Applications and Interface Manager | Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Posting date:	11 February 2026
Salary:	Not specified
Additional salary information:	£47,810 - £54,710 Per Annum
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	13 March 2026
Location:	St Helens, WA9 1TT
Company:	St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	7526389/409-7526389

Summary

There is an exciting opportunity to join the Digital Systems Team as a Applications and Interface Manager.

The key role in providing the overall day to day and operational management of web applications and interfaces that the Team support.

The role encompasses providing leadership on system interfaces, web applications and front end support. Ensuring systems are operational with minimal interruption.

Applications and Interface Manager will ensure that staff members have the appropriate training to enable them to work autonomously.

This role will ensure that the interfaces are proactively monitored to provide customer/partner assurance. Extensive experience in the use of clinical system support / staff management / Interface experience is required for this post.

The Applications and Interface Manager leads a team of staff that delivers the automated data exchange and the bespoke applications that improve Trust staff’s experience of using IT systems in the performance of their duties. This includes the development, maintenance and management of the Trust’s interface engine as well as any locally developed applications.

The role ensures that the facilities provided by the Trust’s externally supplied and supported systems are complemented by local applications and interfaces, enhancing those purchased systems’ contribution to safe, efficient and effective care.

The post holder ensures that there is a reliable and robust service for the automated exchange of information, reducing the need to re-enter information, enable a common master patient index across all Trust systems and a process for the identification, specification and delivery of applications that fill specific Trust requirements that are not delivered by commercial applications.

The role provides advice and guidance on requirements gathering, applications and interface development ensuring that the proposed solutions conform to the Trust’s IT standards and IM&T strategy, while delivering the best value for money. The post holder is also responsible for the performance management of the Application and Interface Team.

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:
• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
• Leads the Applications and Interface Team and is responsible for their overall management and performance, ensuring that the service levels agreed with the Trust are met. The post holder also manages projects or parts thereof that are related to applications and interfaces as required
• Acts as the primary source of advice and guidance relating to applications and interfaces to all staff, including the associated policies and procedures. Deals with complex design, requirement, development or maintenance issues that cannot otherwise be resolved by other staff.

The post holder oversees the robust delivery of the following ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) service management processes related to applications and interfaces:-
• Incident management
• Problem management
• Change management
• Release and deployment management
• Validation and testing
• Knowledge management
• Transition planning and support

Communications and Relationships
• Receives information from Trust staff, system suppliers, colleague networks, local internal governance arrangements and NHS bodies external to the Trust to create, implement and improve applications and interfaces. This information identifies the purpose of the application or interface, the key risk areas, an appropriate testing plan, together with the audit trails and key reference data.
• Assesses the impact of the gathered information on the Trust’s current plans and adjusts them as required to meet the Trust’s stated goals.
• Explains the financial, clinical, qualitative and patient safety benefits of the agreed application and interface plans to clinical and non-clinical staff, who may be drawn from all levels of the Trust. The role influences, persuades and negotiates with staff where those plans require longer development times or specific facilities that may be contentious to the affected staff. These explanations are provided in settings that include but are not limited to, local workshops, progress meetings, CBU meetings, IM&T Committee and external events if necessary.
• Works collaboratively with other colleagues in delivering IT projects and in adopting best practice from other organisations as required.
• Negotiates any required interface or API development and support with external suppliers to ensure that they are aligned to the Trust’s operational needs. Builds good working relationships to provide a seamless application and interface service. The role is the primary point of contact for application and interfacing issues.
• Conveys user feedback and details of their prevailing issues within the IT Senior Team to ensure the Department remains focused on its service to end users and reflects changes in service priorities and developments in care. Also conveys user and colleague feedback to suppliers in events such as user groups and workshops to influence future developments and functionality of the Application and Interface service.
• Plays a part in the governance of IT in the Trust by attending appropriate meetings to discuss IT issues and developments as required including, but not limited to IM&T Committee, user and project groups.
• Promotes the use of the Trust’s IT systems and services throughout the organisation.

Knowledge, Training and Experience
• The post holder holds a degree in a related subject and the equivalent of a post graduate diploma extending that knowledge or have equivalent experience in managing application together with interface development and support in a health care setting. They are experienced in an IT support and delivery environment including but not limited to specialist knowledge of requirements capture, application design methods, development platforms, interface management, testing and documentation, as well as service and performance management.
• Continuously updates their knowledge of industry standards, the latest developments in application and interfacing in addition to the development plans for each of the Trust’s IT services so that the team continues to enhance the user experience by ensuring that gaps in the support for the Trust’s business processes by its purchased applications are reduced as needed.
• Has a detailed understanding of supporting processes and NHS specific requirements, including, but not limited to business process redesign, technical standards, incident management, problem management, access controls, information governance standards, confidentiality requirements and service management.
• Is familiar with and applies the concepts of the standards for the development of IT services mandated by the NHS and uses them to design and manage applications and interfaces in the Trust.
• Liaises with internal departments to gather requirements, agree application functions, agree interface exchanges, to negotiate the sign off of development stages and to explain the length of time required to deliver agreed applications or interfaces.
• Generates business cases to support developments in applications and interfaces to secure commitment to and resources for those developments either internally, in the Trust and externally as appropriate. Captures the requirements and options for delivering them as part of these cases.

Analysis & Judgement
• Uses their expert judgement to balance the financial, patient safety and operational efficiency benefits for each application and interface. This is to ensure that the “best fit” suite of these services is recommended to and operated by the Trust.
• Provides advice and guidance to colleagues in determining the best choice when there are competing, contradictory solutions that impact on application and interface services or where one development needs to take precedence over another. Takes into account the contentious nature of some of those decisions and acts accordingly. For example where a development cannot be delivered to the proposed deadline, or where an expected development is rejected.
• Assesses new equipment, services, practices or techniques that may be applied to improve the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the Application and Interface Service and leads the production of business cases, in partnership with clinical teams to justify their adoption by the Trust.

Planning and Organising
• Negotiates service level agreements with third parties to deliver either the full range of support services or parts thereof, required for the effective delivery of the Trust’s Application and Interface Service.
• Develops, monitors and maintains service performance levels for the Application and Interface Service in consultation with clinical business unit and departmental leads, negotiating a practical, consistent and achievable set of measures across the Application and Interface Service portfolio.
• In conjunction with the Trust’s clinical staff and CBUs, prepares annual plans for the delivery of the Application and Interface Service, making sure that the team is deployed effectively, delivering business as usual activities and supporting the completion of new projects within their designated time scales/performance levels
• Co-ordinates the ongoing work of each team member for which the role is responsible so that the Trust receives a seamless application and interfacing service, within agreed performance levels and that conforms to the Trust’s IT strategy and IT service development plans.
• Contributes to the delivery and management of the IT Department’s capital plan, managing projects and allocated expenditure for specific, identified schemes in that programme.
• Leads discrete areas of responsibility in the development and management of the Trust’s IT strategy, business plans, service plans and cost improvement plans in each financial year, engaging with Clinical Business Units, Departments, the Trust’s governance arrangements and external agencies as appropriate.

Physical Skills
• The role requires advanced keyboard skills, with accurate input and handling of data particularly in the creation of business cases and financial planning for IT services, as well as data entry related to application and configuration environments.

Patient and Public Involvement
• This role has incidental patient contact.
• The post holder has regular contact with senior business unit and clinical staff.
• The role represents the Trust at User Groups and to staff in other Trust’s with a similar strategy and similar IT services
• Whilst working in the patient environment as part of their regular duties, the post holder acts in a professional manner, with particular reference to the principles of patient confidentiality and dignity and respect.

Policy and Service Development
• Responsible for the implementation and development of policies and procedures for all IT services falling under the scope of this role, to ensure they are robust and reliable, engaging with clinical services and non-clinical services in the process, as well as communicating any changes across the Trust as needed.
• Ensures best practice is adopted by consulting with other organisations using these systems, IT professional networks as well as with reference to appropriate clinical standards and service best practice (including, but not limited to, ITIL, PRINCE 2) and applying them to the Trust’s continuous improvement of its IT services and systems.
• Ensures that all incidents, queries and requests for change to the Trust’s IT services and systems are dealt with to the standards and response times set for the IT Department as a whole. Engages with third party suppliers to develop support arrangements that are aligned to these response times


This advert closes on Sunday 1 Mar 2026

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