Deputy Head of Operations - South-West

Not every operational leadership role is about managing teams and attending meetings.

This Deputy Head of Operations role is different.

We're looking for someone who can turn plans into reality; mobilising new services, embedding change, improving performance and helping operational teams overcome barriers to delivery.

Working across a diverse portfolio of clinical and non-clinical services, you'll play a pivotal role in ensuring new and existing services operate effectively, achieve their objectives and continue to grow. You'll work closely with operational, clinical and senior stakeholders to implement change, drive service improvement and support the successful delivery of care for patients and families across the South‑West.

If you're someone who enjoys solving complex problems, improving services and seeing projects through from idea to implementation, we'd love to hear from you.

As Deputy Head of Operations, you will help turn agreed priorities into delivered work.

That means building clear plans, keeping actions moving, resolving practical barriers, coordinating across teams, using data well, and staying with implementation after go‑live.

The work is not finished when a service launches. It is finished when the service is working, stable, understood and delivering what it was set up to deliver. You will help turn agreed priorities into delivered work.

This role does not carry a large line management portfolio. That is deliberate. Its value is in delivery, follow‑through and operational grip. You'll work across multiple services and stakeholders to identify challenges, implement solutions and ensure services are delivering high‑quality outcomes for patients and families.

Marie Curie is the UK’s leading end‑of‑life charity. We are the largest non‑NHS provider of end‑of‑life care in the UK, the only provider across all 4 nations, delivering community nursing and hospice care across the country, while providing information and support on all aspects of dying, death, and bereavement. Our leading research pushes the boundaries of what we know about good end‑of‑life, and our campaigns fight for a world where everyone gets to have the best possible quality of life while living with an illness they’re likely to die from.

The care and support we provide is highly valued by the people we care for and their loved ones, but at present we are only reaching around 10% of dying people at the end of life. Right now, one in four people in the UK with a terminal illness do not get the care or support they deserve at the end of their lives.

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Contract: Full‑time Permanent

Salary: £49,382 – £56,515 per annum (pro rata), plus a full range of Marie Curie benefits.

Location: Home‑based, with regular travel to Tiverton and services across the South‑West.

You’ll be someone who:

• Takes ownership and follows through on commitments.
• Enjoys solving problems and removing barriers to progress.
• Can balance multiple priorities and remain focused on delivery.
• Uses data and insight to drive decision‑making.
• Builds strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Thrives in environments where priorities evolve and change.

What success looks like:

In this role, success will mean that work moves more clearly and more quickly. New services are mobilised with better grip. Existing services have stronger follow‑through on performance and improvement. Operational problems are identified earlier and resolved more practically. Senior leaders have better visibility without needing to chase every detail. Teams experience the role as helpful because barriers are removed, decisions are followed through, and work does not keep returning to the same conversations.

Key responsibilities include:

• Supporting the mobilisation and implementation of new services and service developments.
• Driving operational improvement and service redesign initiatives.
• Monitoring performance data and identifying opportunities for improvement.
• Working with operational and clinical colleagues to resolve complex challenges.
• Developing effective processes, systems and ways of working that support…