Deputy Director of Operations

Overview The opportunity to drive benefit realisation across the organisation and to drive cross-portfolio collaboration.

About Our Client

The Welsh Ambulance Service is supported by more than 4,500 staff and volunteers, and everyone has a role to play in providing a service to patients. Our services include:

• Emergency Medical Service (EMS) - Responding to urgent and emergency calls and providing pre-hospital care.
• Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service - Transporting people to and from routine outpatient appointments.
• EMS Coordination Centres - Receiving emergency and urgent calls and dispatching ambulance crews.
• NHS 111 Wales - Providing health advice remotely via telephone, video and the website.
• Support Service Departments - Managing finances, IT, recruitment, and staff communications.

We receive more than 500,000 emergency calls and one million 111 calls a year, and transport more than 1.3 million non-emergency patients to over 200 treatment centres in Wales and England. We respond 24/7, 365 days a year.

The Role The Deputy Director of Operations provides highly visible, senior leadership for the day-to-day delivery of operational, workforce, planning, quality, and financial performance across the Operations Directorate.

The postholder will:

• Act as immediate deputy to the Executive Director of Operations, enabling increased strategic and external engagement.
• Hold directorate accountability for professional standards, culture and safeguarding, ensuring compliance with statutory requirements and high-quality, patient-focused services.
• Lead the directorate's financial sustainability, owning budgets, delivering cost improvement plans, and ensuring robust financial stewardship, including budgeting for major activity and accountability for service portfolios.
• Drive cross-portfolio/departmental/directorate integration, system and pathway flow, and continuous improvement, supporting the Trust's strategic objectives.
• Lead major service transformation, improvement programmes, and strategic projects; include organisation-wide policy development and service redesign.
• Represent the Trust in internal and external forums, fostering system partnership and stakeholder engagement.
• Lead directorate planning to support strategy and the Integrated Medium-Term Plan, translating strategy into measurable outcomes.
• Play a key role in delivering change and transformation, particularly whole-directorate change.
• Work with media outlets to promote the Trust's profile and communicate key messages; handle highly complex, sensitive, and contentious information as required.
• Develop and sustain effective trade union partnerships.

Job Description Responsibilities

Professional Standards, Culture & Safeguarding

• Set and uphold clinical, operational/performance, financial, and behavioural standards across Operations, including clinical service delivery standards.
• Champion a positive, inclusive culture, embed Trust behaviours/values, and promote psychological safety.
• Ensure robust safeguarding policies and practices, compliance with Duty of Quality, Duty of Candour, Civil Contingencies Act and regulatory requirements.
• Lead on culture change programmes and organisational development initiatives.
• Responsible for leading directorate-wide cultural transformation programmes.

Financial Sustainability

• Own Operations Directorate budgets, lead cost improvement and efficiency plans, and ensure financial governance.
• Deliver financial recovery plans, monitor expenditure, and report on financial performance, risks, and opportunities.
• Ensure value for money and compliance with Trust and NHS Wales financial frameworks.
• Frequent access to Oracle systems to support operational and strategic functions when acting in a deputy capacity for the Executive Director of Operations.

Strategic Leadership & Transformation

• Lead and integrate the work of all Assistant Directors, aligning portfolios to strategic objectives and operational effectiveness.
• Lead initiatives to enhance system and pathway flow and performance, fostering external partnerships to influence broader system outcomes.
• Lead major service transformation, improvement programmes, and strategic projects as delegated; develop service/business development plans, business cases, and innovation initiatives.
• Use analytical tools (e.g., Excel, Power BI) daily to manage data and support data-driven decision-making.

Operational Oversight & Performance Management

• Ensure effective management of all operational delivery areas.
• Oversee business management, risk, and audit functions; ensure governance standards are met.
• Responsible for directorate-level policy implementation and development.
• Drive achievement of KPIs, regulatory compliance, and continuous improvement.
• Lead on EPRR, major incident response, and business continuity; participate in Gold/Strategic on-call rota.
• Accountable to the Executive Director of Operations for delivery of technical and operational services within the portfolio.

People Leadership

• Line manage Assistant Directors via ESR, manage leave and sickness, support development and PADR compliance.
• Foster professionalism, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
• Lead directorate workforce planning, talent development, and staff engagement.
• Provide leadership to the Volunteer Service.
• Oversee formal HR processes, including dismissals, restructures, and complex casework.

System Partnership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Build and maintain relationships with internal and external partners, commissioners, regulators, and multi-agency stakeholders.
• Represent the Trust at regional and national forums; promote integrated care and system working.
• Develop and sustain trade union partnerships as part of stakeholder engagement.
• Collaborate with Communications to manage communications and reputation; act as Trust spokesperson.
• Ensure programme and project management best practices are embedded across directorate initiatives.

Governance, Risk and Assurance

• Ensure robust governance, risk management, and assurance frameworks.
• Maintain risk registers, audit compliance, and statutory reporting.
• Lead on clinical governance, patient safety, and quality improvement.
• Lead on information governance, including Freedom of Information for the directorate.
• Policy development for the directorate and contribute to organisation-wide policy development.

Freedom to Act

• Exercise autonomy and independent decision-making; interpret and implement policy.
• Set goals and standards for others and interpret national policy.
• Act as a role model for behaviours, inclusion, and wellbeing.
• Manage daily use of systems and MS Teams channels to collaborate within confidential groups.

The Successful Applicant Experience

Essential

• Significant senior leadership experience in a large, complex NHS or emergency services organisation.
• Proven track record of improving professional standards, safeguarding compliance, and organisational development.
• Experience in financial stewardship of large budgets and delivering efficiency/value programmes and financial recovery.
• Strategic portfolio management, operational delivery, and service transformation experience.
• Experience in major incidents, resilience and business continuity planning, and EPRR.
• Experience working with media (print, radio, TV).
• Delivery of balanced financial position and efficiency plans.
• Improved operational performance to achieve outcomes and system flow.
• Successful change management with positive staff feedback.
• Experience in external engagement, partnerships, and stakeholder management.
• Contributing to national/regional policy development or strategic forums.
• Shaping medium- to long-term planning in a devolved/complex health system.

Desirable

• Experience leading system-level programmes across agencies.
• Delivering large digital/data/technology-enabled improvement programmes.
• Leading workforce redesign or modernisation initiatives.
• Delivering major business cases or capital/service reconfiguration programmes.
• Improving integrated care pathways across organisational boundaries.

Skills and Attributes

Essential

• Openness, inclusion, and compassionate leadership.
• Commitment to organisational values and continuous improvement.
• Ability to inspire confidence at Executive/Board level and with clinicians.
• Resilience, emotional intelligence, and calm under pressure.
• Strong people management and leadership skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement.
• Ability to handle highly complex information and present to large groups.
• Plan and organise complex activities; adapt plans to achieve strategy.
• Flexibility to adapt duties as required.
• Compliance with Trust policies on equality, diversity, inclusion, H&S, information governance, and infection control.
• Experience working with trade unions on complex matters.
• Standard keyboard skills.

Desirable

• National professional body recognition.

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