Divisional Director of Operations - Planned Care

Go back East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust

Divisional Director of Operations - Planned Care

The closing date is 23 February 2026

We are recruiting for a Divisional Director of Operations - Planned Care who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.

The Divisional Operations Director will work closely with Divisional Director of Nursing, and the Divisional Medical Director, you will be responsible for ensuring effective day-to-day operational management of the division.

The post holder will operate independently, taking responsibility for the daily senior management of operations, patient flow and the division's performance including the delivery of performance standards, activity and CIPs. You will ensure that operational performance is optimised, and our services are engaged in continuous quality improvement, innovation and transformation.

We are looking for a highly skilled and experienced individual, with a demonstrate track record in operational delivery. You will have the ability to push the boundaries or innovation and quality of care, working in partnership with colleagues across the Trust and in our partner organisations.

At the heart of everything we do are our core values: Include, Respect, and Improve. We encourage you to embrace these values throughout the recruitment process and in your role with us.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide senior, strategic, visible, clinical and professional leadership for operations across the Division.

Be accountable for delivering high quality, high performing services, within budget.

Provide clinical leadership that inspires motivates and empowers within the Division,

Ensure the development and effective implementation of both national and local strategies and the achievement of service objectives within available resources.

To promote quality, innovation, productivity and performance that improves quality of care and patient outcomes, driving transformation through agreed improvement models to improve value for money.

Ensure the Trust's objectives and patient safety requirements are fulfilled within the division.

To manage teams of staff within the division andparticipate in the on-call rota.

About us

At East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person Specification Knowledge and Experience

• Significant management and leadership experience at a senior level in an NHS acute and / or community Trust
• Proven experience and ability in managing operational performance with tight financial constraints demonstrating effective budget management
• Experience of capacity planning and translating organisation strategy and vision into operational objectives.
• Evidence of successfully leading significant organisational change in developing new models of healthcare delivery
• Demonstrable experience of building, maintaining and leveraging successful relationships with all staff especially clinicians within complex organisations
• An understanding of healthcare planning process and key national healthcare issues
• Demonstrable strong and credible leadership in being able to pull people together across systems and motivate them to deliver common aims and targets
• Demonstrable significant experience of situational leadership, human resource management, coaching and people development

Qualifications/Training

• Educated to degree level/equivalent professional qualification
• Evidence of extensive and recent commitment to continuing professional and personal development
• Postgraduate level qualification or equivalent in leadership, change management or quality improvement

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.

Employer name

East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust