Role: Associate Director of Contracts

Role Type: Fixed Term Contract (12 – 18 months)

Location: Surrey/Hybrid

Salary: £81,000 – £86,000

We are seeking an experienced NHS contracting leader to join our client as Associate Director of Contracts. You will provide strategic oversight and day-to-day leadership of the contracting and income portfolio, ensuring robust governance, high-quality stakeholder management and delivery of financial plans. You will ensure that contracting arrangements are underpinned by accurate data, clear service specifications, agreed currencies, and transparent performance and reconciliation processes.

Key responsibilities

· Lead the contracting function, providing expert advice on NHS contracting and ensure timely delivery of contracting cycles.

· Provide strategic oversight of contract performance, including activity, quality, finance and key contractual metrics; identify and mitigate risks, and ensure actions are tracked to resolution.

· Own and maintain a clear contract governance framework (committees, reporting, sign-off, delegations, document control), ensuring compliance with Trust Standing Financial Instructions and relevant NHS guidance.

· Lead negotiations with commissioners, systems and partner organisations, building constructive relationships

· Support the programme to deconstruct block contracts into agreed service lines/currencies, including mapping of activity, coding, HRG/currency development (where applicable), and agreement of baselines.

· Work closely with Performance/Operational teams to align contracting assumptions to capacity, demand and recovery plans; ensure contract positions reflect realistic delivery trajectories.

· Partner with Information Governance, Costing and Data Quality teams to improve the accuracy and completeness of activity and cost data that underpin contracting and income.

· Oversee contract variations, in-year changes, and dispute resolution, ensuring decisions are evidenced and auditable.

· Lead, coach and develop the Contracts team, creating a high-performing, customer-focused function with clear objectives and strong succession planning.

· Contribute to wider corporate objectives, including financial planning, system collaboration, and ensuring value for money.

Essential Person specification

· Significant senior-level experience of NHS contracting and income, including negotiation and management of complex commissioner/provider relationships.

· Demonstrable experience of contract oversight and performance management, including governance, reporting and risk management.

· Proven track record of supporting or leading the transition from ‘block’ arrangements to more granular, transparent contracting models (e.g., activity-based mechanisms, aligned incentives, outcomes-based components).

· Strong financial and analytical skills, with the ability to interpret activity, cost and performance data and translate into clear contracting positions.

· Excellent stakeholder management, influencing and negotiation skills, with the credibility to operate at senior level internally and externally.

· Experience of leading and developing teams, managing workload priorities, and delivering to demanding deadlines.

· Educated to degree level or equivalent experience; finance qualification (e.g., CCAB/CIMA/ACCA/CIPFA) or equivalent senior contracting expertise.

Desirable

· Experience of contracting within a system context, including collaborative commissioning/provider arrangements and pathway-level negotiations.

· Understanding of patient-level costing, service line reporting and how costing informs price, negotiation strategy and value improvement.

· Experience of contract dispute resolution and application of contractual terms to support robust reconciliation.

· Experience of leading improvement in data quality and information flows to support complete and accurate income recovery.