Job Advert
Flexible Location: Based throughout Scotland, NES is a remote friendly employer supporting office and hybrid working. We’re happy to talk about how you want to work.
Work Pattern: Permanent, Part Time, 29.6 hours per week
You must have eligibility and entitlement to work in the UK which is required to be maintained throughout your period of employment.
Who We Are
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is the national health board with statutory responsibilities to effect sustainable change through workforce development, education and training across the health and social care system in Scotland, while working at UK level with partner organisations.
NES Optometry primarily supports the provision of General Ophthalmic Services in Scotland.
The Opportunity
The Education Lead - Optometry is part of a high calibre team, delivering world-leading education to primarily support general ophthalmic services within Scotland. This post requires ambitious, hard-working and very experienced optometrists who have the drive to support the NES Optometry programme across the country. The post requires flexible working, considerable travel and the requirement to attend evening and weekend events.
Do you want to deliver an optometric education programme based on national and local priority needs, ensuring liaison with other senior professionals within the healthcare team and relevant stakeholders?
Do you want to contribute specialist expertise to national and regional NES initiatives ?
Do you want to liaise with other groups and individuals employed in NHS Boards engaged in supporting postgraduate education to develop local opportunities for inter-professional learning ?
Do you want to provide professional leadership, advice, education and support to colleagues, devising key activities in specialist area. This may be at local, national or UK wide level ?
Working within the delegated management of regional budgets, ensuring that NES Optometry meet annual and longer term agreed targets
Does this sound like you?
What We Love to See
Educations Leads offer a broad range of skills and experience, if you can offer some or all of these, we’d love you to apply:
- A registered healthcare practitioner with a postgraduate qualification e.g. MSc, independent prescribing optometrist.
- Extensive experience in a community or hospital setting
- Experience of planning, delivering and management of training programmes including undergraduate.
- Highly developed professional communication skills and experience of facilitation, consultation and negotiation with a wide range of stakeholders including at a high level of seniority
- A positive and enthusiastic approach to the development of community optometry in Scotland
- Demonstrate honesty, integrity, care and compassion when dealing with others, utilising tact and persuasion skills when necessary
- Ability to work on own initiative, to organise and prioritise own workloads, to meet strict deadlines
Benefits Which Matter
As a valued employee of NHS Scotland, you can enjoy an extensive range of benefits including:
- Life-work balance - with opportunities for flexible working and hybrid working
- Generous NHS pension scheme
- Annual incremental salary progression (up to the maximum of the salary band) plus annual NHS salary scale review
- Annual Leave - 27 Days increasing in line with service plus 8 days public holiday
- NHS discounts and more
Diversity and Inclusion
Developing a successful national service for Scotland is impossible without ensuring we consider the diverse needs, perspectives and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland in our work.
We are focused on hiring the very best talent available for NES, and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and aim to ensure everyone is treated fairly, with respect and has a positive recruitment experience – regardless of the outcome.
It’s not essential to be in an Educational Lead role right now. You may be returning from a career break (e.g. maternity, paternity, caring for others) or returning after working in another field. Your experiences elsewhere can bring a fresh perspective to our work.
If you are considering applying and feel it would be helpful to discuss this initially, please contact James Graham, Senior Educator, James.Graham@nhs.scot
Next Steps
Our recruitment process is currently 100% remote and if successful you would initially work remotely, working from our offices as operationally required.
All applicants who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail.
Online interviews (including a presentation) will take place on 19th November 2025. The presentation topic will be sent to candidates selected for interview.
For further information please refer to the Job Information Pack below.
Unless otherwise stated the deadline for applications is 23:59 hours on the closing date. Please note, CVs will not be accepted.
To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigrations Service.
As part of the pre-employment checks for a preferred candidate, NHS Scotland Boards will check your entitlement to work in the UK. It can be evidenced through a number of routes including specific types of visa as well as EU settled and pre-settled status. To find out more about these routes of permission, please refer to the GOV.UK website here.
For specific types of post, if you do not have the necessary eligibility to work in the UK, it might be possible (though not guaranteed) to secure sponsorship via a UK Skilled Worker/Health & Care Worker Visa. However, this is only possible if the employer is a licenced Sponsor, and if the post does not fall below the current minimum salary threshold or ‘going rate’. Further information on these criteria can be found here.
It is ESSENTIAL that you have checked that you either already have an appropriate right to work in the UK or that the post would be eligible to be sponsored BEFORE submitting your application form.
If you have any queries regarding the NHS Scotland National Recruitment Portal or the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to contact our recruitment partners, the East Region Recruitment Service, at: EoS.ERRS@nhs.scot