.

Significant contribution to developing and delivering the content of locality support plans and our organisations business plan.

To succeed the postholder will use their highly developed specialist knowledge and skills in stakeholder engagement, management and leadership, with highly advanced skills in persuading, influencing in a complex, multi‑organisational and multi‑professional networked context which can be highly un‑cooperative and/or contentious.

This is a senior post and as part of the senior leadership team, the postholder is expected to make a significant contribution to income generation for the organisation.

This includes income generation and growing the ICS localities accounts, so the organisation does more high impact work in localities, year on year in line with its refreshed strategy.

The postholder is expected to use their insights into localities and subject matter expertise to identify new opportunities as part of the organisations income generation and business growth effort.

The postholder will use their highly developed specialist knowledge and skills in innovation, programme and project management and delivery, achieving sales and growth through business development, stakeholder engagement and leadership, and public relations.

Development and delivery of innovation projects

Full managerial responsibility for the development and delivery of a portfolio of projects.

This includes financial responsibility and responsibility for team and project performance, including client satisfaction and the quality of work delivered and the ability to persuade and influence and deliver successfully in a complex, multi‑organisational and multi‑professional networked context.

Responds with confidence to changing customer needs across the systems we operate within.

The postholder will achieve this through highly developed specialist knowledge and skills in programme and project management and delivery, performance management, stakeholder engagement and leadership, financial management, public relations, team leadership and highly advanced skills in persuading, influencing and delivery in a complex, multi‑organisational and multi‑professional networked context.

Team leadership and development

Professional lead and line manager of multiple project teams.

Manages high performing teams, ensuring strong, positive culture.

Deals with staff problems and performance management.

This includes

• Line management of Heads of Portfolio and Programme Managers, supporting them in delivering project outcomes and in contributing to professional and personal development.
• Team management: getting the best out of multi-disciplinary, flexible and networked part‑time teams.
• Professional lead: contributing to the transfer of professional knowledge to others in the Health Innovation Network; maximising potential through professional and personal development; contributing to the growth in the organisations professional capability.
• Contributing more widely to the Health Innovation Network by supporting the development of the organisation and its culture (such as proposing new ideas and organising key events).
• Using highly developed specialist knowledge and skills in programme and project management and delivery, performance management, financial management, public relations, team leadership and highly advanced skills in persuading, influencing and delivery to achieve the above.

Key result areas (Detailed Job Description on Job Application Link).

• Leadership, ambassadorial function and capability building
• Programme and project management and leadership
• Performance management and reporting
• Financial responsibilities and people management
• Academic and Industry
• Engagement with service users, experts and others
• Information management
• Education and professional development
• Corporate contribution
• Contribution to income generation, commercial development and change agendas
• Strategic thinking and strategic account planning
• Special Requirements
• General responsibilities
• To be an active member of senior leadership team.
• To promote the vision and values of the organisation.
• To share knowledge and work collegiately to mutual benefit with national and local voluntary sector organisations particularly relevant to the work themes.
• To ensure effective communications within and between teams, be involved in and participate in meetings, team briefings, development days, corporate events etc.
• To engage in regular performance reviews against agreed objectives.

To be responsible for actively identifying own development needs and committing to a personal development plan based on continuous learning.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Educated to masters level or equivalent and supplemented by specialist training in project and/or programme management
• Experience of working in a senior project delivery role
• Evidence of continuous professional development; record of CPD shows strong self-development ethos and learning from a broad range of interests

Experience

• The postholder must have highly developed specialist knowledge and skills, acquired over a significant period, in programme and project leadership, management and delivery; achieving sales and growth through business development, performance management, stakeholder engagement and leadership, financial management, public relations, team leadership and highly advanced skills in persuading, influencing and delivery in a complex, multi‑organisational and multi‑professional networked context
• A substantial and successful track record of operational, programme and project management acquired over a significant period
• Experience of working in a fast paced, complex environment, and working collaboratively with a diverse range of stakeholders and project managing cross‑organisation work
• A deep understanding of the background to and aims of current health and social care policy nationally and in the southeast and appreciate the implications of this on engagement
• Strong project management experience and skills, with track record of successful delivery
• Experience of working effectively across boundaries with multiple organisations
• Previous responsibility for a budget, involved in budget setting and working knowledge of financial processes
• Experience of testing and developing new services and/or business models based on client and customer needs
• Experience of leading and presenting at workshops and seminars
• Experience of developing and/or implementing communication and engagement activities that grow commitment and create behaviour and culture change
• Significant operational knowledge of health and/or social care
• Experience of building consensus and driving change and performance improvement in systems and culture
• An appreciation of the relationships within and between health and social care systems, the Department of Health, Department for Communities and Local Government, NHS England, local authorities, individual healthcare and social care providers and commissioning organisations and the link between health and social care
• Familiarity with Kent, Surrey and Sussex and its stakeholders
• Able to bring a personal network of stakeholders from around the KSS patch
• Personal style & behaviour
• Flexibility of style to reflect the needs of a small organisation
• Understanding of own strengths and limitations and impact on others
• The confidence, determination, perseverance, resilience and energy to overcome obstacles to achieve the best outcomes
• Collegiate knowledge sharer
• Highly results orientated, with a strong drive to deliver and have an impact
• A strong sense of personal and team accountability, delivers on commitments
• High levels of personal integrity
• Is positive, proactive and has an can do attitude
• Takes responsibility for own actions
• Demonstrates ability to handle change effectively
• Has a flexible and adaptable approach to work
• Ability to work using own initiative
• Values diversity and looks for opportunities to improve equality
• Respectful of the company's core values
• Networker with a range of loose connections that can be brought together to create new collaborations
• Ability to maintain a positive attitude in challenging circumstances
• Influential leader with flair and energy
• Other requirements
• Demonstrates flexibility within working patterns and prepared to work flexible hours when required
• Able to work flexibly across a wide geographical area as necessary

Skills & Abilities

• Highly developed communication skills with the ability to communicate on highly complex matters and difficult situations and with a flair for adapting tone and message for different audiences
• Self‑reliance and ability to work unsupervised: able to demonstrate the capability to operate totally independently and lead others to deliver improvement without guidance or supervision and be able to build the full trust and confidence of the executive team
• Ability to provide and receive, convey and present highly complex, sensitive and/or contentious information to large groups
• Strong people management skills, including performance management and professional development
• Proactive, creative and flexible approach to identifying and taking forward opportunities, shaping new ideas and partnerships
• Ability to engage and influence a broad range of professional groups at all levels of seniority
• Political nous and the ability to negotiate on behalf of Health Innovation KSS
• High level analytical skills and the ability to draw qualitative and quantitative data from a wide range of sources and present in a clear and concise manner
• Ability to analyse numerical and written data, assess options and draw appropriate conclusions
• High level critical thinking skills
• Ability to develop, maintain and monitor information systems to support innovation initiatives
• Demonstrates sound judgement in the absence of clear guidelines or precedent
• Leadership, vision, strategic thinking and planning with highly developed political skills
• Ability to work on own initiative and organise workload, allocating work as necessary, working to tight and often changing and competing deadlines
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues
• The ability to handle a rapidly changing and ambiguous environment
• Numerate and comfortable in dealing with financial information
• Advanced IT Skills including collaborative working tools and good understanding of Microsoft Office
• Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

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