Directors of Operations

Overview

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) provides hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. We are looking for two Directors of Operations-one based at Colchester Hospital and one at Ipswich Hospital-to join our senior leadership team. The closing date is 09 November 2025.

Main duties of the job

You will lead and manage all operational, clinical, and non-clinical support services across the hospital site, ensuring safe, high-quality, and efficient patient care. Working collaboratively with clinical and divisional teams you will ensure we deliver excellent patient flow, access and experience, whilst ensuring compliance with national and local standards and targets. You will build and sustain high-performing relationships with our system partners, supporting innovative models of care.

About us

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes. We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff. We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services. Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients. We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients. If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you. Find out about living and working here -

Job responsibilities

For further information on the main responsibilities and duties of the role please see the attached Director of Operations applicant information pack

Person Specification
Qualifications

• Educated to Masters level standard or equivalent in relevant subject area and additional in-depth professional knowledge in a number of disciplines


• Formal management or business qualification or equivalent relevant experience


• Substantial senior level experience in a complex, highly regulated organisation

Experience

• Recent experience of working in a strategic leadership role


• Experience of Board-level work in a complex organisation that operates within a highly-regulated sector


• Experience of developing and influencing strategy, driving delivery and leading complex programmes of work at pace, and in situations of high ambiguity


• NHS experience at a senior management level

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.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

£109,179 to £125,637 a year+ additional responsibility payment