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Deputy Director, Digital Service Owner

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

Brighton, BN2 3EW £94,356 – £108,814 a year Permanent Posted 28 August 2026 Apply by 13 September 2026

Home Office register entry: Sussex Community NHS FoundationTrust, Brighton

Visa sponsorship

This role is listed by an employer that holds a live Home Office sponsor licence on the Skilled Worker route.

Closest occupation match: SOC 1171, Health services and public health managers and directors. Pay for this occupation is set by national pay scales (NHS bands), so no single Home Office going rate applies.

This occupation falls under the Health and Care Worker route. Public reference figures for that route: the general salary minimum is £25,000 a year, and salaries set by national pay scales (NHS bands) at or above the relevant band rate typically meet the occupation's requirement. Individual eligibility depends on personal circumstances. These figures are public reference information, not advice or a verdict on this job.

Role description

Job summary

Are you passionate about creating digital services that make a real difference for patients and staff?Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an exceptional digital leader to become our Deputy Director, Digital Service Owner. This is a unique opportunity to establish and lead a modern digital service ownership function, ensuring our digital services deliver meaningful outcomes, exceptional user experiences and lasting value across the organisation.Reporting to the Chief Digital & Data Officer, you will be accountable for ensuring digital services meet the needs of patients, clinicians and staff throughout their lifecycle. You will work closely with clinical, operational and corporate leaders to understand challenges, identify opportunities and ensure services continuously evolve in response to changing user needs and organisational priorities.This role is ideally suited to a senior leader with experience in service ownership, product management, service design or agile delivery who is passionate about user-centred design and improving outcomes through digital innovation. You will have the opportunity to influence strategy, shape investment decisions and lead multidisciplinary teams that are transforming how healthcare services are delivered.

Main duties of the job

As Deputy Director, Digital Service Owner, you will be accountable for the quality, performance, outcomes and benefits delivered by the Trust's digital services. Your focus will be ensuring services continue to meet the needs of patients, staff and the organisation, delivering measurable improvements to experience, efficiency and care.You will:Lead multidisciplinary teams across service ownership, product management, digital delivery and business analysis.Act as the accountable owner for digital services, ensuring they remain aligned to user needs and organisational priorities.Champion user-centred design and agile delivery approaches, using insight and evidence to drive decision-making.Work directly with clinicians, operational teams and service leaders to understand needs and improve digital experiences.Ensure services deliver measurable clinical, operational and workforce benefits.Establish robust governance, performance and benefits realisation arrangements.Lead business cases, funding opportunities and strategic partnerships that support innovation and transformation.Foster a culture of continuous improvement, learning and user-focused delivery.

About us

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?o Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeingo Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussexo Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retiremento Excellent training, development, and research opportunitieso Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staffo Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brightono Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networkso Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust

Our values--Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence--guide everything we do.

We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Details

Date posted

28 August 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8d

Salary

£94,356 to £108,814 a year per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

150-GM2924-COR

Job locations

Brighton General Hospital

Elm Grove

Brighton

BN2 3EW

United Kingdom


Job description

Job responsibilities

This role is about much more than delivering digital systems. It is about taking accountability for ensuring digital services solve the right problems, deliver the intended outcomes and continue to meet the needs of patients and staff over time.As Deputy Director, Digital Service Owner, you will lead the evolution of the Trust's digital services through a user-centred, outcome-focused approach. You will work closely with clinicians, operational colleagues, patients and partners to understand user needs, improve services and ensure investment decisions deliver meaningful benefits.You will be responsible for ensuring digital services are safe, effective, sustainable and continually improved, balancing user needs, organisational priorities, risk and available resources. You will oversee service strategy, delivery, adoption, performance and optimisation, ensuring teams focus on real-world outcomes rather than simply implementing technology.We're looking for a leader who understands that service ownership means accountability. Someone who can create the conditions for multidisciplinary teams to succeed, champion user-centred design and agile delivery, and ensure every digital service delivers value for patients, staff and the communities we serve.

Person Specification

Qualifications and/or professional registration

Essential

  • Master's degree or equivalent experience in Digital, Informatics, Technology, Business Change or related discipline.
  • Extensive specialist knowledge acquired through postgraduate study or equivalent senior experience.
  • Agile, Scrum qualification. NHS Digital Leadership Programme.

Desirable

  • Evidence of senior leadership development. Portfolio, Delivery, Product, Service Management or Change qualification.

Experience

Essential

  • Significant senior leadership experience within NHS, healthcare or similarly complex organisations.
  • Experience of service ownership, product management or digital delivery leadership.
  • Experience leading multidisciplinary teams.
  • Experience managing complex digital products and services through their lifecycle.
  • Experience developing digital strategies and roadmaps.
  • Experience managing substantial budgets.
  • Proven experience of developing successful business cases, funding bids, investment proposals or transformation programmes that have secured external funding or investment.
  • Experience of benefits realisation and service performance management.
  • Experience engaging with senior stakeholders at executive level.

Skills and knowledge

Essential

  • Expert understanding of service ownership principles.
  • Strong understanding of NHS digital strategy and transformation.
  • Strategic planning and organisational leadership capability.
  • Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills.
  • Financial and commercial management capability.
  • Strong risk and governance management skills.
  • Ability to analyse highly complex information and make evidence-based decisions.
  • Expert knowledge of user-centred design and service improvement methodologies.
  • Strong understanding of agile delivery methods and digital product management.
  • Strong understanding of NHS funding mechanisms, national transformation programmes and digital investment routes.
  • Ability to influence regional and national stakeholders and develop compelling investment cases that secure funding and support organisational priorities.

Other requirements

Essential

  • Strategic thinker with ability to translate vision into delivery.
  • Strong focus on outcomes and benefits realisation.
  • Collaborative and inclusive leadership style. Ability to manage ambiguity and complexity.
  • Passion for improving patient and staff experience through digital services.
  • Demonstrates SCFT values and behaviours.
  • Able to bring pace, value and innovation.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

Employer details

Employer name

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Brighton General Hospital

Elm Grove

Brighton

BN2 3EW

United Kingdom


Employer's website

https://www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/work-with-us/

Apply now

Last verified against our ingestion on 30 August 2026; sponsor register dataset 2026-08-25.