Deputy Director of Systems Engineering

Job summary

Product and Platforms takes responsibility for the nationally required digital products of the new NHS England, working closely with the business areas across the NHS that own related services. We enable a consistent approach to digital products, underpinning technology strategy, and digital transformation, supporting the best outcomes for health and care.

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced systems engineer to join Platforms Portfolio as Deputy Director of Systems Engineering.

The successful candidate will have a number of areas they are responsible for primarily:

• Leading the engineering and product development for Staff Identity services as well as working closely with the workforce team and the broader system on the identify verification and authentication needs of the NHS workforce
• Leading engineering for the Citizen identity (NHS login) service, which is an existing service providing a single, easy to use system for securely verifying and authenticating the identity of people accessing a wide range of services used across to health and social care including the NHS app and supporting over 70 million logins per month
• Providing leadership across the broader engineering teams across NHS England including how to best leverage Agentic AI for development, improvements in security and resilience for key NHS services and overall guidance in improving the development practices for Engineering supporting the Executive Director of Engineering for NHS England

Main duties of the job

The Deputy Director of Engineering will be responsible for the direction and oversight of 2 key programmes of work, Identity and Access Management and NHS login. You will be required to:

• Set technical direction for the Identity and Access Management area including which industry standards should be adopted, which tools and technologies are used, selection of supplier products compared to where we build internally.
• Manage software development from suppliers and in-house teams.
• Contribute to the engineering standards for digital sub directorate.
• Be responsible for the running and operation of high availability services ensuring the design includes appropriate monitoring, scalability, and failover to support high availability services.
• Manage transition of suppliers and the system to appropriate services and standards as security standards evolve and improve.
• Evaluate new forms of security offering such as passwordless access and biometrics to ensure the identity processes make use of new industry capabilities.
• Run the transform program for IAM, developing strategy, agreeing with stakeholders and managing delivery.
• Ensure commercial contracts and suppliers are held to account for their timeliness, value and quality.

About us

Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers.

Our staff bring expertise across hundreds of specialisms -- including clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial -- 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 our people can make a difference and achieve their potential
• 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, leading to full integration. The aim is to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and eliminates 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 recruitment process.