• Job Description

  Req#: M9990-26-0093?language=en&page=342&sort=publicationDateDesc

  Job summary

  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 NHS.uk website - one of the most widely used sources of trusted health information in the UK.

  The NHS App and NHS.uk 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.

  Main duties of the job

  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

  About us

  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

  In 2025, 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.

  Details

  Date posted

  19 February 2026

  Pay scheme

  Agenda for change

  Band

  Band 8d

  Salary

  £118,744 to £136,938 a year includes a RRP payment of 30% (exclusive of London Weighting)

  Contract

  Permanent

  Working pattern

  Full-time, Job share, Flexible working

  Reference number

  990-TDD-P&P-18876-E-A

  Job locations

  Any NHS England Office

  Nationally

  LS1 4AP

  
  

  Job description

  Job responsibilities

  Applicants should demonstrate experience in:

  • Deep native mobile expertise strong grounding in iOS and/or Android architecture, native capabilities, security, biometrics and appstore 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 fullstack engineering, including cloud infrastructure
  • Coaching and developing engineers
  • Managing senior and nontechnical 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 anadditional monthly RRP payment equal to 30% per annum.

  Please be aware that RRP is none contractual and subject to review.

  Job description

  Job responsibilities

  Applicants should demonstrate experience in:

  • Deep native mobile expertise strong grounding in iOS and/or Android architecture, native capabilities, security, biometrics and appstore 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 fullstack engineering, including cloud infrastructure
  • Coaching and developing engineers
  • Managing senior and nontechnical 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 anadditional monthly RRP payment equal to 30% per annum.

  Please be aware that RRP is none contractual and subject to review.

  Person Specification

  Qualifications

  Essential

  • Masters or equivalent qualification, computer, scientific or mathematical subject preferred, or equivalent experience.

  Knowledge and Skills

  Essential

  • Deep native mobile expertise - Strong technical grounding in iOS and/or Android architecture, native capabilities, security, biometrics, and app store compliance.
  • Implementing system security & resilience techniques / controls / practices

  Experience

  Essential

  • Working on highly available systems
  • Providing technical leadership for key systems

  Person Specification

  Qualifications

  Essential

  • Masters or equivalent qualification, computer, scientific or mathematical subject preferred, or equivalent experience.

  Knowledge and Skills

  Essential

  • Deep native mobile expertise - Strong technical grounding in iOS and/or Android architecture, native capabilities, security, biometrics, and app store compliance.
  • Implementing system security & resilience techniques / controls / practices

  Experience

  Essential

  • Working on highly available systems
  • Providing technical leadership for key systems

  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 details

  Employer name

  NHS England

  Address

  Any NHS England Office

  Nationally

  LS1 4AP

  
  

  Employer's website

  https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)

  Employer details

  Employer name

  NHS England

  Address

  Any NHS England Office

  Nationally

  LS1 4AP

  
  

  Employer's website

  https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)

• About the company

  National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly-funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery—a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay. Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, free at the point of use for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom apart from dental treatment and optical care.

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