Deputy Director, Digital Innovation Office

The Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI) is committed to catalysing and driving innovation for systems change in healthcare, thereby adding years of healthy life. Built on the foundation of co-learning and collaboration, CHI’s core is in facilitating innovation through its suite of platforms and programmes. CHI has built a dynamic network of local and international partners who are dedicated to fostering innovation, creating thought leadership, co-building initiatives to inculcate and embed a culture of innovation within healthcare. We spearhead innovation by driving the adoption of the CHI Innovation Cycle, care and process redesign and in the use of technology. CHI leads transformation at the care, systems and ecosystem levels to achieve better health and healthcare.

About the Digital Innovation Office (DIO)

The Digital Innovation Office (DIO) under the Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI) drives NHG Health’s digital transformation across three key platforms: Digital Hospital, Digital Community, and Health Empowered by AI Launchpad (HEAL).

DIO’s mission is to enable transformation and deliver impact by supporting institution-led platforms that advance workforce and care transformation. Through collaborative programmes and partnerships, DIO serves as a catalyst for AI adoption at scale and digital innovation across hospitals and community care.

Reporting to the Director, Digital Innovation Office (DIO), this role is accountable for designing and institutionalising NHG Health’s digital, automation and AI capability development to enable sustainable workforce transformation at scale.

This role provides strategic leadership across key enablement platforms including the Clinical AI Fellowship, the Network of AI Champions and Citizen Developers, and the Automation Centre of Excellence (CoE). It ensures that digital and AI initiatives translate into measurable adoption, productivity gains, improved decision-making and system-level impact.

Regarding the NHG Digital Community Transformation Programme, this position collaborates closely with Population Health Digital Services to coordinate enablement activities, exchange insights from ground-level adoption, and facilitate institution-led digital initiatives throughout hospitals and community care settings.

This is a leadership role, expected to shape the frameworks, governance and operating models that move NHG Health beyond one-off training activities toward embedded capability, behavioural change and diffusion of digitally enabled ways of working across hospitals and community care setting – both clinically and operationally.

The role manages five direct reports and balances strategic architecture with disciplined operational execution. It works closely with Population Health Digital Services, institutional leaders and CHI Offices such as Learning and Organisational Development to ensure clear delineation between service delivery and workforce enablement, while strengthening system-wide alignment and adoption.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. System-Level Capability Architecture & Enablement

Design and institutionalise NHG’s digital, automation and AI capability building architecture, ensuring workforce readiness across clinical and operational domains.

Key responsibilities include:

• Develop structured capability frameworks, tiered learning pathways and adoption models (e.g. foundational literacy, practitioner, advanced leadership levels).
• Design diffusion strategies that move from early adopters to mainstream integration across institutions.
• Identify system-level capability gaps and co-create targeted interventions with stakeholders.
• Embed evaluation and value-realisation mechanisms within capability programmes to demonstrate measurable impact on productivity, care quality and decision-making.
• Align capability-building efforts with NHG’s AI governance frameworks and Responsible AI principles.
• Track, measure and report capability uplift, behavioural change and adoption outcomes to senior leadership.

Current FY emphasis: Establish and deliver the Clinical AI Fellowship and related AI capability initiatives as flagship components of NHG’s AI workforce transformation.

2. Network of AI Champions & Citizen Developers

Design, establish and sustain a distributed network of AI Champions and Citizen Developers to enable workforce-led digital and AI adoption.

• Define operating models, contribution pathways, onboarding processes and governance guardrails.
• Establish engagement rhythms including showcases, communities of practice and peer learning forums.
• Enable decentralised innovation while ensuring alignment with organisational strategy, security and governance requirements.
• Build mechanisms for scaling successful local innovations across institutions.
• Monitor engagement, capability growth and measurable contributions to operational improvement.

Current FY emphasis: Formalise and strengthen the Network of AI Champions, building on existing learning from automation Centre of Excellence, aligned with the Clinical AI Fellowship and HEAL priorities.

3. Digital Community Transformation Platform/Programme – System Diffusion & Culture Transformation

Working closely with Population Health Digital Services shape the Digital Community transformation strategy as a system-level diffusion engine that supports new models of digitally enabled care, workforce adoption and behavioural change across NHG and community partners.

The role:

• Defines the strategic intent, governance framework and success measures of the Digital Community programme
• Positions the Digital Community as a system transformation, adoption and culture-shaping platform rather than a service delivery function.
• Works in close partnership with Population Health Digital Services to ensure clear delineation between digital service delivery and workforce enablement.
• Bring additional technical expertise and partnership opportunities to complement existing digital services capabilities and support proven digital implementation methodologies to optimise success and sustainability of initiatives.
• Surface ground adoption insights, user feedback and emerging needs to inform institutional and system strategy.
• Strengthens cross-institution collaboration and peer-led transformation across hospitals and community care.
• Shapes narratives that normalise digitally enabled and AI-supported ways of working across NHG.

4. Automation Centre of Excellence (CoE)

Provide strategic and operational leadership of the Automation Centre of Excellence as an enablement-first business-as-usual (BAU) function.

• Define and continuously refine the CoE operating model, including standards, guardrails, self-service pathways and intake mechanisms.
• Shift the organisation progressively from centralised build to empowered self-service automation capability.
• Balance BAU continuity with ongoing capability uplift and reduced long-term dependency on central teams.
• Monitor automation demand, pipeline, outcomes and productivity impact.
• Integrate lessons from BAU operations into broader workforce capability architecture.
• Ensure alignment with NHG’s digital, AI and transformation strategies.

5. Strategic Partnership & Stakeholder Leadership

• Partner with institutional leaders, clinical directors and operational teams to align capability-building efforts with strategic priorities.
• Work closely with CHI platforms, Digital Services, governance bodies and relevant external partners (e.g. training institutions, technology partners where relevant).
• Influence senior stakeholders across NHG without direct authority to drive adoption and alignment.
• Contribute to system-level communications, thought leadership and change narratives that support digital transformation.

Requirements:

•  Bachelor’s in Healthcare Administration, Business Administration, IT, or related field required; Master’s will be advantageous.

• Minimum 10–15 years of relevant experience, with significant leadership responsibility in:

  • Designing and institutionalising workforce capability programmes at scale
  • Leading digital or AI adoption initiatives within complex organisations
  • Establishing communities of practice or distributed innovation networks
  • Developing governance-aligned enablement frameworks
  • Influencing cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority
• Strong systems thinking and organisational design capability
• Deep understanding of digital adoption, behavioural change and diffusion models
• Ability to design structured capability architectures rather than standalone training interventions
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills
• Strong written and verbal communication abilities, including executive-level presentation
• Data-informed decision-making and performance monitoring capability
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity and evolving transformation environments
• High levels of resilience, judgement and strategic clarity
• Strong governance literacy and understanding of Responsible AI principles