Director of operations

We are seeking an outstanding Director of Operations to join the executive team at St Bartholomew's Hospital, part of Barts Health NHS Trust. Reporting directly to the St Bartholomew's Hospital Deputy Chief Executive and our Group Chief Operating Officer, you will be a key member of our hospital executive board, working collaboratively with clinical and corporate leaders.

You will drive service transformation and continuous improvement, while maintaining strong governance, financial control and regulatory compliance.

This is a pivotal role with significant operational and strategic influence, shaping services for some of the most complex patients in the country.

St Bartholomew's Hospital - located in the City of London and the oldest hospital in the UK still on its original site - is now a world class centre of excellence for cardiac and cancer care. We are home to Europe's largest cardiac unit and London's second largest cancer centre, supported by around 350 beds, 60 ITU beds, 10 theatres, 10 catheterisation labs, a chemotherapy and radiotherapy suite, and state of the art diagnostic and treatment technologies.

Alongside our core specialties, we provide additional services including respiratory medicine, endocrinology, fertility, thoracic surgery and a minor injuries unit. You will join us at a significant moment as we open two new hospital buildings, home to a centre of excellence for breast cancer in east London.

Main duties of the job

This is a critical leadership role responsible for the end‑to‑end delivery of clinical operations, ensuring services are safe, efficient and consistently meet national standards for access, quality and performance.

Key responsibilities include leading hospital‑wide operational delivery, overseeing business planning and performance management, optimising demand and capacity, and ensuring delivery of key constitutional standards.

Our 3,000 strong workforce - 60% of whom are from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds - deliver exceptional care guided by our WeCare values. We are proud custodians of nationally significant heritage buildings and are consistently recognised for excellence, with multiple HSJ and industry awards placing us among the top hospitals internationally.

The Director of Operations will play a central role in strengthening this culture - championing equality, diversity and inclusion, using insight and staff voice to reduce disparities, and fostering an environment where teams feel empowered to innovate and continuously improve.

This role offers a rare opportunity to help lead an iconic hospital into its next chapter of innovation, integration and world leading care.

About us

Our vision is to be a high‑performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm‑free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates as they are underrepresented within Barts Health at this band.

Job responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Master's degree or equivalent level
• Management qualification Further evidence of management/leadership training and continuous professional development

Experience

• Extensive experience at a senior level in an acute Trust environment, including a sound understanding of the performance and governance requirements of the NHS for acute Trusts. Hospital or Trust, Board or sub‑board experience
• Significant experience of financial management and rigorous financial management and control to meet agreed targets.
• Experience of establishing and applying performance management systems in areas like contract monitoring, staff management and departmental performance indicators
• Experience of service improvement
• Evidence of strategic leadership of service delivery in a complex organisational environment
• Experience and training in handling media

Skills

• High degree of political sensitivity and experience of dealing with a range of issues in a complex stakeholder environment
• Sound analytical, negotiation and numerical skills
• Ability to develop and influence a high performing, collaborative team, whilst allowing flexibility for members to develop against their own personal targets. Ability to establish rapport/ credibility with Trust staff including clinicians, managers, staff, staff representatives and professionals from outside the Trust.
• Establish strong, supportive working relationships with the senior team and non‑executive directors.
• Strong commercial and business acumen and judgment, understanding the need for efficient services and the impact of operational efficiencies on financial performance, the patient experience and staff motivation and morale.
• Ability to develop strong working relationships with the chair and non‑executive directors and provide support to the senior team individually when they are tackling challenging issues.
• Ability to assess situations and take calculated risks based on learning and experience, to achieve longer‑term service improvements

Knowledge

• Track record of achievement as a leader which demonstrates significant successes through innovation and a strong but sensitive style, which contributes directly to the patient experience and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrate well developed negotiation skills coupled with the ability to tackle poor performance effectively.
• Experience of instigating and leading complex change to achieve continuous improvement.
• Evidenced experience of building and sustaining effective and productive working relationships with a range of people at local and regional level including statutory, voluntary and private sector organisations.
• Evidence of a collaborative management style coupled with improving quality of service provision at a strategic level.
• Keeps abreast with national developments in health and social care through active involvement in local and national networks

Other

• Sufficient to perform the duties of the post with any aids and adaptations

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.