Theatre Service Manager

Job summary

Main duties of the job

This role provides visible, supportive leadership across theatre services, ensuring high standards of safety, communication, and patient care. The postholder will coordinate day to day theatre operations, making proactive decisions to maintain safe staffing, optimise patient flow, and maximise utilisation of theatre capacity. They will build strong working relationships with clinical and operational teams, present performance information clearly, oversee incidents and complaints, and drive service planning and development. A key focus will be monitoring performance indicators, validating data, and leading improvement initiatives using recognised quality improvement methodologies.

The role also carries responsibility for staff leadership, workforce planning, financial oversight, and project delivery. The postholder will line manage designated staff, support wellbeing and development, manage sickness and HR processes, and ensure effective rostering and recruitment. They will lead or support change projects, engage teams in service redesign, and address barriers using strong communication and negotiation skills. Additionally, they will manage delegated budgets, ensure robust information governance, oversee equipment and digital systems, and use patient feedback to drive continuous improvements in experience and care quality. This position requires a high degree of autonomy, supported by training in project management, theatre IT systems, and advanced data analysis.

Job responsibilities

Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is the UK's leading heart and lung hospital, delivering care to more than 50,000 patients a year in its new state-of-the-art hospital in Cambridge. We perform the most heart and/or lung transplants in the UK and carried out the UK's first successful heart transplant in 1979. It also offers emergency heart attack treatment, sleep centre care and is one of just five centres nationally for those in severe respiratory failure.

Based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe the Trust is at the heart of treatments of the future. Royal Papworth became the first hospital trust in the country to be rated outstanding in all five areas assessed by the Care Quality Commission - a rating it still holds today. The Trust holds its values of compassion, excellence & collaboration at its core, and all colleagues joining the team are expected to uphold these in their day-to-day roles & interactions. Royal Papworth is proud of its diverse workforce and encourages people to embrace their individuality.

The Trust values difference and welcomes all applications irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, religion & belief, sex and sexual orientation. Providing they meet the minimum post criteria, applicants with disabilities will be offered an interview.

For a street view tour: https://royalpapworth.nhs.uk/virtual-tour