Chief Operating Officer

Lead operational excellence. Deliver transformational change. Improve lives. We are seeking an exceptional Chief Operating Officer (COO) to join our Executive Team and Board (non-voting), playing a critical role across the Trust, the BSW Hospitals Group and the wider Integrated Care System. This role is central to delivering our shared system ambition for high quality, equitable and sustainable services for our population. This is a high-impact leadership opportunity to shape strategy, drive performance and deliver outstanding, patient-centred care across a complex and evolving health system. This is a system leadership role, requiring you to operate across organisational boundaries to deliver shared priorities, improve population health outcomes and reduce inequalities. As COO, you will lead the Trust's operational agenda--ensuring high-quality, safe and efficient services while driving transformation and system collaboration. You will provide strategic, Board-level leadership across performance, governance, and service delivery, ensuring the achievement of operational targets, quality standards, and regulatory requirements. You will lead capacity, patient flow, and service performance across all specialties, working collaboratively with clinical, operational, and finance colleagues to deliver sustainable, high-value services. Interviews for this role will take place week commencing 13th July 2026., In this key leadership role you will:

• Deliver operational performance against national and local priorities
• Lead service transformation and redesign across clinical and corporate functions
• Oversee business continuity and emergency preparedness
• Drive delivery of Cost Improvement Programmes (CIPs)
• Lead development and delivery of the annual and three-year business plans
• Represent the Trust as a key leader within the BSW Hospitals Group and wider system, shaping and delivering shared priorities, pathways and models of care
• Deliver operational alignment and service optimisation across the Group, supporting consistent standards, shared workforce, and efficient use of resources
• Champion continuous quality, efficiency and innovation
  
  We are proud to be part of BSW Hospitals Group - a formal partnership between the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. With a combined workforce of over 17, 600 colleagues, and budget of 1.6 billion the Group is united by a common purpose to deliver the best possible care to over 1 million people.
We are creating a health and care system that works with the people we care for, reducing the differences people currently face in access, experience and outcomes, improving the experience of our colleagues and tackling shared challenges like sustainability and finances. Every improvement we make across our Group will be guided by what creates the greatest benefit for our colleagues, our patients, our communities and our partners. By working together, we make a real difference for our patients, each other, and our community. Every role matters in delivering the exceptional, person-centred care we're proud of. We're committed to a compassionate, inclusive culture where kindness is championed, differences are valued, and diversity makes us stronger. We want to support you to thrive, taking your career to its full potential. We prioritise staff wellbeing - and yes, we even have a pool! Discover what it's like to live and work in Bath, explore our RUH staff benefits, and learn how we're building healthcare for the future through the Dyson Cancer Centre and our commitment to research.