Regional Medical Director and Chief Clinical Information Officer

Job summary

NHS England North West is recruiting a Regional Medical Director, offering a rare and high-impact opportunity for an exceptional clinical leader to shape the future of care across one of the country's most complex and ambitious health systems.

This role comes at a pivotal time as the region implements a new operating model with strengthened accountability, placing senior clinical leadership at the forefront of designing and delivering an exciting future for our staff, partners and communities.

As Regional Medical Director, you will provide strategic, visible and authoritative clinical leadership across three large Integrated Care Systems as they move from recovery towards stabilisation. You will ensure services are safe, sustainable and continually improving, while also driving the transformation required to meet future needs. Working across all directorates, you will identify providers and services requiring improvement or targeted support, and ensure the medical workforce is equipped with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time to deliver high-quality care.

Main duties of the job

You will work in close partnership with the Regional Chief Nursing Officer to implement NHS England's new strategy for quality and the Modern Service Frameworks, ensuring that quality remains the region's key organising principle. Alongside the Regional Chief Delivery and Transformation Officer, you will ensure that all improvement and transformation initiatives are clinically led and grounded in the needs of patients and staff. A critical part of the role will also be leading the region's collective ambition around research, innovation and life sciences, working with Health Innovation Networks to accelerate the spread of best practice and maximise opportunities to transform care.

As a member of the regional executive team, you will provide professional support to the Regional Director and contribute to the delivery of NHS England's national and regional objectives. You may also lead or support national initiatives relevant to your portfolio. This is a senior leadership role with significant influence, reach and responsibility, offering the opportunity to shape the future of care for more than seven million people across the Northwest.

About us

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

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.

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and 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 our offices.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.

Details

• Date posted: 10 July 2026
• Pay scheme: Very senior manager (VSM)
• Salary: £131,301 a year per annum
• Contract: Permanent
• Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Job share, Flexible working
• Reference number: 990-NW-EC3496-E-A
• Job locations: 3 Piccadilly Place, Manchester, M1 3BN, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

For an informal discussion, please contact england.nwregional_director@nhs.net.

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.

Important: Please be aware there are residency requirements you need to meet:

All NHS England Regional Medical Director and Chief Clinical Information Officer personnel must hold SC level as a minimum.

To meet National Security Vetting requirements, SC clearances require 5 years continuous UK residency. In certain cases, this can be reduced to three years continuous UK residency, with additional overseas checks for the previous two years.

Candidates who were posted abroad for service with HM Government, Armed Forces or within a UK government role - will still be considered.

Please make sure you meet these requirements before applying for this role.

You don't need to have SC already, however, failure to achieve the requirements for SC after offer, will result in the job offer being withdrawn.

For further advice please check https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels#security-check-sc or contact england.securityvetting@nhs.net