Programme Lead (Technical) (we have office locations in Leeds, London & Cambridge)

Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world-first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future.

Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations.

We are accelerating our impact and working with patients, doctors, scientists, government and industry to improve genomic testing, and help researchers access the health data and technology they need to make new medical discoveries and create more effective, targeted medicines for everybody.

Behind the Healthcare and Research outcomes, Genomics England delivers through designing, developing and operating complex healthcare software systems.

We're on the cusp of big changes with the real prospect of genomics becoming the fabric of everyday healthcare through the lifetime – from birth to old age.

We are seeking a Technical Programme Lead to drive the delivery of our Hosting Strategy implementation, a complex multi-year programme that will strengthen the technology foundations behind our work.

The role will oversee key activity including a new cloud services contract, development of a data layer to improve how data is used, migration of remaining services to the cloud and retirement of legacy infrastructure. 

You will bring together technical, commercial, governance and delivery teams across Genomics England, helping colleagues work collaboratively, make informed decisions and deliver at pace. This is an opportunity to contribute to safe, secure and high-quality services that support patients, participants, researchers and the wider healthcare ecosystem. 

Everyday responsibilities include:  

• Lead the delivery of Genomics England’s hosting strategy implementation, ensuring the programme is well planned, coordinated and aligned to our mission, strategic priorities and agreed outcomes. 
• Bring together multidisciplinary teams across Technology, Product, Architecture, Engineering, Security, Assurance, Finance, Procurement, Legal and service ownership to deliver complex change collaboratively. 
• Provide clear, inclusive and purposeful programme leadership, creating shared direction and helping teams make confident, evidence-based decisions at pace. 
• Develop and maintain an integrated programme plan across discovery, definition, procurement, mobilisation and implementation, with clear milestones, dependencies, governance and readiness criteria. 
• Coordinate delivery across tribes, services and workstreams, proactively managing risks, issues, dependencies and blockers to support safe, secure and high-quality delivery. 
• Support commercial and supplier activity, including requirements, evaluation, contracting, mobilisation, service transition and performance oversight in a regulated and publicly accountable environment. 
• Lead financial management and benefits tracking, working with Finance and FinOps colleagues to support budgeting, forecasting, cost transparency and value-for-money decisions. 
• Prepare clear, decision-focused reporting and communications for senior leaders, boards and external stakeholders, making risks, trade-offs, recommendations and progress easy to understand. 

Skills and experience for success: 

• Strong technical fluency in cloud, platform and infrastructure delivery, with the confidence to challenge plans, understand risks and coordinate technical workstreams effectively. 
• Experience delivering complex technology change across multiple teams, with strong cross-functional, matrix delivery and dependency management skills. 
• Strategic leadership and transformational change experience, with the ability to engage a wide range of stakeholders and keep them aligned to the programme vision. 
• Ability to drive prioritisation and motivate multidisciplinary teams to deliver a complex set of related outcomes in a coordinated way, balancing competing stakeholder needs across in-flight projects with internal and external partners. 
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, including the ability to prepare clear, decision-focused papers and reporting for senior leaders and boards. 
• Commercial and procurement delivery experience in UK government, public sector or regulated environments, including requirements, evaluation, mobilisation and effective collaboration with Procurement, Legal and Finance. 
• Financial literacy, including budgeting, forecasting and value-for-money thinking, with the ability to work with FinOps and Finance teams to improve cost transparency. 
• End-to-end programme delivery leadership across discovery, definition, planning, mobilisation and implementation, including governance, RAID management and benefits tracking. 
• Demonstrable industry experience delivering infrastructure, software projects or technology programmes in complex environments. 

Desirable skills:  

• Extensive experience influencing senior stakeholders across UK government and supporting timely decisions and approvals where appropriate. 
• Experience delivering cloud migrations and/or hybrid hosting strategies, including landing zones, security guardrails and operational readiness. 
• Experience coordinating delivery of data platform capabilities, such as data lifecycle management, de-duplication, archival and backup approaches. 
• Knowledge of assurance and audit processes in public sector or regulated environments, including evidence packs, formal reviews and supplier assurance. 
• Supplier management experience across large technology contracts, including contract performance oversight and service transition planning. 
• Experience establishing pragmatic operating models for long-running programmes, including delivery cadence, decision logs, stakeholder maps and communications rhythm. 
• Familiarity with genomics, healthcare data or other sensitive-data environments, including information governance, security and privacy constraints. 
• Experience working with PMP, PRINCE2, Agile and hybrid delivery methodologies. 

Certifications in project management, Agile delivery, ITIL and/or SAFe are highly desirable however not essential.

Please note the successful candidate will be required to travel to our Canary Wharf office minimum 1 day  per week. 

Salary from: £89,000

Closing date for applications  - Saturday 4th July 

As part of the application process, candidates are requested to submit a cover letter detailing how their skills and experience align with the requirements of this role. 

Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including: 

• Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
• Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
• Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), an Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice scheme and a Give As You Earn scheme.
• Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
• Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
• Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.

Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace 

Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background. 

Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity and will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor.  

Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties. Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity. 

We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us. 

Culture

We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other. You can read about these and other aspects of our culture here Culture | Genomics England

Blended working model

Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team. 

Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum. Our office locations are: Canary Wharf, Cambridge and Leeds.

Onboarding background checks

As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.  We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.