Head of Contract Management

Head of Contract Management The closing date is 02 March 2026

This is an exciting opportunity to establish and lead a newly formed Contract Management Team based in the Procurement Department, shaping how contract management is embedded across the Trust. The postholder will be responsible for establishing a new procurement contract management function and strategy. This position leads the strategic and operational delivery of contract management across Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), developing and maintaining high quality contracting processes that deliver value for money, ensure compliance with internal and external statutory and regulatory standards, and support both clinical and non clinical services through robust governance.

The role will also work collaboratively across organisational boundaries, supporting partnership arrangements and providing oversight of selected contractual relationships delivered in conjunction with, or on behalf of, other NHS organisations. Operating with significant independence, the Head of Contract Management will provide expert advice to senior leaders across the Trust. The role demands advanced analytical and judgment skills, including the interpretation of complex financial and contractual data, risk evaluation, balancing competing priorities, and advising senior leaders.

Main duties of the job In addition to the below summary you need to familiarise yourself with the full Job Description and Person Specification documents attached to this advert.

The post holder will play a lead role in ensuring effective and efficient use of Trust resources.

• To line manage the contract management team, ensuring that all aspects of performance, attendance, training and appraisal are addressed in accordance with Trust Policy.
• Develop the contract management strategy to meet the long term needs of the Trust and to lead all aspects of the business planning activities for the contract management team and the implementation of new NHS initiatives.
• Lead the negotiation and implementation of post contractual awards for expenditure and contributing to the Trust's CIP by delivering savings on non pay goods and services contracts.
• Provide advice in the structuring of supply arrangements to maximise commercial advantage, whilst maintaining clinical standards.
• Lead supply chain improvement to reduce total cost of ownership whilst ensuring resilience to the supply process.
• Responsibility for the achievement of excellent communications with Finance and Procurement staff, Divisional Management Teams, staff, suppliers and outside agencies.

About us With over 20,000 staff, we are one of the biggest employers in the city with a central role in supporting the health and wellbeing of our local population. We play a leading role in research, education and innovation.

Come and join our wonderful team at NUH. We are big believers in diversity and welcome new ideas to help develop our team in order to deliver world class healthcare to the vast patient populations we serve. With endless personal development opportunities available, at NUH we will endeavour to turn your job into a career!

We particularly welcome applications from people who identify as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, or Disabled, as we are striving to be better represented at NUH.

Job responsibilities Key Responsibilities

1. Provide strategic leadership and operational oversight of contract management across NUH, ensuring all contracts align with Trust objectives, financial planning and risk management frameworks.
2. Lead and contribute to a broad range of highly complex activities, developing, formulating and adjusting strategic plans across multiple years to ensure alignment with national policy and organisational priorities.
3. Lead on the management of a portfolio of approximately 850 live contracts, ensuring effective monitoring, delivery, and value for money. The team will have significant responsibility and opportunity to work on high value and high complexity commercial delivery that has a direct and positive impact on patient care.
4. Develop and implement a Trust wide long term contract management strategy that aligns with corporate objectives, regulatory changes, and system wide priorities. Establish policies, frameworks, and procedures for managing commercial risk across all divisions, including the responsibility for Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidance to be applied Trust wide. Report progress against objectives to the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Director of Procurement.
5. Lead negotiations, manage contract performance, and resolve disputes to secure high quality and cost effective services for high risk/value strategic contracts. The post holder will have specific commercial delivery accountabilities, often for NUH's highest impact commercial arrangements in terms of criticality, reputational risk and value and will therefore need to demonstrate ability to drive commercial input and ensure best industry practice, value and protect and mitigate NUH from commercial risks.
6. Actively seek customer feedback on supplier/product performance and departmental performance to inform contract reviews, future purchasing decisions, and continuous improvement.
7. Acts as the Trust's lead for contract management within IC level programmes, working collaboratively with regional partners to develop consistent approaches to commercial governance and supplier performance.
8. Provides senior oversight and leadership for the use of Atamis across the organisation, ensuring the system is effectively managed, maintained and developed to support strategic contract management, procurement activity and organisational reporting.
9. Exercises delegated authority under Standing Financial Instructions (SFIs) to approve contract variations up to £49,999 and assumes extended approval limits when deputising for the Assistant Director of Procurement.
10. Influences and advises on the financial planning and budget allocation for several services by providing highly complex commercial, contractual and performance analysis to support budget holders and Executive decision making.
11. Provides strategic financial leadership for the contracting portfolio, ensuring robust financial governance, value for money and alignment to organisational objectives.
12. Works autonomously within broad national policy, statutory regulations and organisational strategy, exercising a high degree of professional judgement in leading complex contract and commercial decision making.
13. Provide direction and leadership to the ongoing development of the Trust's Procurement strategy, ensuring ongoing alignment with: Trust objectives; Developments in technology; Better Procurement, Better Value, Better Care; NHS Standards of Procurement; UK/EU procurement legislation.
14. Review contract management processes and procedures to ensure optimum integration with the wider directorate and alignment with: Sustainability agenda, corporate social responsibility, equality and diversity; Trust Standing Financial Instructions (SFIs); Standing Orders and procurement legislation.
15. Ensure robust governance of contracts, including compliance with: Trust SFIs; Public Contracts Regulations 2015; Provider Selection Regime 2024; Procurement Act 2023; Any applicable national or local policy requirements.
16. Analyse and interpret highly complex data sets, contractual models, financial frameworks and performance intelligence to resolve multi layered problems where the information is incomplete, conflicting or rapidly changing.
17. Designs and conducts complex audits, assurance reviews and evaluations to assess contractual performance, compliance and quality, using findings to drive service improvement and inform strategic decision making.
18. Responsible for developing, implementing and reviewing organisation wide contracting policies, frameworks and procedures that have significant impact across all services.
19. Produce reports, business cases, and performance updates to inform operational and strategic decision making, ensuring assurance to senior management and Trust Board as required.
20. Provides expert commercial assurance to the Finance & Performance Committee and contributes to Board level reports on high risk contracts and supplier resilience.
21. Advises Directors on complex contractual risk and governance matters, ensuring compliance with statutory and NHS frameworks.
22. Acts as business owner for the Trust's Contract Management system (Atamis), ensuring accurate data, analytics, and performance reporting to support informed decision making. Developing the system processes and reporting on gold, silver and bronze contract performance.
23. Provides strategic leadership for the Trust's Commercial and Contracting Improvement and Assurance Framework (CCIAF), embedding innovative practices and digital tools to enhance contract lifecycle management, optimise supplier performance, and deliver measurable improvements in procurement and commercial standards.
24. Represents NUH in internal and external regional and national forums, influencing system wide contracting and procurement models.
25. Provide direct line management to the Senior Contract Manager and professional oversight of a wider team of four, with the potential for the team to grow further (subject to business case approval) ensuring effective workforce planning, performance management, and professional development. Full responsibility for workforce planning, recruitment and complex HR/capability cases. . click apply for full job details