NHS Blood and Transplant on the hunt for a Chief Digital Officer

Six figure salary for a CDO who will take over the duties of the interim CIO as well as responsibility of digital technologies and service delivery

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), the organisation that helps in delivering blood, and blood based therapies across England and north Wales and organ donation and supply services for the whole of the UK, is looking for a Chief Digital Officer (CDO).

The organisation employs over 5,500 staff across 94 sites, and wants to become the best organisation of its type in the world. It believes the best way to go about this is to harness technology effectively.

The CEO of NHSBT, Ian Trenholm told Computing that the CDO role would effectively combine the duties of the current interim CIO, along with additional duties which focus around digital technologies and service delivery.

"I want the CDO to be a challenger for the organisation, to see what other people are doing with technology, identifying the latest things and suggesting how we can add value to our services," Trenholm said.

"I think we need a futurologist kind of individual that hasn't been embedded into the organisation that can challenge service line leaders to think about things differently," he added.

When asked whether the roles of the CDO and CIO should remain distinct - Trenholm emphasised that for a business of its size and complexity he believes that one leader is sufficient.

The CDO will be offered a six figure salary - in line with the £110,000 average that ReThink Recruitment has stated CDOs earn in the UK, they will be a member of the board and report straight into Trenholm, the CEO.

According to the advert for the job in the Sunday Times, the successful candidate will lead the creation of the technology and digital service design of the whole of NHSBT and implement its ICT strategy. He or she will lead an in-house team of about 150 staff across the technology function, manage the relationship with outsourcers and regularly review performance and value for money.

The candidate must have the following attributes, according to the job posting:

- Significant and wide ranging experience or equivalent in a large, complex customer facing organisation with 24/7, multisite operations.

- Proven experience in developing and implementing wide-ranging technology strategies to achieve transformational levels of change and efficiency with a focus on driving customer experience.

- Used to operating within a highly complex environment with multiple stakeholders and partnership organisations who need to be engaged in your agenda.

Trenholm explained that he is looking for someone who will be a good fit within his existing team.

"We've got a strong existing team, so it has to be someone that is going to be able to challenge us but also be able to collaborate and get things done - so a delivery person. I'm looking for someone who has got a good appreciation of the digital services landscape and has a viewpoint of what it looks like in the future because we want to be the best at what we do in the world.

"We want someone who is able to look at government services and ensure we are sensibly connected with those. Also in the wider consumer marketplace, we're increasingly looking to collaborate with other third parties. A significant people on the organ donor list have come through the Boots Clubcard scheme, so increasingly those relationships are important and [the role] is about delivering the connections that make things work," he said.

He added that there is also a job to do in the short-term to refresh the organisation's current back office technology stack, and that he is looking for someone who has experience of working in a customer-facing environment and in a B2B role.