Job: Associate Director – Strategic Commissioning, Partnerships, Improvement and Innovation Salary: £108,015.00 – £118,680.00 Location: Dudley, West Midlands – hybrid Contract: Permanent, full time Make a Difference in Dudley. Lead the Future of Adult Social Care. We are now seeking an exceptional, forward-thinking leader to join us as Associate Director – Strategic Commissioning, Partnerships, Improvement and Innovation. This is a rare opportunity to play a pivotal role in a whole system transformation across Adult Social Care and wider organisational change. This is a high impact strategic leadership role at the heart of Adult Social Care. You will drive innovation, transformation, commissioning excellence, and continuous improvement, ensuring services are sustainable, person centred, rooted in prevention, using community assets and aligning investment with long-term, high-quality outcomes Working across the Council, NHS, voluntary sector, and provider market, you build in good existing partnerships and bring strategic oversight to commissioning, quality assurance, performance, financial governance, and service development. You will: Lead the development and delivery of a strategic commissioning framework for Adult Social Care. Champion co‑production and ensure the voice of people with lived experience shapes commissioning and improvement. Strengthen market resilience, provider quality and value for money. Oversee brokerage, adult social care finance, direct payments, ISFs, welfare services and charging. Embed a culture of continuous improvement, innovation and high performance across multidisciplinary teams. Maintain robust assurance, governance, and accountability frameworks including s75 arrangements and pooled budgets. Support delivery of the Council’s new operating model, corporate priorities and transformation programme. Provide visible, values led leadership that fosters inclusion, collaboration, ambition and excellence. Act as a key member of the Senior Management Team and deputise for the Director of Adult Social Care when required. You will be an inspirational senior leader with extensive knowledge of social care legislation, NHS policy, and commissioning frameworks. Able to demonstrate in-depth Adult Social Care commissioning expertise, a strong record of largescale transformation, solid regulatory knowledge, proven leadership in complex settings, excellent partnership and political skills, unwavering ethical commitment, and the vision, resilience and passion to deliver ‑high-quality, outcomes focused, person‑ ‑centred, sustainable services. Why Join Dudley? You’ll be joining at a transformative moment as part of a leadership team reshaping how we work, how we serve our communities, and how we collaborate with partners, with the opportunity to take on a highly influential strategic leadership role, drive systemwide change in Adult Social Care, and contribute to a culture rooted in innovation, improvement and inclusion, all supported by strong corporate ambition and a comprehensive Council wide improvement programme. Apply Now If you’re a visionary, resilient, and collaborative leader excited by the opportunity to shape the future of Adult Social Care in Dudley, we’d love to hear from you. For an informal discussion please contact Emma Matthews, Director of Adult Social Care, via Jo Cook – Joanne.Cook@dudley.gov.uk For more information and to apply, please visit https://www.dudleycounciljobs.org.uk/ Application Process Applications close: Sunday 8 March 2026. Please submit your CV and supporting statement to your application. Your supporting statement should be in arial, 12 font and no more than 4 pages. The recruitment process will be to undertake technical interviews with longlisted applicants to confirm the shortlist. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to assessment centres and attend final interviews. Please indicate any periods you are unavailable. Workplace Attendance: Working in the office 3 days a week (pro-rata) or Onsite full time So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application. Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough. All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove their right to work in the UK. Please note: Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the Right to Work in the UK. If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on 01384 818 143 or acl@dudley.gov.uk who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications. If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance https://help.wmjobs.co.uk/ If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so. The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at https://www.dudley.gov.uk/privacy-disclaimer-statement/ N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications LI-DMBC2019 Attached documents Job Description & Person Specification Employee Benefits List.pdf