Principal Operations Radiographer

The Christie at Withington is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Principal Operations Radiographer to play a key leadership role within our radiotherapy service. You will oversee the daily operational management of the department, ensuring safe, effective, and high-quality radiotherapy for all patients. Working closely with clinical, scientific, and managerial teams, you will coordinate service delivery, support pathway development, and lead on quality, governance, and workforce planning.

This role requires a radiographer with extensive senior clinical experience, strong leadership ability, and a proven track record in service improvement. You will work collaboratively across Christie sites and with external partners to ensure seamless patient care, while also contributing to teaching, training, audit, and research. As a key member of the operational leadership team, you will champion best practice, innovation, and continuous improvement within a complex and high-performing radiotherapy network.

HCPC registration required.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Applications for part-time /full-time and other working patterns welcome

Shift patterns between 06:00am and 23:00pm

You will lead the operational delivery of radiotherapy services at The Christie at Withington, managing radiographic, clinical support, and administrative teams. Key responsibilities include overseeing workflow, safety, quality, and service performance, and ensuring compliance with radiotherapy legislation, Trust policies, and national standards. You will analyse complex service issues, lead pathway redesign, and implement improvement initiatives across the radiotherapy network.

The role includes maintaining clinical competence, providing specialist technical advice, and contributing to teaching, research, and clinical trials. You will manage staffing, budgets, training, and governance processes, acting as Operator, Referrer, Practitioner, and Radiation Protection Supervisor under IR(ME)
R. Working across multidisciplinary teams, you will support strategic planning, lead project delivery, manage risks, and contribute to the development of new technologies and treatment pathways to ensure exceptional patient care.

The Christie is one of Europe's leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country.

We provide radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years.

We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.

Our Radiotherapy network has sites based at Withington, Oldham, Macclesfield and Salford; treating approximately 9,500 patients per year over 13 treatment machines

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Communication

The post holder will provide, receive and analyse highly complex, information on advanced radiotherapy in order to understand current pathways and suggest and implement improvements to resolve key issues. Collaboration, motivation, negotiation, training, empathetic and re‑assurance skills will be routinely utilised. The post holder will be involved in presenting complex information to large groups of staff, at national or international conferences and to members of the public.

They will collate and disseminate process pathways, negotiating with both internal and external stakeholders to insure prompt and reliable implementation.

The post holder will lecture to radiographers, dosimetrists, postgraduate scientists, doctors in training and others and assist in the organisation of the departments teaching programmes.

The…