We're looking for a new Assistant Director of Contracts. The role is the most senior contracting role in the organisation, and we are looking for someone highly skilled and experienced in the sphere of healthcare contracting and commissioning, but equally as important, someone who is an adept negotiator and communicator, to lead and inspire their team and understand that supporting the delivery of excellent patient care is at the heart of everything they do.
The recent 10-Year Health Plan outlined the ambition to deliver 'three shifts' in the way that the NHS delivers care: treatment to prevention, hospital to community and analogue to digital. All three of these 'shifts' are expected to signal a significant and highly welcome impact on community healthcare providers like us. This role will be hugely influential in the delivery of this change, ensuring that contracting agreements support new care and service models that enable the delivery of high-quality, efficient care, drawing on evidence-based best practice and innovation.
They will be part of the senior management team within the Trust's Finance Department, joining a team that takes pride in the way it supports and develops its staff and works alongside clinical services to help deliver the highest levels of care. We are delighted to be one of the very few Finance teams in the country to have been awarded and recently retained its level 3 accreditation within the One NHS Finance Towards Excellence framework.
Main duties of the job
We are looking for someone to join our Trust who can demonstrate that they have the technical skills and experience to lead teams in the planning, negotiating and delivery of complex contractual agreements.
We need someone who will develop contracts that can support and protect the interests of and deliver the greatest benefit to the Trust and its staff, patients and wider population.
However, we also need a candidate who leads by example and has the ability to build relationships and alliances with partner organisations, including commissioners, regulators, suppliers, clinical services, the voluntary sector and patient groups. They will be a trusted first point of contact with the Trust for many groups and organisations.
The successful candidate will have excellent communication skills and be able to summarise complex data and contractual principles to the Trust's Board, senior managers, clinical services and patients to facilitate appropriate decisions and actions.
They will be a compassionate leader, promoting diversity and equality of opportunity with a commitment to continuously improve.
About us
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?
- Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
- Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussex
- Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
- Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
- Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff
- Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
- Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
- Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
Our values
Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence – guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for further details on the main responsibilities and duties for this role.
Person Specification
Experience
- Extensive experience of working at a senior level in a relevant healthcare environment (NHS or other) and across complex health and care systems with demonstrable impact.
- Experience of having developed service specifications for health and care or other complex services
- Experience working at a strategic level, including evidence of use of analytical and problem-solving skills to address complex problems
- Experience in building and maintaining high functioning teams, including recognising and promoting talent, as well as appropriately managing performance
- Compassionate leadership and promotes diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity
Knowledge
- An excellent understanding of current health and social care national aims and policy, and other determinants that impact on healthcare provision
- In depth knowledge of the NHS standard contract documents
Skills
- Excellent data analysis and interpretation skills involving highly complex data, including an understanding of analytical methods
- Extensive experience translating complex information into clear communications for a wide range of audiences
- Influencing and negotiation skills, experience in successfully managing conflict, finding compromise and building consensus.
- A strong understanding of the role and importance of effective corporate governance, balancing the need to seek relevant board and executive support for decisions with the ability to work autonomously to drive delivery of decisions
- Compassionate leadership and promotes diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity
- Exceptional communication skills which engender community confidence, strong collaborations, and partnership
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.
£79,504 to £91,609 a year per annum pro rata
#J-18808-Ljbffr”, “datePosted”: “2026-05-10”, “hiringOrganization”: { “@type”: “Organization”, “name”: “NHS”, “sameAs”: “https://uk.whatjobs.com/pub_api__cpl__428777494__4861?utm_campaign=publisher&utm_medium=api&utm_source=4861” }, “jobLocation”: { “@type”: “Place”, “address”: { “@type”: “PostalAddress”, “addressLocality”: “” } } }We’re looking for a new Assistant Director of Contracts. The role is the most senior contracting role in the organisation, and we are looking for someone highly skilled and experienced in the sphere of healthcare contracting and commissioning, but equally as important, someone who is an adept negotiator and communicator, to lead and inspire their team and understand that supporting the delivery of excellent patient care is at the heart of everything they do.
The recent 10-Year Health Plan outlined the ambition to deliver ‘three shifts’ in the way that the NHS delivers care: treatment to prevention, hospital to community and analogue to digital. All three of these ‘shifts’ are expected to signal a significant and highly welcome impact on community healthcare providers like us. This role will be hugely influential in the delivery of this change, ensuring that contracting agreements support new care and service models that enable the delivery of high-quality, efficient care, drawing on evidence-based best practice and innovation.
They will be part of the senior management team within the Trust’s Finance Department, joining a team that takes pride in the way it supports and develops its staff and works alongside clinical services to help deliver the highest levels of care. We are delighted to be one of the very few Finance teams in the country to have been awarded and recently retained its level 3 accreditation within the One NHS Finance Towards Excellence framework.
Main duties of the job
We are looking for someone to join our Trust who can demonstrate that they have the technical skills and experience to lead teams in the planning, negotiating and delivery of complex contractual agreements.
We need someone who will develop contracts that can support and protect the interests of and deliver the greatest benefit to the Trust and its staff, patients and wider population.
However, we also need a candidate who leads by example and has the ability to build relationships and alliances with partner organisations, including commissioners, regulators, suppliers, clinical services, the voluntary sector and patient groups. They will be a trusted first point of contact with the Trust for many groups and organisations.
The successful candidate will have excellent communication skills and be able to summarise complex data and contractual principles to the Trust’s Board, senior managers, clinical services and patients to facilitate appropriate decisions and actions.
They will be a compassionate leader, promoting diversity and equality of opportunity with a commitment to continuously improve.
About us
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?
- Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
- Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex
- Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
- Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
- Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff
- Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
- Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
- Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
Our values
Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence – guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for further details on the main responsibilities and duties for this role.
Person Specification
Experience
- Extensive experience of working at a senior level in a relevant healthcare environment (NHS or other) and across complex health and care systems with demonstrable impact.
- Experience of having developed service specifications for health and care or other complex services
- Experience working at a strategic level, including evidence of use of analytical and problem-solving skills to address complex problems
- Experience in building and maintaining high functioning teams, including recognising and promoting talent, as well as appropriately managing performance
- Compassionate leadership and promotes diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity
Knowledge
- An excellent understanding of current health and social care national aims and policy, and other determinants that impact on healthcare provision
- In depth knowledge of the NHS standard contract documents
Skills
- Excellent data analysis and interpretation skills involving highly complex data, including an understanding of analytical methods
- Extensive experience translating complex information into clear communications for a wide range of audiences
- Influencing and negotiation skills, experience in successfully managing conflict, finding compromise and building consensus.
- A strong understanding of the role and importance of effective corporate governance, balancing the need to seek relevant board and executive support for decisions with the ability to work autonomously to drive delivery of decisions
- Compassionate leadership and promotes diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity
- Exceptional communication skills which engender community confidence, strong collaborations, and partnership
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.
£79,504 to £91,609 a year per annum pro rata
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