Head of Office (Technology & Product) (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds & London)

Company Description

Genomics England partners with the NHS to provide whole genome sequencing diagnostics. We also equip researchers to find the causes of disease and develop new treatments – with patients and participants at the heart of it all.

Our mission is to continue refining, scaling, and evolving our ability to enable others to deliver genomic healthcare and conduct genomic research.

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.

Job purpose

Provide strategic leadership and operational support to the Chief Technology & Product Officer (CTPO), acting as a trusted adviser and deputy in some contexts. Ensure the effective coordination of the Tech and Product Delivery Board, business-as-usual meetings, analytics, and reporting, to deliver cohesive and aligned directorate activities. Serve as the primary liaison with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Office, Performance, People, Finance, and other senior stakeholders, managing communications, dependencies, and preparing high-quality documentation for executive governance. Drive organisational performance, risk management, and financial oversight, while leading community development and engagement activities (such as All Hands, Away Days and celebrating successes) ensuring the requirements of the CTPO and wider Leadership Team are met.

To provide leadership bandwidth and support to the CTPO – acting as a trusted adviser and delivery partner, and deputising where appropriate.
To coordinate and support the effective operation of the Tech and Product Delivery Board, business-as-usual meetings, directorate analytics and reporting, ensuring that BAU activity across the directorate is joined up, cohesive, and able to deliver on both change and BAU activity.
To act as a key interface with the CEO Office, Performance, People, Finance and other senior stakeholders, managing asks, dependencies, and communications for the CTPO, and leading the preparation of high-quality papers, business cases, and reports for the ELT, Board, and other governance forums.
To drive organisational performance and risk management across the directorate, including financial oversight of cross-cutting budgets, close collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, and leading community development and engagement activities (such as All Hands calls, Away Days, and celebrating successes), ensuring the requirements of the CTPO and the wider Leadership Team are met.

Job Description

Support the CTPO in shaping and running the Directorate, deputising where appropriate, and acting as a trusted adviser and delivery partner.
Coordinate and manage the Tech and Product Delivery Board and other key directorate meetings, ensuring agendas, actions, and follow-ups are delivered effectively.
Hold budgetary responsibility for modelling, monitoring, and managing spend across cross-cutting budgets, working with teams to understand actual spend, future needs, and capacity.
Lead the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) process with chapter leads and direct reports of the CTPO (e.g. across Cyber Security, Scalable Tech, Engineering, Product, Architecture, and Data), tracking progress, preparing analytics, facilitating improvements, and developing and maintaining longer-term strategy and roadmaps that are accessible and understood across the organisation.
Act as a central coordination point for major cross-directorate change programmes, ensuring alignment, connection, and timely delivery, and supporting organisational change by identifying gaps and needs.
Create, prepare, and distribute high-quality and insightful documents (such as briefing packs, board papers, audit committee papers, procurement documents, project reports, business cases, budgets, and records) for the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), Board, and other governance forums, and facilitate the sharing of best practice across digital and strategy teams.
Act as a key interface with the CEO Office and other senior stakeholders, managing asks, dependencies, and communications for the CTPO.
Take a central role in risk management across the directorate, ensuring risks are identified, tracked, and mitigated, and work closely with the Performance function to define, measure, and report on KPIs across Tech and Product.
Lead community development across the Tech and Product directorate, including planning and preparing for All Hands calls, Away Days, and other engagement activities, and ensuring regular communications and celebration of successes.
Be accountable for the sign-off process for work with external organisations, and Partners ensuring value for money and clear benefit to the organisation that aligns with the vision, objectives, and milestones.
And finally - embody the

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