Christie has been a Chief Executive in Birmingham since 2002 and is currently Chief Executive for NHS Birmingham East and North (BEN). NHS BEN has a budget of £630m per annum to improve health and assure access to services for 460k people on the Eastern half of the largest metropolitan area in Europe and is host of the West Midlands Specialised Commissioning team and an additional £680m on behalf of the 17 PCTs in the region.

Sophia has held a number of joint appointments across health and local government and between the NHS and Universities. Her roles have included health improvement, commissioning, and operational management usually at the interface of health and social care and acute and primary care. Sophia has been involved in commissioning since 1993 and is active at both regional and national level. She writes a regular opinion column for the HSJ.