Director of Participant Operations & Experience

Director of Participant Operations & Experience

Our Future Health · London, United Kingdom (Hybrid) · Full-time · Posted 2026-11-03

Workplace: hybrid

Description

We're looking for a Director of Participant Operations & Experience to lead the strategies, services and partnerships that enable us to recruit, engage, support and retain a diverse population of participants at unprecedented scale.

This is a significant senior leadership opportunity, with responsibility for ensuring we meet ambitious recruitment and representation targets while delivering an outstanding, inclusive and consistent experience for everyone who takes part in our programme.

Reporting directly to the Chief Health Officer, you'll lead multidisciplinary teams spanning participant recruitment and modelling, diversity and community engagement, participant experience, support services and complaints management. You'll bring together the people, partnerships and operational capabilities needed to deliver against our current commitments while preparing for the evolving needs of the organisation.

You'll also be a champion for participant voice, ensuring the needs, experiences and feedback of our volunteers inform how we design services, make decisions and shape the future of our programme.

What you'll be doing

Leading participant recruitment and representation

• You'll take responsibility for the planning, coordination and performance of participant recruitment across Our Future Health, ensuring we achieve ambitious targets for recruitment volumes, representation and cost efficiency.
• Working closely with Clinical Operations and external delivery partners, you'll oversee recruitment modelling, forecasting, supplier performance and recruitment pipelines, ensuring plans are realistic, coordinated and responsive to changing demands.
• A key priority will be improving participation among underrepresented communities. You'll lead strategies that strengthen our reach, build meaningful community partnerships and help ensure our programme reflects the diversity of the UK population.

Delivering an outstanding participant experience

• You'll lead the development and delivery of our Participant Experience Strategy, ensuring participants receive high-quality, accessible and consistent support throughout their relationship with Our Future Health.
• You'll oversee participant support services and complaints management, establishing clear service standards, performance measures and effective escalation processes.
• Using participant feedback and operational data, you'll identify opportunities to improve service quality, responsiveness and efficiency, while ensuring our teams and services are ready to support new activities as the organisation evolves.

Championing participant voice and engagement

• You'll ensure participant needs and experiences remain central to organisational decision-making.
• Working closely with colleagues across Digital Health, Product, Science and other functions, you'll use participant insight, research and performance data to inform service improvements, shape engagement strategies and support long-term participation.
• You'll play an important role in supporting new opportunities for participants to engage with our programme, including questionnaires, clinical research and other evolving activities, ensuring these experiences are joined up, accessible and designed around participant needs.

Bringing teams, services and partnerships together

• The participant journey spans multiple teams, services and external partners. You'll provide the leadership and coordination needed to ensure these work together effectively.
• You'll build strong relationships across Clinical Operations, Digital Health, Product, Communications, Science, Engineering, Data and Delivery, ensuring participant priorities are understood and reflected in organisational planning.
• You'll establish clear accountabilities, shared priorities and effective ways of working, helping teams navigate competing demands, resolve challenges and deliver a coordinated participant experience.

Leading high-performing operations

• You'll provide strategic direction and hands-on operational leadership to multidisciplinary teams responsible for participant recruitment, engagement, community partnerships and support services.
• You'll translate organisational objectives into clear delivery plans, maintain oversight of performance, budgets and supplier relationships, and take decisive action where improvements are needed.
• As a senior leader within the Health Directorate, you'll provide advice and insight to the Chief Health Officer, contribute to organisational strategy and help build the operational capabilities needed to support Our Future Health's long-term ambitions.

Requirements

We're looking for an accomplished operational leader who can combine strategic thinking with the ability to drive complex, large-scale delivery.

You'll be comfortable leading through ambiguity, making difficult decisions and bringing together teams with different priorities to achieve shared outcomes. Just as importantly, you'll understand how to balance ambitious organisational targets with the needs and experiences of the people we serve.

You'll bring:

• Significant senior operational leadership experience within participant, patient, customer, public engagement or large-scale service delivery environments.
• A proven track record of leading complex, high-volume operations, with accountability for performance, budgets, service standards and measurable outcomes.
• Experience developing and delivering strategies that improve recruitment, participation, engagement, retention or customer experience.
• Strong experience of operational planning, forecasting and performance management, using data and insight to inform decisions and drive improvements.
• Experience improving diversity, inclusion and representation within large-scale programmes or services.
• Experience overseeing customer or participant support services, including service quality, complaints management and continuous improvement.
• A strong track record of managing external suppliers and partnerships, driving accountability and improving delivery performance.
• Experience leading and developing multidisciplinary teams, building high-performing cultures and navigating organisational change.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the confidence to work collaboratively across senior leadership teams and complex organisational structures.
• Experience working within health, public health, research, life sciences or similarly complex, regulated environments.

We'd also be interested in candidates who have used behavioural science, participant insight or service design approaches to improve engagement and retention, or who have experience working across digital, clinical and operational delivery functions.

Above all, you'll be a thoughtful, decisive and delivery-focused leader who understands that exceptional participant experiences and strong operational performance must go hand in hand

Closing date for applications : 9am, Wednesday 18th November.

Benefits

• Salary from £100,000.
• Generous Pension Scheme – We invest in your future with employer contributions of up to 12%.
• 30 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays – Enjoy a generous holiday allowance with the flexibility to take bank holidays when it suits you.
• Enhanced Parental Leave – Supporting you during life’s biggest moments.
• Cycle to Work Scheme – Save 25-39% on a new bike and accessories through salary sacrifice.
• Home & Tech Savings – Get up to 8% off on IKEA and Currys products, spreading the cost over 12 months through salary sacrifice.
• £1,000 Employee Referral Bonus – Know someone amazing? Get rewarded for bringing them on board!
• Wellbeing Support – Access to Mental Health First Aiders, plus 24/7 online GP services and an Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family.
• A Great Place to Work – We have a lovely Central London office in Holborn, and offer flexible and remote working arrangements.

At Our Future Health, we recognise the importance of having a diverse workforce and ensuring that all candidates, regardless of their background, have equitable access to our application process. We proactively encourage applicants who identify as having a disability, neurodiversity, or long-term health conditions to let us know if they require any reasonable adjustments as part of their application process. 

If you do require any reasonable adjustments, please email us at [email protected]

Apply

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