About us

33n empowers frontline NHS staff and supports organisations to improve healthcare – with the aim of improving people’s lives. Led by NHS clinicians, our goal is to provide solutions to the changing needs and pressures of the healthcare system, support its recovery, encourage colleague retention and shape services for the future. We offer a range of services, products, and training to support system transformation happen at pace, increasing knowledge, skills and capability to improve patient outcomes.

About the role

Lead the future of how we capture and share insight.

As Associate Lead, you’ll champion engagement and development across 33n’s network of Associates, fostering collaboration, consistency, and belonging. You’ll help strengthen relationships between Associates and internal teams, ensuring alignment on delivery standards and shared purpose. This role is all about creating the conditions for great partnership — enabling every Associate to feel supported, valued, and set up for success in client work.

Main Responsibilities

• Project Team Leadership and Management
• Independently manage contracts efficiently and effectively through their entire lifecycle, mitigating risks, maximising value and optimising business relationships.
• Independently lead and guide multidisciplinary teams to deliver high quality work using an in-depth understanding of 33n’s transformation methodology and their ability to adapt their approach in response to client requirements.
• Lead project teams, working with sponsors, stakeholders and project managers to define the scope and aims of work, with close oversight and approval of project timelines, budget and resource management.
• Act as a role model for company values and professional behaviours whilst fostering a positive and inclusive team culture and delegating responsibilities effectively.
• Develop and mentor team members for professional growth.
• Foster a positive, inclusive and collaborative work environment demonstrating and facilitating open communication and teamwork among all team members. Recognise and celebrate successes and milestones and maintain a high level of motivation within the team.
• Work in partnership with senior management in commercial, marketing, tech and data to facilitate the achievement of objectives in service of the company strategy.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Represent 33n in forming and sustaining effective relationships with high level stakeholders, including clients, national, regional and local leadership, proactively pre-empting and managing challenges and positively resolving conflict.
• Work closely with clients and partners to deliver products and services to time, quality and budget. Proactively shaping client expectations, upholding budget and scope boundaries and navigating any required changes to these.
• Build trust and maintain the company’s professional reputation.

Risk Management and Quality Assurance

• Identify, manage and escalate risks effectively, both within projects and across the business.
• Ensure that work is produced at the highest quality standards, with focus on quality assurance and continuous improvement of products and business processes to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Budget management

• Accountable for financial health of contracts, managing teams to ensure budgetary milestones are met.
• Ensures team members understand the financial impact of how they prioritise and use their time.
• Coaches’ others in knowledge and skills required for budgetary management.

Business Expansion and Strategic Growth

• Lead business development initiatives with a good understanding of the business development process and approach, supporting presentation of work in relevant forums.
• Highlighting opportunities and forming good relationships with new and existing stakeholders, to better understand client need and potential competitors to inform BD.
• Actively participate and own elements of product ideation, development and continuous improvement in new and existing consultancy, education and technology products.
• Actively participate in planning for and implementing organisational growth and development.
• Actively inform discussions around strategic insights for company expansion.
• Lead projects that contribute to business growth.

Mentoring, Coaching and Line Management

• Provide line management and professional development leadership and support for the project team, including implementing strategies to enhance team cohesion, communication, knowledge and skills, with a good knowledge of 33n HR policies and procedures.
• Actively engage with the People Strategy as required and maintain good working relationships with the People Experience team.
• Proactively engaging and communicating with remote matrix management within teams and projects.
• Encourage continuous learning and provide opportunities for training and development.
• Address any conflicts, concerns and performance issues promptly and fairly, with a focus on solutions and development.
• Highlight success and encourage specific feedback on areas of high performance.
• Efficiently allocate tasks and resources to ensure an optimal workload for each team member.
• Monitor workloads to prevent burnout and ensure a healthy work-life balance for the team.

Associate Lead Specific Responsibilities

Associate Pool

• Design and develop the associate community so that it provides equity to members by association and provide value to the brand i.e use as a strategic acquisition lever & USP
• Utilise the Associate community to engage and attract individuals to the company, aligning with our ethos, values and methodology.
• Support the creation and maintenance of a community of practice, fostering a collaborative environment where knowledge, best practices and resources are shared.
• Organise regular forums, workshops and networking events to encourage continuous learning, collaboration and professional development among associates.
• Regularly communicate with associates to understand their needs, challenges and current work requirements, providing tailored support to keep them motivated and connected.
• Support associates in their aspirations and goals where possible and ensure that internal processes and procedure align with how associates work and interact with our teams
• Collaborate with senior leadership to ensure the associate pool is leveraged effectively for organisational growth and success.
• Utilise the associate pool as an essential contributor to the organisations strategic planning cycle, bringing forth market and industry sector insights.
• Drive efforts to create a diverse and inclusive associate community by supporting equitable hiring practices and fostering an environment where all associates feel valued.
• Work closely with HR to ensure process and governance of the commissioning of contractors is well defined and documented at all stages.
• Act as main contact for management of contracts and associated working conditions and pay discussions. Work closely with SPS on project that have contractors and communicate proactively about any issues, concerns or positive feedback as well as future work potential and contracting.

Attracting Associates

• Develop strategies to attract talented associates who align with the organisation’s values and contribute to its mission.
• Build strong relationships and actively engage in networks, professional bodies, educational institutions and forums to create a pipeline of high-quality candidates whilst promoting 33n and the CLEAR programme.
• Promote 33n’s culture and value proposition to potential associates, positioning it as an attractive and engaging environment for top talent.
• Work with the Partnership Lead to build partnerships with academic and research institutions to expand the associate community’s thought leadership. Leverage these collaborations to drive innovation, stay ahead of industry trends, and strengthen the organisation’s expertise and influence.
• Work closely with the Partnership lead to encourage associates to leverage their networks to identify potential clients and promote the organisation’s services, driving business growth and increasing market reach.

Skills

Qualification Essentials

• Registered Healthcare Professional with associated under/postgraduate degree and clinical experience. or
• MBA or master’s degree or equivalent professional experience / qualification (eg apprenticeship etc) with
• Significant experience leading and completing work in either advisory services, consulting, or Quality Improvement in a healthcare setting. and
• A line management qualification or equivalent experience (as outlined below under management experience).

Experience

Healthcare experience:

• Specialist clinical knowledge, underpinned by theory and experience acquired via relevant degree or equivalent level of experience or specialist training. or
• Work within the healthcare sectors as leader or manager that enable understanding of physical and mental health service function and structure. and
• Demonstrable experience in data, tech, education or consultancy.

Project experience:

• Significant demonstrable experience of responsibility for high value contracts.
• Demonstrated client focused approach to ensuring successful contract completion. Focus on driving impact as an outcome of projects.
• Significant demonstrable experience in successfully leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver outcomes in complex projects.
• Expertise in risk management and quality assurance, with analytical skills and business and healthcare acumen. Experience managing budgets and resources to deliver work and produce outcomes.

Finances and budgets:

• Demonstrable experience working within budgetary and resource constraints to deliver work and produce outcomes.

Motivation and Leadership:

• Evidence of leading teams in ways that encourages team member development, supporting individual and collective goals, and can adapt leadership style to fit and meet challenges, while working with people outside of your line management in order to achieve outcomes through influencing, reassurance and negotiation.
• Evidence of working as a good team player that supports others and shares success.
• Extends support for others wellbeing and development to individuals outside of formal reporting lines.

Awareness of wider healthcare environment:

• Demonstrable experience applying strategic decision making to the challenges posed by changes in the healthcare industry and major trends in the geography in which client projects are delivered.

Change and transformation:

• Demonstrable experience in leading quality improvement OR audit OR research OR transformation projects OR work demonstrating an understanding of need for improvement of process, workforce or systems/services.
• Problem-solving:
• Demonstrable experience in providing leadership for others in enabling individuals and teams to solve their problems proactively and in a coordinated manner, creating a positive environment around joined up working on problem solving.

Analytical skills:

• Evidence of experience in critically analysing data of various types– understanding of its limitations – utilising the insights from data to effect change, manage services and demonstrate impacts and quality of outcomes and outputs.

Management:

• Experience of line management with track record of managing difficult situations.
• Experience of managing others in a manner that enables employees to thrive at 33n using a range of techniques
• A track record of fostering a positive and inclusive team culture.
• Able to support others in developing the above skills and engaging positively with The People Experience Team to support the people strategy.

Communication:

• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with demonstrable experience of working effectively with high level stakeholders and managing challenging conversations to a positive outcome.
• Experience of presenting complex and potentially sensitive information. Clear and effective communication approach, including experience in leading/chairing, etc. Can adapt rapidly to the use of new technology for communication and collaboration.
• Facilitating large groups towards common goals or outcomes.
• Able to alter communication styles to work with a large range of individuals and teams

Technical, Organisational & Communication Skills

• Proficiency in the Microsoft Office 365 suite, (including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook).
• Experience of working in software for the purposes of team collaboration such as MS Teams, Miro, CRM, Monday.com etc.
• Understands the and employs the safe application of Artificial Intelligence in your work.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with the demonstrated experience speaking and writing clearly and convincingly.
• Excellent organisational skills with ability to prioritise own workload and that of others to meet deadlines.
• Knowledge of transformative technologies and tools, such as artificial intelligence, and how they may be used to improve efficiency.

Desirable

• Postgraduate qualification or similar in Leadership, Coaching, Organisational Development, Quality Improvement, Project Management (e.g. Prince 2) or Change management.
• Healthcare experience: An ability to understand complex requirements across a broad range of clinical, technical and educational activities within a project.
• Project experience: Previous experience of research, education or health policy. or
• Product development and building novel solutions to industry challenges.
• Finances and budgets: Demonstrable experience in negotiating financial variables within predefined boundaries and supporting others with budget management.
• Motivation and Leadership: Previous experience in leadership within a large organisation with accountability of working towards execution of strategic goals. Able to help influence supportive culture and form key role in support structures of the delivery function.
• Awareness of wider healthcare environment: Able to translate trends and stresses within the Healthcare market into information that can inform potential business opportunities.
• Change and transformation: Previous experience in Change Management and implementation of change within organisations
• Analytical skills: Experience in coaching others in essential skills of data analysis and effective utilisation of insights
• Communication: evidence of experience with advanced communication at all levels of organisation including working closely with executive leadership.

Specialised Skills & Project Management

• Knowledge of project management methodologies.
• Understand scrum and product roadmaps (Tech project management)
• Continually seeks to integrate new and emerging software’s where applicable in your sphere of work.
• Proficient in writing AI Prompts

Personal Attributes

• Ability to work calmly under pressure, with fluctuating volume of work and conflicting/tight deadlines whilst prioritising own workload.
• Self-motivated and proactively seeks out learning opportunities and able to utilise online learning resources.
• Strong interpersonal and teamwork skills.
• Patient-centred focus with a commitment to high quality of care outcomes.
• High energy levels and proactive attitude to working with public sector clients.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently, responds positively to challenges and consistently meets or exceeds performance expectations.

Location: Remote with occasional requirement to travel to London and/or a project site.

Hours: Minimum of 3 Days Per Week

Job Type: Full-time or Part time (min 21 hrs pw)

Pay: £70,000.00 per year pro rata

Applications

If you are interested the role please submit your CV with a cover letter to jobs@33n.co.uk detailing how you meet the person specification.

Where applicants fail to demonstrate how they meet any one of the essential criteria set out in the person specification, the application will not be shortlisted.

Application deadline: 1 December 2025 at 5pm

We currently do not accept applications via recruitment agencies.

33N reserves the right to close the vacancies early should it receive a sufficient number of applications.