At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead and shape Penrose Health's growth strategy while driving impactful initiatives.
- Company: Join a mission-driven healthcare provider dedicated to outstanding patient care.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, full-time role, and the chance to make a real difference.
- Other info: Opportunity to build and lead a new growth function with significant career potential.
- Why this job: Be at the forefront of healthcare growth and innovation in a dynamic environment.
- Qualifications: Degree-level education or equivalent experience in strategy, analytics, or business development.
The predicted salary is between 59400 - 72600 £ per year.
Penrose Health is looking for a senior, hands-on generalist to build and lead our growth function. We have grown significantly over the last decade but historically, much of the work has been relationship-led and driven by senior leaders. We now want to build something more deliberate, sustainable and scalable and are looking for someone to lead that.
You will help shape how Penrose grows - but you will also personally make it happen. You will work across four main areas:
- Growing patient lists across our existing practices
- Understanding and improving patient retention
- Building relationships with practices considering succession, merger or takeover
- Developing a proactive and credible approach to competitive bids
This is not simply a marketing role, although digital acquisition and campaigns may form part of it. It is also not a traditional strategy role where recommendations are handed to someone else to deliver. You will be expected to analyse the problem, recommend what we should do, secure agreement and then drive the work forward.
You will not inherit a large team, mature systems or a finished playbook. We are looking for someone who is excited by the opportunity to build the machinery while delivering results.
Main duties of the job:
- Developing Penrose's growth strategy and translating it into practical priorities
- Analysing patient registrations, losses and net growth across our practices
- Identifying and testing local, digital and community-based acquisition opportunities
- Understanding why patients leave and working with operational teams to address avoidable causes
- Identifying practices where partners may be considering retirement or succession
- Building trusted relationships and progressing potential mergers or takeovers
- Developing clear criteria for which formal contract opportunities Penrose should pursue
- Shaping bid strategy, coordinating contributions and improving submission quality
- Building clear reporting, pipelines and operating rhythms
- Using AI and automation to increase the speed, quality and scale of the functions work
- Turning ideas into action and seeing projects through to a measurable outcome
About us: Penrose Health is on a mission to deliver outstanding healthcare to every patient we serve. We care for 75,000+ people across 9 sites in South East London, supported by a team of 200+ clinicians and staff. Our model is built on permanent, diverse teams, strong governance, and a clear focus on continuity, quality, and access. We work closely with NHS partners to deliver a full range of services from routine checks to complex, long-term care backed by robust systems and a culture of continuous improvement. We're proud to hold a CQC 'Good' rating and consistently receive strong feedback from patients.
Person Specification:
Qualifications:
- Essential: Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience. A relevant qualification in business, strategy, marketing, analytics, project management or healthcare may be useful, but should not materially influence selection unless supported by strong practical evidence.
Behaviours:
- Essential: Take ownership and create momentum
- Be comfortable with ambiguity
- Work with pace without sacrificing judgement
- Be commercially curious and outcome-focused
- Remain willing to work at a detailed level
- Be persistent without being overly sales-led
- Challenge constructively
- Communicate clearly and directly
- Be low-ego and collaborative
- Know when to act independently and when to escalate
- Be comfortable testing ideas and learning from failure
- Focus on sustainable value rather than visible activity
Background:
- Essential: Strategy and operations in a startup or scale-up
- Commercial or growth roles in a multi-site organisation
- Founder's associate or chief-of-staff roles with genuine delivery ownership
- Healthcare strategy, growth or business development
- Former consultants who have moved into operating roles
- Partnerships or business-development roles with analytical responsibility
- Corporate development or expansion roles
- Commercial transformation roles
- Entrepreneurial NHS or primary care roles
- Other regulated or stakeholder-heavy sectors
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.
Strategic Growth Lead in London employer: National health service
The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment that prioritises patient safety and service improvement. With a strong commitment to employee development, including leadership training and apprenticeship programmes, staff are empowered to grow their skills while contributing to the health of London. The Trust's inclusive culture and focus on quality management ensure that employees feel valued and supported in their vital roles.
