Care Pathway Specialist

Job Title: Care Pathway Specialist (North West Region)

Function: Customer, Communications and Marketing

Location: Hybrid – one of our office with some regional travel

Contract type: Permanent

Salary: £65,920 with potential to rise to £77,553 over 3 years

Closing Date: 17 June 2026

NHS Supply Chain is seeking a Care Pathway Specialist to join the team at a pivotal time of transformation. This is a key role, supporting our mission to make it easier for the NHS to put patients first while delivering against our strategic objectives.

Working in close partnership with clinical and non-clinical stakeholders across three Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) in the North West region, you will lead the delivery of best-practice clinical change programmes. These programmes will drive improvements in population health outcomes, enhance productivity, and deliver value for money.

Using a consultative, clinically led and commercially focused, data-driven approach, you will lead commercial engagement to identify unmet clinical needs across care pathways. You will bring together the latest clinical guidance, best practice and recommendations, from organisations such as the MedTech Directorate, Health Innovation Networks (HINs), NICE, GIRFT, MHRA and the Royal Colleges, to build a compelling clinical case for change.

Through collaborative working with NHS stakeholders, you will influence organisations across the region to adopt innovation and clinical best practice that transform patient outcomes. In doing so, you will play a vital role in enabling NHS Supply Chain to achieve its ambition of unlocking £1bn in savings by 2030.

Every day you will.…

• Communicate the function’s strategy to customers, clearly linking it to NHS Supply Chain’s mission, vision, values, and wider NHS priorities.
• Partner strategically with Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and commissioning units to identify unmet clinical needs and deliver care pathway improvements that enhance patient outcomes and unlock system-wide efficiencies.
• Apply a consultative, data-driven approach to co-design and deliver clinically led care pathway solutions, leveraging products and services available through the national model.
• Lead and support clinical change programmes, ensuring successful implementation of pathway improvements, innovations, and policy changes with measurable benefits.
• Build and maintain strong, influential relationships with clinical and non-clinical stakeholders across NHS organisations, regulators, Royal Colleges, and providers at both local and national levels.
• Collaborate with category managers, clinical leads, and technical experts to align sourcing strategies with pathway innovation, driving value and influencing future category development.
• Analyse clinical guidance, market trends, and stakeholder insights to inform strategy, identify opportunities, and shape the clinical case for change.
• Translate business objectives into robust financial models, business cases, and tangible cost-saving opportunities that deliver value for the health economy.
• Identify and deliver “value-add” initiatives, coordinating internal resources to achieve scalable impact across systems.
• Act as a key point of contact for stakeholder engagement and product feedback, helping to improve sourcing strategies and reduce escalations.
• Develop and implement regional relationship management plans, ensuring effective two-way communication and alignment with customer priorities.
• Shape and continuously improve the Care Pathway team’s service offering and ways of working to enable delivery at pace and scale while supporting financial alignment and realisation of savings.

What can we offer you?

We want to reward you for your passion, enthusiasm, and hard work so we offer much more than a competitive salary:

• Hybrid working opportunities, giving you the flexibility to work collaboratively in the office and remotely.  
• We recognise our employees’ hard work and contributions with annual bonus schemes, long service, and colleague recognition awards. 
• 27 days holiday plus bank holidays
• We are dedicated to your development, through in-house training, support, and access to external qualifications to maximise your potential.
• A focus on your well-being offering 1 day of paid well-being leave and free access to the 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
• Generous pension scheme (with us contributing 12% when you contribute 6%)
• Access to our Flexible Benefits Scheme, where you can choose from a variety of benefits such as Life Insurance, Critical Illness Cover, Income Protection, Health Cash Plan, Dental Insurance, and additional pension contributions that suit you.
• 2 days of paid volunteering leave allowing you to give back to your community. 
• Access to many discounts from the Blue Light Card to NHS Discounts.

NHS Supply Chain, who are we?

Our role is to support the NHS to save lives and improve health. We are a part of the NHS family, and our role is to source, deliver and supply healthcare products, services and food for NHS trusts and healthcare organisations across England and Wales.

We serve every NHS Trust and operate a national network of distribution centres, managing relationships with more than a thousand suppliers and delivering more than 8,000,000 orders each year to more than 17,000 locations. Doing all of this on behalf of the NHS gives NHS staff more time to focus on their main priority of providing excellent patient care.

What skills will help you thrive in this role?

• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills, with the ability to deliver customer-centric, patient outcome, focused solutions through a consultative approach and create mutually beneficial partnerships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Comprehensive understanding of NHS structures, programmes, and priorities, including delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan, with established and credible customer relationships.
• Well-developed financial and commercial acumen within a healthcare setting, with experience developing business cases, benefits realisation plans, and influencing funding decisions at Provider and System level.
• Proven track record of delivering against and exceeding commercial or performance targets within the NHS or wider healthcare environment.
• Good understanding of clinical pathways and the ability to interpret and apply clinical guidelines to support and influence the case for change.
• Highly organised with strong planning and prioritisation skills, able to manage competing demands, align activity to organisational goals, and adapt effectively to change.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability, able to interpret complex and sometimes conflicting information, identify root causes, and develop effective solutions.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to tailor messaging to different audiences, build credibility, and influence at all levels.
• Collaborative, adaptive, and solutions-focused mindset, with the resilience to drive change in a complex environment.
• Degree-level qualification or equivalent experience.
• Extensive experience within the NHS or healthcare sector, including a strong understanding of patient pathways and commissioning processes; clinical experience is desirable but not essential.

Our Inclusive Commitment

At NHS Supply Chain, we are committed to building an inclusive environment where difference is not only valued, but celebrated, giving everyone the opportunity to thrive in their career. Developing our people is key to our success, so if this role sounds like the right next step in your career but your experience doesn’t match perfectly with the job advert, we encourage you to still apply.

Struggling to complete our application form, and require additional support? Reach out to our Talent Acquisition team at careers@supplychain.nhs.uk who will be happy to help you with alternative ways to apply.

To keep our recruitment process efficient, we may close the advert early if application numbers are high. If you’re interested, we recommend applying promptly.

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