Group Head of Digital Customer Experience- Band 8B
Job summary
The Group Head of Digital Customer Experience is a newly created Group-wide leadership role within Digital Services, delivering support as part of the hosted Digital Service across all Lincolnshire NHS provider organisations, including primary care (c. 25,000 services users). The postholder is responsible for leading, managing and developing the Digital Customer Experience function, encompassing 1st, 2nd line support services, requesting and ITIL-aligned Service Management functions. The role holds accountability for service performance, customer outcomes and the effective management of teams delivering support across multiple organisations.
A key focus of the role is to develop and embed a customer-centric approach to digital service delivery, ensuring services are responsive, efficient and aligned to consumer needs. The postholder will provide visible and inspiring leadership within a fast-paced, high-demand environment, driving continuous improvement, innovation and service excellence whilst operating within finite resources.
This is an exciting time to join the Digital team and play a part in shaping how our services continue to develop and mature. Following the transition of IT services from the previous CSU arrangements during 2025 and 2026, we are focused on building a service that reflects the needs of our diverse customer base and delivers a consistently positive experience for colleagues.Main duties of the job
Provide visible and effective leadership across Digital Customer Experience, setting clear strategic direction, performance expectations and service standards, and fostering a customer-centred, outcomes-focused culture.
Lead major incident management, coordinating stakeholders and communications, and ensuring post-incident learning drives service improvement. Act as the senior escalation point for complex delivery issues, balancing competing priorities, dependencies and risks while maintaining stakeholder confidence.
Drive a mature, service-led approach to IT Service Management, embedding consistent ITIL-aligned incident, problem and change practices, alongside relevant SDI principles and industry best practice.
Own the Digital Customer Experience strategy, roadmap and performance framework, using data, insight and customer feedback to drive continual improvement. Work with Digital Business Partners and service leads to strengthen relationships and ensure services adapt to customer needs.
Manage capacity, resources and demand, providing clear advice on priorities, risks and trade-offs. Embed agile, user-centred improvement methods and build strong partnerships across clinical, operational and corporate teams.
About us
Lincoln Hospital is a thriving university city and with the opening of the medical school, it provides all major specialties and a 24-hour major accident and emergency service.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has been granted teaching hospital status, after demonstrating evidence to significant teaching commitment. From now on it will be known as United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Pilgrim Hospital is situated in beautiful countryside and serves the communities in the South Lincolnshire area. It provides all major specialties and a 24-hour major accident and emergency service.
Grantham and District Hospital serves the communities of Grantham and the local area. It provides ambulatory paediatric and accident and emergency services.
Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) have come together in a Group arrangement, with the goal of improving the care provided to patients across the county.
This will not constitute a formal merger of the two organisations, but will bring the Trusts together under a single Board and Executive Leadership Team, with the goal of improving the care that is provided to patients both in the community and in hospitals across Lincolnshire. Both Trusts will retain their separate statutory names and legal obligations.
The Group will be known as Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG).
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see attached job description and person specification for full details. We look forward to receiving your application in due course.
Person Specification
Qualifications
- Masters level qualification, or equivalent demonstratable experience relevant to the post.
- Highly developed specialist knowledge of IT Service Management methodologies, frameworks and approaches (e.g. ITIL, SDI), underpinned by theory and applied experience to Master's level or equivalent.
- Degree level qualification or equivalent experience in professional management / leadership training
- Evidence of ongoing personal and professional development
- ITIL Expert or Capability Level qualifications.
- Project Management Qualification e.g. Prince 2 Foundation/Agile.
- Member of a relevant professional body.
Skills/competencies
- Outstanding people leadership, able to lead, motivate and get the best from experienced, senior and at times difficult staff through rapid, high-pressure change.
- Exceptional stakeholder management; able to build, maintain and repair senior relationships, re-engage stakeholders who have disengaged, and secure cooperation and collaboration in contested situations.
- Highly developed communication, negotiation and influencing skills, able to handle complex, sensitive and contentious matters and convey difficult decisions while keeping relationships intact.
- Able to create a systematic, disciplined, delivery focused focussed on customer experience and a continual service improvement culture.
Knowledge
- Highly developed specialist knowledge of service management, process improvement, operational excellence and service-focused governance and controls, underpinned by theory and applied experience.
- Understanding of managing change in a complex NHS or comparable environment, including prioritisation, dependencies, risk and benefits.
- Understanding of resource and capacity planning to deliver services based around customer expectations, SLA's and KPI's.
- Understanding of the regional and national NHS landscape and experience working within it.
Experience
- Significant experience of leading and line-managing teams, including experienced and senior staff, through demanding change, uncertainty or restructure.
- Proven experience of continual service improvement.
- Experience of managing challenging performance, conduct or capability situations, and providing high motivation to teams.
- Experience of operating service management governance, reporting and controls.
- Experience of working with customers, leading service/major incident reviews.
- Experience developing, maintaining and improving customer relationships.
- Experience of working across a number of teams to develop collaborative services, where customer experience is the focus.
- Experience developing policies and processes.
- Experience of leading or implementing of ITSM solutions.
- Experience of introducing new ways of working through process improvement and re-design.
Specific Requirements
- Sufficient seniority, credibility and resilience to lead, influence and hold to account experienced delivery staff and senior stakeholders.
- Self-motivated, able to work on own initiative and to establish the approach where policy requires interpretation.
- Able to prioritise and adjust services under pressure.
- Able to travel across Group and partner sites as required.
Personal Qualities
- Ability to work in line with and role-model the Group values.
- Calm, credible and resilient under pressure, and able to bring people with them.
- Committed to collaborative, stakeholder-engaged delivery.
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.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.
Employer details
Employer name
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Address
Lincoln County Hospital
Greetwell Road
Lincoln
LN2 5QY
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.ulh.nhs.uk/