Care Group Operational Director

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for all services within the Care Group portfolio, ensuring they are safe, high-quality, efficient, and aligned with the health needs of the population. They will lead service transformation and sustainability programmes, including the development and implementation of medium-term and annual strategic and operational plans, ensuring services remain responsive, effective, and continually improving.
• Lead and champion a culture of continuous improvement, through compassionate leadership, inclusion, and psychological safety. Play a pivotal part in shaping and sustaining a positive, values-driven organisational culture that supports staff wellbeing, engagement, and high performance across the Care Group.
• Provide expert professional, strategic, and operational leadership, ensuring that services deliver high-quality, patient-centred care and that the needs of patients, families, and the wider community are prioritised. Holding comprehensive responsibility for workforce leadership, including alignment with legislation and service standards, and exercising full line management responsibility. This includes undertaking the full range of workforce functions such as recruitment, appraisal, performance management, disciplinary and grievance processes for several diverse teams.
• Participates in the Gold On-Call rota, and deputising for the Executive Director as required.

Essential

• Extensive knowledge of NHS structures, strategic planning frameworks, governance processes, and national policy drivers
• In-depth understanding of workforce, operational, or service group delivery within a complex healthcare environment.
• Highly developed knowledge of quality improvement methodologies and service redesign approaches.
• Comprehensive understanding of financial planning, risk management, performance management and resource allocation.
• Working knowledge of digital transformation, data governance, and the use of business intelligence tools. (e.g., ILM, MBA, Coaching Accreditation).
• Formal training in change management methodologies (e.g., PRINCE2, Lean, Six Sigma).

Essential

• Significant experience operating at a senior management or leadership level within a large, complex organisation. Demonstrable track record of leading strategic programmes, delivering organisational change and achieving measurable service improvement outcomes.
• Experience managing high-performing teams, including coaching, performance management and talent development. Proven experience influencing senior stakeholders, clinicians, executives and external partners.
• Experience developing complex business cases, strategic reports, risk assessments and Board-level papers. Experience interpreting, analysing and presenting complex data to inform decision-making. Demonstrable experience managing large budgets, resources and operational plans.

Essential

• Exceptional analytical, conceptual and critical-thinking skills. Highly developed strategic communication skills (written, verbal, presentational and interpersonal). Proficiency in the full Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint).
• Ability to evaluate complex issues, assess risk and propose clear, evidence-based recommendations to influence and negotiate at executive and senior clinical level.
• Able to manage multiple priorities under pressure, maintaining high performance standards. Advanced ability to interpret data, identify trends, and apply insights to redesign services or improve quality.
• Ability to lead and motivate multidisciplinary teams through uncertainty and change, strong organisational and planning skills, including delivery of long-term strategic programmes.
• Demonstrate compassionate, inclusive, and values-driven leadership aligned to NHS Wales values
• Proven ability to constructively challenge practices and drive continuous improvement.