Chief Operating Officer
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) provides a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.
Our values
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) promise to our patients, as identified by our three values which will contribute to improving our patients’ experiences, is:
Patient at heart – Always holding the patient and their wellbeing at the centre of our thoughts and efforts.
Everyday excellence – Sharing and celebrating our successes, being honest when we get it wrong, giving us the ability to learn from both.
Creative collaboration – Knowing strength comes from diversity, we combine our experiences, skills and talents, working together to find new and better ways to care.
Job overview
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) is at a pivotal stage in its development and, following the appointment of our current Chief Operating Officer (COO) to a Chief Executive post, there is an opportunity to join us as our next COO and play a fundamental role in delivering outstanding services for our population, ensuring that safety, quality, efficiency, and responsiveness remain at the heart of everything we do.We have an ambitious strategy and, in joining us as COO, you will join an executive team in our exciting journey and bring experience gained at Board or sub-Board level in a complex healthcare setting to our Trust.
This is a crucial time for PAHT as we embark on the development of our new Clinical Strategy for our Trust and the wider West Essex system. We are committed to modernising our services, improving patient care, and fostering a thriving, resilient workforce has never been stronger.The COO will be instrumental in leading this transformation, ensuring that our operational delivery is aligned with our strategic ambitions and that we continue to deliver safe, effective, and innovative services.
Interviews will take place on Wednesday 18 June 2025.
Main duties of the job
As an anchor institution in West Essex, we play a vital role in shaping the health and wellbeing of our local population. Our new COO will drive this agenda, leading the operational delivery of services across the Trust, championing patient experience, quality improvement, and operational resilience, and ensuring that our services remain sustainable, integrated, and responsive to the needs of our diverse communities.The COO will also play a critical role in strengthening data quality, business intelligence, and performance management to inform decision making and transformation across the organisation.
This role will be instrumental in delivering national NHS priorities, including the Three Shifts, the NHS Long Term Plan, reducing health inequalities, and embedding a culture of continuous improvement, service innovation, and operational excellence.The successful candidate will ensure that our emergency planning, business continuity, and major incident preparedness frameworks are robust and fit for purpose, safeguarding service delivery through times of challenge.
Working for our organisation
We are a district general hospital at the heart of our community, with over 4,000 dedicated staff providing services across The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.Working closely with our partners across the Herts and West Essex ICS and beyond, we are committed to transforming the way healthcare is delivered to a population of over 500,000 people.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We are looking for an exceptional operational leader with a passion for patient care, service transformation, and quality improvement. The successful candidate will bring significant experience at or close to board level in relevant healthcare setting, with a proven track record of delivering high quality, efficient services and meeting key performance targets.They will be a visible and inspiring leader, with the ability to build strong relationships internally and externally, influence system wide operational strategy, and drive innovation and excellence across our services.
This is a rare opportunity to make a lasting impact on the future of our people, our organisation, and the communities we serve. If you share our ambition and are passionate about shaping the future of workforce leadership in the NHS, we encourage you to speak with our partners at Alumni Global.
Person specification
Education and qualifications
Essential criteria- Educated to Master’s level or equivalent senior leadership experience
- Evidence of continued professional and personal development
- Formal leadership, strategic management, or healthcare-related qualification (e.g., MBA, NHS Leadership Academy programme)
Experience
Essential criteria- Significant experience at Board or Deputy Director level in a large, complex NHS or healthcare organisation
- Proven track record of delivering high-quality, safe, and efficient operational servicess and systemwide healthcare transformatio
- Experience of directly leading Data Quality and/or Business Intelligence teams or functions
What we can offer you:
- Full induction and onboarding process in our organisation
- Free car parking for our staff
- Structured pay scheme, including additional living supplement to your basic salary
- Minimum 27 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays (pro rata for part time staff)
- Access to our Alex Lounge, our staff only rest area with free tea and coffee
- Access to NHS Pension scheme
- Flexible working options available, in line with our flexible working policy
- Onsite creche facilities
- Annual appraisals with career pathways
- In-house training courses
- Discounted hospital restaurant
- Staff health and wellbeing health services and complimentary health provision
- Our Trust is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all its employees. We welcome applications from anyone who meets the specific criteria of the post regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender reassignment, marital status, pregnancy, religion or belief or sexual orientation. Reasonable adjustments to the interview process can also be made for any candidates with a disability
- All new colleagues joining PAHT will be subject to a probationary period of six months
- The closing date given is a guide only. There may be some occasions where we have to close a vacancy once sufficient applications have been received. It is therefore advisable that you submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment
- Our Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and vulnerable adults. Offers of employment are subject to pre-employment NHS screening checks
- Providing false or misleading information or unsatisfactory pre-employment checks may result in the offer of a post being withdrawn