Director General – Health and Social Care

Scottish Development International

Director General Health & Social Care leading health reform efforts for Scottish Government. Overseeing health service and ensuring delivery of key priorities within the Scottish public health sector.

Posted 6/10/2026full-timeEdinburgh • 🇬🇧 United KingdomLead💰 £190,000 - £205,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

You will be the Accountable Officer for the Health & Social Care Portfolio in SG with a budget of approx. £22 billion, charged with ensuring the best use of resources and driving reform that enables capacity to be matched with demand within a sustainable financial envelope.
Lead Director General (DG) for prevention and Chair of the Reform Executive, you will have a key role in overseeing the development and implementation of the Health and Social Care Reform portfolio and its contribution to Public Service Reform ensuring that priorities and ambitions are delivered.
Advise and assist Ministers to deliver ambitions against the Public Service Reform Strategy, the Population Health Framework and the Service Renewal Framework for Health and Social Care (HSC) ensuring improved performance and system sustainability.
Provide strategic direction to NHS Scotland, driving reform, improved performance, efficiency and value for money in the delivery of sustainable high-quality services.
Work with system leaders across health and social care to deliver large scale reform which enhances outcomes and the quality of the user experience whilst ensuring sustained performance and productivity.
Ensure NHS Scotland and the broader health and social care system has appropriate governance structures and arrangements to drive forward reform, quality improvement, performance and accountability.
Play a leading and collegiate role as part of the Executive Team and Corporate Board to cut through silos and organisational boundaries in developing and aligning resources in support of SG priorities.
Role model for the ambition and values of the SG and NHS Scotland reinforcing and supporting a diverse and inclusive culture shaped by continuous improvement and the drive for excellence.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Significant senior leadership experience at Executive or Board level within large, complex organisations, ideally in health, social care, or similarly regulated sectors with political accountability.
Comprehensive experience of driving delivery across whole systems, using collaborative approaches that integrate partners, stakeholders and services to address challenges such as public health effectively.
Proven expertise in overseeing substantial revenue and capital budgets, supported by strong corporate governance and financial stewardship.
Demonstrated success in delivering measurable outcomes across multiple functions through effective partnership working and stakeholder engagement.
Strong track record of achieving strategic objectives while cultivating a high-performance culture that drives continuous improvement and system-wide transformation.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Alongside your salary of £190,000, Scottish Government contributes £55,043 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% and member contributions of £8.05%.

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Hard Skills & Tools

budget managementfinancial stewardshipperformance improvementsystem sustainabilitystrategic directiongovernance structuresquality improvementstakeholder engagementpartnership workingpublic health

Soft Skills

senior leadershipcollaborative approacheshigh-performance culturecontinuous improvementexecutive communicationteam leadershipstrategic thinkingorganizational alignmentpolitical accountabilityinclusive culture