UK Domestic Market Entry Health Lead in London

About Palladium

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 2,100 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

Palladium’s UKEA Partnership is seeking a UK Domestic Health Lead to establish, grow, and scale Palladium’s presence in the UK domestic public health market. This opportunity is explicitly focused on public sector market entry and portfolio build. The successful candidate must bring proven, first‑hand experience entering the UK public health domestic market, securing early wins, and building a sustainable portfolio of commissioned services with local authorities and related public sector bodies. The position is not advisory or developmental in nature; it requires a candidate who has already done this work—someone who has personally led market entry, converted relationships into contracts, and grown a pipeline into a credible, repeatable portfolio. The postholder will be accountable for originating, shaping, winning, and growing Palladium’s UK domestic health portfolio, initially focused on local authorities in the South East, with scope to expand nationally.

The position will be based in one of Palladium's England offices. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK, as visa sponsorship is not available. The role will be largely remote, with travel required around South East England; an ability to report to an office location as needed is required.

The UK Domestic Health Lead will report into a Director, Health, with indirect reporting lines to the senior leadership team. This role will not have supervisory responsibilities to start but will as the domestic health practice grows.

Primary Responsibilities

• Market Entry & Portfolio Development: Lead Palladium’s market entry into the UK domestic public health sector, establishing the organisation as a credible and competitive delivery partner with local authorities and other public sector commissioners. Build a demonstrable portfolio of UK domestic public health work, progressing from initial wins to repeat commissions, extensions, and multi‑year contracts. Translate existing relationships and market intelligence into tangible commercial outcomes, including awarded contracts, framework placements, and strategic partnerships. Develop and execute a clear market entry and growth strategy, identifying priority geographies, service lines, and commissioning routes. Establish Palladium’s reputation with commissioners as a trusted delivery partner, not solely a bidder or advisor.
• Relationship Building: Leverage existing senior‑level relationships with Directors of Public Health, Heads of Commissioning, ICB leaders, elected members, and provider organisations to shape demand and influence commissioning intent ahead of formal procurement. Actively participate in soft market testing, early engagement, and pre‑procurement dialogue to shape service models in Palladium’s favour.
• Business Development: Build and maintain a robust, forward‑looking pipeline of UK domestic health opportunities, primarily with local authorities, with expected expansion to central government ministerial departments, with clear line of sight to conversion. Conduct research and analysis to understand client requirements. Engage with like‑minded companies to form partnerships for strategic pursuits. Lead proposal development, including technical writing and commercial proposals, ensuring all documentation meets compliance requirements. Monitor bid performance and pivot strategy based on lessons learned. Mentor and guide junior staff in business development with UK domestic clients. Ensure alignment of business development efforts with Palladium’s global strategy and regional growth priorities.
• Programme Delivery: Provide strategic leadership for won/successful programmes to ensure alignment with client requirements and expectations.
• Other: Contribute to shaping and advancing broader health cluster strategy (UK and international). Provide thought leadership through technical positioning papers, public speaking engagements, and strategic partnerships. Lead quality assurance initiatives to identify and implement opportunities for improvement across the health portfolio. Collaborate with other practice areas and business units to deliver integrated development services and solutions.

Essential Criteria

• 10+ years’ experience in UK health, public health, or related fields, with significant time operating in the domestic commissioning environment.
• Demonstrated success building a UK domestic public health portfolio from inception, including securing first contracts or pilot commissions, growing follow‑on work, extensions, or additional contracts, and establishing a sustainable pipeline with repeat commissioners.
• Direct experience winning and delivering contracts for UK local authorities in public health and/or prevention services.
• A verifiable track record of converting commissioner relationships into awarded contracts, not solely engagement or advisory activity.
• Deep, practical understanding of local authority public health commissioning, ICB and NHS interfaces, funding flows, procurement routes, and decision‑making processes.
• Proven ability to leverage digital health technologies and online platforms, with experience overseeing the development and management of technology‑enabled partnerships and programmes (e.g., healthy lifestyle initiatives delivered virtually).
• Strong commercial acumen, including pricing, risk management, and contract negotiation within public sector health frameworks.
• Experience leading complex bids and mobilising successful programmes.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early as the position may close once a suitable candidate is found.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio‑economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status. Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made during the recruitment process (due to disability, neurodiversity, or for any other circumstance), please email our team at and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding

We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.