Project Manager

Employer heading

Project Manager

Band 8a

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest and largest NHS hospital trusts in the country. We have around 16,000 staff and an annual budget of £1.7 billion.

With strong history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation regionally, nationally and internationally, we’re in the top five providers of specialised health services in the country.

As well as providing a wide range of hospital and community services, we support people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

Newcastle Hospitals are proud to be one of the exemplar organisations across the NHS on sustainability, with a long history of delivering Sustainable Healthcare in Newcastle (Shine) and the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency. Our strategy includes commitments to being Net Zero by 2030, for our direct carbon footprint, and Net Zero by 2040 for our footprint plus. Delivering these ambitions will not be possible without the help, support and action of every single member of our team.

Job Overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to play a leading role in delivering this major workforce transformation within the Trust. As Project Manager, you will oversee the end-to-end delivery of the programme locally, coordinating stakeholders across HR, Digital, Finance, and operational teams, while ensuring the organisation is fully prepared for a high-profile system implementation.

The Future NHS Workforce Solution Transformation Programme is a nationally led initiative by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). It will replace the current Electronic Staff Record (ESR) with a modern, cloud-based platform, providing enhanced end-to-end workforce functionality—from hire to retire—across NHS organisations in England and Wales.

• Interview Date Wednesday 01 July 2026
• 37 Hours 30 Minutes/Week
• You will be redirected to Trac to apply for the vacancy. Please expand the job details section and read all of the information before applying for the vacancy
  
  

NO AGENCIES PLEASE

Main duties of the job

• Lead the day-to-day management of the New Workforce Solution project, ensuring delivery to agreed milestones, timescales, and quality standards.
• Establish and maintain structured project management processes, including planning, progress tracking, dependency management, and RAID (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) logs.
• Assess organisational readiness for implementation, identify gaps, and coordinate actions to ensure successful deployment.
• Coordinate and engage a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, including senior leaders, programme teams, suppliers, and partner organisations.
• Support governance arrangements by organising meetings, preparing papers, recording actions, and reporting progress to project boards and senior stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain reporting frameworks to provide clear, accurate updates and support informed decision-making.
• Facilitate collaboration across HR, Digital, Finance, and operational teams to ensure alignment and effective delivery.
• Provide expert advice and support to senior managers on project delivery, risks, and change management.
• Manage project communications, ensuring key information is shared effectively across stakeholders at all levels.
• Contribute to service improvement by supporting change management, adoption activities, and benefits realisation.
  
  

Working for our organisation

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

With around 2 million contacts with patients every year, we deliver care from:

• Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI)
• Freeman Hospital
• Newcastle Dental Hospital
• Cramlington Manor Walks
• Urgent treatment centres
• Newcastle Fertility Centre
• Northern Centre for Cancer Care, North Cumbria
• Northern Genetics Service
  
  

These include a range of flagship services which deliver cutting-edge care (supported by state-of-the-art diagnostic services in both radiology and pathology) and are a catalyst for innovation to support pioneering clinical practice in the NHS.

We also have offices at Regent Point in Gosforth and community sites.

Please see attached information on what Staff Benefits we have to offer at our Trust under ‘Documents to download’ or ‘Supporting documents’.

For further information on The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust please visit: Careers | Newcastle Hospitals | NHS | Newcastle Hospitals and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

You will be responsible for providing day-to-day project management leadership, including governance coordination, implementation planning, progress monitoring, and stakeholder engagement. Working closely with national programme teams and local stakeholders, you will ensure alignment between national objectives and successful local delivery.

This role is ideally suited to an experienced project manager with a strong track record in leading complex change or digital transformation initiatives. You will bring excellent stakeholder management skills, a proactive approach to delivery, and the ability to drive progress across multiple workstreams in a dynamic and fast-paced environment.

• The Future NHS Workforce Solution Transformation Programme is a national initiative led by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). It will replace the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) with a modern cloud-based platform, delivering enhanced hire-to-retire functionality across all NHS organisations in England and Wales.
• The Trust is seeking an experienced Project Manager to support the local implementation of the Future NHS Workforce Solution. The postholder will provide day-to-day project management oversight, including governance coordination, implementation planning, progress tracking and stakeholder engagement.
• Working closely with the Transformation Lead, NHSBSA Readiness and Implementation team, supplier delivery team, and internal stakeholders across People Services, Digital, Finance, and operational directorates, the postholder will help ensure the organisation is prepared for successful deployment of the future solution.
• This is a high-profile, complex transformation programme that will fundamentally change how the organisation manages its workforce. To succeed in this role, you will be organised, proactive, and comfortable coordinating a broad range of stakeholders across organisational and programme boundaries. The role is suited to someone with experience delivering projects to agreed milestones, outcomes and timescales.
  
  

Main Duties of the role

• This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in transforming workforce management at The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. You will support organisational readiness, stakeholder engagement, and adoption activities to facilitate successful transition to future solution.
• Establish and operate a local implementation management approach, including structured oversight of planning, RAID management, dependencies, and progress tracking across the implementation lifecycle.
• Use available readiness frameworks and key implementation documentation to evaluate and support the organisation's preparedness for the future solution, identifying gaps and driving remediation activity.
• Maintain a comprehensive RAID log (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) and work proactively with the Transformation Lead to escalate as appropriate and ensure mitigation actions are established and tracked to resolution.
• Co-ordinate across a range of internal and external stakeholders and across different levels of governance, escalating challenges to leadership and cascading strategic direction.
• Collate, quality assure and share information needed by the supplier delivery team.
• Manage the scheduling and logistics of key internal and external meetings, including governance forums, working groups, and programme check-ins, ensuring agendas, papers, and actions are prepared and distributed in a timely manner.
• Maintain a comprehensive RAID log (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) and work proactively with the Transformation Lead to ensure appropriate mitigation actions are in place and tracked to resolution.
• To give comprehensive support and advice to a range of senior managers.
• This position will involve a considerable amount of interaction with colleagues, groups, stakeholders and external vendors.
• Support the creation of reporting frameworks, enabling informed decision-making at programme and organisational level.
• Build strong working relationships across the internal implementation team, NHSBSA programme team, the supplier delivery team, and any third-party delivery partners to ensure effective collaboration, timely issue resolution, and alignment between national programme objectives and local implementation priorities.
• Facilitate collaboration across operational, digital, and corporate teams to support successful implementation and adoption.
• Share feedback with the supplier delivery team to help refine guidance materials.
  
  

Person specification

Qualifications & Education

Essential criteria

• Educated to Masters level or equivalent level of qualification or experience e.g. IT, Business, Health or have extensive relevant experience
• Hold a current recognised project management qualification, preferably PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent experience in project management techniques
  
  

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria

• Have experience of managing a team, ideally management of project or service support teams
• Have experience of managing multiple complex projects
• Experience of managing stakeholders and debate, up to Director level
• Experience managing complex change or digital transformation projects
• Experience working in NHS or public sector environments
• Experience with governance and senior stakeholder management
• Have experience of analysing and forecasting staff and budgets
• Have experience of inter-agency working involving multiple and diverse partners
• Have experience of supporting executive level Project Boards
• Have a good understanding of Trust policies and procedures
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Familiarity with workforce systems/HR/payroll programmes
• Experience of managing projects in other organisations of similar size and complexity within or outside of the NHS
  
  

Skills & Abilities

Essential criteria

• Be competent with the Microsoft Office Suite
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to work under pressure and meet strict deadlines including being self-motivated and organising workload
• Ability to balance, prioritise and progress multiple tasks
• Ability to reconcile conflicting priorities
• Strong negotiation and persuasive skills
  
  

Important note on completion of reference section of Application Form

All references from current and previous employers will be sought and must cover a minimum of 3 years employment. Therefore, when completing the reference section of your application form, please give the address, telephone number and work email address of each of your current/previous line managers that cover 3 years employment. Failure to complete this section may result in your application not being processed.

Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first month’s pay.

Candidates who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail. You should check your SPAM folders as well as your inbox. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date you should assume your application has been unsuccessful.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Documents to download

• JD & PS (PDF, 284.5KB)
• Newcastle Staff Benefits (PDF, 274.4KB)
• Behaviour and Civility Charter (PDF, 93.8KB)
  
  

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name Keith Wheldon Job title People Systems and Data Manager Email address Keith.Wheldon@nhs.net