Healthcare Workforce Planning Specialist (KSA | 4 month contract)

Healthcare Workforce Planning Specialist

• Level of Experience:
• Director (15 to 20 years)
• Senior Manager (10 to 15 years)
• Utilization per Week:
• Full-time - 5 days per week

Budgeted Daily Rate

Onsite/remote (75% -100% On-site preferred)

Sector / Industry Experience

• Healthcare & Life Sciences (hospitals, pharma, biotech, medtech)
• Must-Have Experience and Skills for Acceptance:
• Minimum 10 years of hands-on experience in healthcare workforce planning, clinical workforce optimization, healthcare operations productivity, or workforce analytics, with direct work in health systems, hospital networks, healthcare clusters, regions, integrated care systems, or multi-site provider organizations.
• Experience must be grounded in service delivery, clinical workforce planning, or health-system operations. Profiles limited to corporate HR, recruitment, compensation, workforce administration, or generic HR analytics will not meet the requirement unless they also show direct clinical workforce optimization experience.
• Demonstrated delivery of projects involving workforce utilization, staffing ratios, productivity benchmarking, demand-capacity analysis, nursing establishment/safe staffing, skill mix, physician capacity, specialty staffing, scheduling, or workforce redistribution.
• Recent hands-on project delivery and analytical advisory experience, either with health systems/facilities or in a healthcare consulting/advisory setting.
• Strong ability to work with workforce and operational datasets and translate analysis into executive-ready recommendations for senior healthcare stakeholders.
• Available to start in June 2026
• Must have a legal contracting entity to contract through. (EMPLOYMENT VISA SPONSORSHIP IS NOT AVAILABLE)
• Scope of Work

1. Client Background

2. Project Objectives

• The project aims to assess workforce utilisation and staffing alignment across a national healthcare network, using existing workforce and operational data to evaluate staffing levels against service demand, facility capacity, productivity benchmarks, and clinical operating needs.
• The focus is advisory analysis and optimisation, not building a new data platform or collecting primary data.
• The engagement is structured around four core objectives:
• Workforce Utilisation & Capacity Assessment - Assess workforce capacity, utilisation, distribution, and alignment across clusters, facilities, departments, and positions.
• Staffing Ratios & Benchmarking - Review workforce ratios and productivity benchmarks, including nurse-to-bed ratios, physician productivity, staffing by specialty/department, and workforce-to-capacity ratios.
• Overcapacity, Understaffing & Productivity Variation - Identify overstaffing, understaffing, productivity variance, and workforce rebalancing opportunities using evidence-based analysis and operational judgement.
• Workforce Optimisation Recommendations - Develop tactical and strategic recommendations covering staffing levels, redistribution, updated ratios, skill mix, scheduling, role optimisation, productivity improvement, and workforce planning frameworks.

3. Role & Key Responsibilities

Key responsibilities

• Lead assessment of workforce utilization, staffing ratios, productivity, and deployment across healthcare clusters, facilities, departments, and positions.
• Evaluate workforce levels against service demand, bed and clinic capacity, occupancy, service volumes, patient throughput, scheduling patterns, and operational needs.
• Review physician and nursing workforce patterns, including specialty mix, capacity, utilization, nurse-to-bed ratios, shift structures, coverage models, skill mix, and clinical/non-clinical time allocation.
• Benchmark staffing models and productivity indicators against comparable healthcare systems and relevant international good practice.
• Identify overcapacity, understaffing, productivity variance, unwarranted variation, and practical workforce rebalancing opportunities.
• Develop optimization levers covering staffing adjustments, workforce redistribution, skill-mix optimization, role optimization, scheduling improvement, and cross-facility workforce synergies.
• Facilitate workshops and leadership discussions with client teams and healthcare cluster stakeholders, translating analytical findings into evidence-based decisions and implementation priorities.

4. Deliverables

• Deliverables are developed collectively as a team.
• The senior specialist is expected to lead or materially shape each of the following:
• Workforce Utilization Analysis across Clusters - Assessment of workforce distribution, utilization, capacity, and alignment with service demand and operational needs.
• Benchmarking Assessment of Workforce Ratios and Staffing Models - Review of nursing, physician, specialty, department, and workforce-to-capacity indicators against comparable health-system benchmarks.
• Overstaffing, Understaffing & Productivity Variance Findings - Identification of workforce gaps, surplus areas, variability across comparable facilities, and rebalancing opportunities.
• Evidence-Based Rationale for Updated Workforce Ratios - Clear rationale for maintaining, revising, or standardizing workforce ratios and staffing models.
• Tactical and Strategic Workforce Optimization Recommendations - Recommendations on staffing levels, redistribution, skill mix, scheduling, productivity, long-term workforce modeling, and workforce management practices.
• Support to Stakeholder Discussions and Alignment - Support interpretation of findings, validation of recommendations, and engagement with healthcare cluster stakeholders.

5. Expected Outcomes & Success Criteria

• Evidence-Based Workforce View - Clear visibility of workforce utilization, staffing ratios, productivity variation, and alignment with demand and capacity.
• Robust Identification of Workforce Gaps - Credible identification of overcapacity, understaffing, and rebalancing opportunities across facilities and clusters.
• Actionable Optimization Recommendations - Practical tactical and strategic recommendations that support workforce decisions while maintaining quality of care.
• Stakeholder Confidence & Alignment - Clear, defensible findings that support leadership discussion, cluster engagement, and sustainable workforce optimization capability.

Other Certifications & Qualifications

• Formal training or certification in healthcare workforce planning, integrated workforce planning, healthcare operations, workforce analytics, safe staffing/nursing establishment, demand-capacity modeling, programme management, or project management would be preferred.
• Clinical, nursing, medical, health management, public health, operations, or analytics qualifications would be advantageous where relevant.

Additional Language Requirements

• English fluency required
• Arabic (native or fluent) preferred

Experience

Specific Geographic Experience