Job Description
Team Leader – Blood Donation
This vacancy is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship. Please do not apply unless you have another means of establishing a right to work.
Job Summary
As a Team Leader – Blood Donation, you will play a vital role in delivering a safe, effective and donor-focused blood collection service. You will lead and support a team of up to 40 colleagues, ensuring sessions run smoothly and meet quality and performance standards. Working closely with senior clinical leaders, you will help create a positive, supportive environment where your team can thrive, develop and deliver excellent care to donors. This is a hands-on clinical leadership role where you will contribute directly to saving and improving lives, while building your expertise in people management, service delivery and continuous improvement.
Main duties of the job
- Lead and support a team to deliver safe, high-quality blood collection sessions that meet daily targets and standards
- Coach, mentor and develop colleagues, helping them build skills and confidence in their roles
- Plan and adapt staff rotas to ensure the right skills and coverage for each session, even when faced with unexpected challenges
- Create a positive, motivated team environment through clear communication, daily briefings and role modelling excellent practice
- Monitor performance using data and feedback, identifying opportunities to improve service quality and donor experience
- Respond to challenges quickly, making informed decisions to keep sessions running safely and effectively
- Work collaboratively with colleagues across teams to ensure donor needs are met and services run smoothly
- Ensure compliance with health and safety, quality and regulatory standards at all times
- Support recruitment activities, people management processes and team wellbeing
About You
Experience and Knowledge
- Experience of supervising teams, including supporting recruitment, performance reviews and people management processes
- Experience across administration, people management and office or operational functions
- Experience of working to policies and procedures in a regulated environment
- Experience of managing budgets, stock or resources effectively
- Strong organisational, communication and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities
Qualifications and Training
- Degree in a business-related subject or equivalent relevant experience
- IT skills qualification (e.g. ECDL) or equivalent experience using Microsoft Office applications
- Supervisory or first-line management qualification, or equivalent experience in a leadership role
- Possess a valid UK full driving licence, allowing you to drive in the UK
- Demonstrates commitment to own continued professional development (CPD)
About Us
It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, you’ll join a team of more than 6,000 people who are making a genuine difference to communities, families, friends, relatives and more across the UK. We play a unique and special role in the NHS by helping people do something extraordinary- donate blood, blood products, organs, tissues, or stem cells to save someone in need.
Our three core values are what set us apart. They guide and inspire everything we do.
By being caring, expertly meeting the needs of our patients and our people, and accepting nothing less than the best quality, we can do extraordinary work – and help our people to do something extraordinary in their career, too. Three small words, one big difference - Caring, Expert and Quality. Together we'll save and improve more lives than ever.
You will join us on our journey to create an inclusive workplace and aim to reflect the diverse communities we work with, and we positively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.
What we offer:
- Flexible working options – we promote flexible working where the role allows. We’re happy to discuss what flexibility might look like for you.
- Generous annual leave - 27 days annual leave (pro rata for part-time) plus Bank Holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years’ service and to 33 days after 10 years.
- Inclusive pension scheme - the NHS Pension Scheme is a defined benefit scheme (not dependent on investment returns). Further details and outline of benefits can be found at: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/information-about-nhs-pensions
- Supportive learning culture - we’ve fostered a culture of continuous learning where colleagues are well-led, engaged, and encouraged to grow. We support you in reaching your full potential, both in your current role and future career. Our Thrive program embodies our commitment to learning and development, offering a wide range of activities to support your personal and professional growth. It’s open to everyone at NHSBT, ensuring you have the resources to succeed and shine in your role.
- Health and wellbeing support – we offer confidential services including occupational health, employee assistance programme, and wellbeing resources. Our support is available to all colleagues and we endeavour to provide tailored workplace adjustments where possible.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applications from disabled candidates. We will talk with you to explore any adjustments that may help you during the recruitment process.
You can find more information about accessibility, our culture, and how we support applicants on the NHSBT Careers website:
To learn more, please see the job description and person specification. These can be accessed via the link below, or by clicking ‘Apply’ if you are viewing this advert on another site.
Next steps
This vacancy will close at 23:59 on Sunday, 7th June 2026, however this vacancy may close sooner than the advertised deadline if we receive a high volume of application.
The assessment process for this role will include a single interview. Interviews are anticipated to be held on w/c 22nd June 2026 – subject to confirmation.
For informal enquiries please contact –
Victoria East, Area Manager / Area Matron, Victoria.East@nhsbt.nhs.uk
OR
Marc Hudson, Senior Charge Nurse, Marc.Hudson@nhsbt.nhs.uk
