Digital delivery is central to the NHS's 10‑year plan to transform healthcare. Modern, scalable digital services are key to improving patient outcomes, reducing pressure on clinical teams, and enabling more personalised care.
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced engineering leader to join our Digital Citizen Portfolio as Head of Software Engineering. The successful candidate will lead engineering for the NHS App and contribute across the wider national digital channels, including the website – one of the most widely used sources of trusted health information in the UK.
The NHS App and will be pivotal in delivering the NHS 10‑year plan. Used millions of times every day, the App increasingly empowers people to manage their own health, access prevention services, and support those they care for. It is becoming the complete digital front door to the NHS, enabling booking, medications management and access to medical records.
The NHS App is built natively in Swift and Kotlin, and our wider tech stack includes Azure, Terraform and C# powering high‑scale national services.
As Head of Software Engineering you will:
Provide technical leadership for national‑scale, highly available mobile apps and distributed systems, following NHS England's engineering principles
Partner with internal teams and external suppliers to shape the architecture and design of modern mobile apps and backend systems
Ensure strong resilience, performance, and cost‑effectiveness across our live services
Champion service security, safeguarding the large volumes of sensitive data we manage
Build and lead high‑performing, multi‑team engineering groups (100+ engineers), fostering collaboration and continuous improvement through
Agile, Lean and DevOps practices
Mentor and coach engineering talent at all levels
Collaborate with peers to solve complex engineering challenges and raise organisation‑wide engineering standards, including through communities of practice
Shape engineering strategy, particularly in mobile development standards and capability growth
Communicate complex and highly technical concepts clearly to non‑technical audiences
Act as a senior technical authority for system design, delivery and operations, including engagement with external partners
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.
We lead the NHS in England by:
Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities
Making the NHS a great place to work, where people can develop and make a difference
Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
Delivering value for money
Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and waste.
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-person.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
Applicants should demonstrate experience in:
Deep native mobile expertise – strong grounding in iOS and/or Android architecture, native capabilities, security, biometrics and app‑store compliance
Implementing security and resilience techniques at system level
Engineering highly available systems
Providing senior technical leadership for critical services
It would be advantageous to have experience of:
Working on mobile products delivered across multiple engineering teams
Hands‑on full‑stack engineering, including cloud infrastructure
Coaching and developing engineers
Managing senior and non‑technical stakeholders
Agile delivery
At interview, we will also explore the following competencies:
INFLUENCE: Uses evidence to make decisions and build alignment
KNOWLEDGE: Grows and shares expertise; understands evolving user needs
BUSINESS SKILLS: Shapes strategy, introduces new technologies, and optimises resources
COMPLEXITY: Synthesises complex information and communicates it effectively
AUTONOMY: Empowers others, develops talent, and drives accountability
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.
Please be aware that should you be successful in this position, you will be hired to the job title of Consultant Systems Engineer and this job title is advertised to attract the right skills needed for the role
The post of Consultant Systems Engineer has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 30% per annum.
Please be aware that RRP is none contractual and subject to review.