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

Salary for this role£94,356 – £108,814 a year

Health and Care route minimum£25,000 a year

Pay basisNational pay scales (NHS bands)

NHS roles fall under the Health and Care Worker route. 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

An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Medicines Negotiation & Managed Access Team within NHS England's Medicines Value & Access directorate to fill a vacancy for the Head of Negotiation & Access (Strategic Innovation) for 12 months on a secondment or fixed term contract opportunity.

The Head of Negotiation & Access (Strategic Innovation) provides strategic leadership for NHS England's innovation partnerships, commercial pilots and implementation programmes, supporting the adoption of transformative medicines, diagnostics, technologies and service models.

The role leads engagement with life sciences organisations, government departments and system partners to develop innovative approaches that improve patient outcomes, support NHS priorities and maximise value for taxpayers.

The postholder will oversee complex programmes of national significance, ensuring innovations are deliverable, affordable and aligned to wider NHS strategic objectives. They will provide expert advice to senior NHS England, DHSC and ministerial stakeholders on innovation adoption, implementation risk, affordability and partnership opportunities.

The postholder can be based and one of our main offices in London, Leeds or Manchester. Travel will be required for this role on an adhoc basis.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will be responsible for developing and delivering innovative approaches that accelerate patient access to transformative healthcare interventions whilst supporting NHS operational priorities, financial sustainability and population health improvement.

This assignment will focus on leading a portfolio of strategic innovation programmes, partnerships and access initiatives that require complex stakeholder management, commercial expertise and delivery leadership across NHS England, government and industry partners.

The postholder will work across organisational boundaries to identify, develop and implement innovative solutions that improve patient outcomes, support NHS priorities and maximise value from healthcare innovation.

Key Areas of Focus:

Strategic Innovation Partnerships
Innovation Programme and Pilot Delivery
Access, Affordability and Adoption Strategy
Policy and Strategic Advice
Stakeholder Leadership

About us

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for external candidates.

Date posted

27 October 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8d

Salary

£94,356 to £108,814 a year per annum (exclusive of London Weighting)

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time, Job share, Flexible working

Reference number

990-C&G-EC6450-E

Job locations

Wellington House, Wellington Place, or 3 Piccadilly Place

London, Leeds, or Manchester

SE1 8UG

United Kingdom

Job description

Job responsibilities

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Secondments Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

Person Specification

Education

Desirable

Educated to Masters level or equivalent level or equivalent experience of working at a senior level in life sciences.

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

Strong understanding of NHS medicines innovation adoption pathways and implementation challenges.
Demonstratable experience and understanding of health technolgoy assessment (HTA), pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement, including the application of health economic principals to inform the development of innovative pricing agreements.
Substantial experience of working with the pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare sector.
Extensive experience of managing strategic partnerships with senior stakeholders across multiple organisations, including experience of establishing collaborative arrangements that deliver measurable benefits and align differing organisational objectives
Understanding of population health, health inequalities and opportunities to improve outcomes through innovation.
Proven and significant leadership experience and/or formal management qualification.

Skills & Capabilities

Essential

Outstanding negotiation and persuasion skills, including demonstrable emotional intelligence when negotiating.
Demonstrable experience of developing, implementing and evaluating innovative pilot or strategic initiatives.
Demonstrable experience of developing strategic proposals and business cases.
Highly developed communication skills with the ability to communicate on highly complex matters and difficult situations.
Leadership, vision, strategic thinking, creativity, and planning with highly developed political skills.

Values & Behaviours

Essential

Commitment to and focused on quality, promotes high standards in all they do and able to make a connection between their work and the benefit to patients and the public.
Values diversity and difference; operates with integrity and openness Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects and learns from the contribution of others.
Ability to operate effectively within complex governance and accountability frameworks; working collaboratively across organisational boundaries.
Needs to have a thorough understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships both in terms of day-to-day working practices, but also in relation to management systems.

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.