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Job summary

Main area
Senior Surveillance Scientist
Grade
Civil Service: Senior Executive Officer (SEO)
Contract
Permanent
Hours
  • Full time
  • Part time
  • Job share
  • Flexible working
37.5 hours per week
Job ref
919-IS-305566-EXT
Employer
UK Health Security Agency
Employer type
Public (Non NHS)
Site
Colindale
Town
Colindale,London
Salary
£42,716 - £48,068 per annum, pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
11/08/2024 23:59

Employer heading

UK Health Security Agency logo

Senior Surveillance Scientist

Civil Service: Senior Executive Officer (SEO)

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a system leader for health security; taking action internationally to strengthen global health security, providing trusted advice to government and the public and reducing inequalities in the way different communities experience and are impacted by infectious disease, environmental hazards, and other threats to health.

UKHSA’s remit, as an agency with a global-to-local reach, is to protect the health of the nation from infectious diseases and other external threats to health. As the nation’s expert national health security agency UKHSA will:

  • Prevent: anticipate threats to health and help build the nation’s readiness, defences and health security
  • Detect: use cutting edge environmental and biological surveillance to proactively detect and monitor infectious diseases and threats to health
  • Analyse: use world-class science and data analytics to assess and continually monitor threats to health, identifying how best to control and mitigate the risks
  • Respond: take rapid, collaborative and effective actions nationally and locally to mitigate threats to health when they materialise
  • Lead: lead strong and sustainable global, national, regional and local partnerships designed to save lives, protect the nation from public health threats and reduce inequalities.

Job overview

The post holder will contribute to the maintenance, development, and analysis of surveillance systems for the evaluation of national vaccination programmes, specifically vaccine coverage and inequalities in uptake of vaccinations. They will support the ongoing work of the department, contribute to the publication of routine and ad-hoc statistics and specifically develop processes to evaluate new data against existing gold-standard data collections. In addition, the post holder will contribute to research studies of vaccine preventable diseases.

Main duties of the job

  • Develop and maintain surveillance systems for monitoring vaccine coverage.
  • Undertake evaluation of existing and novel surveillance systems.
  • Management and epidemiological analysis of data.
  • Prepare routine surveillance reports.
  • Work closely with members of the team to assist in responding to ad-hoc queries which require scientific input.
  • Liaise with NHSE and other stakeholders to assure the quality and validity of vaccination data in the investigation and control of outbreaks, as required. 
  • Contribute and project manage specific research studies evaluating immunisation programmes.
  • Analyse surveillance data and results of studies and write reports and papers for scientific journals.
  • Assist in the preparation of papers and reports to inform policy for the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
  • Design presentations and present surveillance data and study results at in-house, national, and international meetings/conferences and attend national and international conferences.
  • Develop teaching material and teach on in-house courses and external courses.
  • Line management responsibilities of scientists and administrative officers.

Working for our organisation

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.   

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.  

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

These roles offer the opportunity within a national team to lead on delivering routine and emergency surveillance and evaluation of vaccine programmes through high quality data.
Working to a Senior Epidemiologist, you will lead workstreams producing routine vaccination coverage reports, which meet stakeholder needs. You will ensure surveillance systems can support timely, quality surveillance outputs and will lead the further development of data management, processes, ensuring systems are fit for purpose to meet current and future challenges. This will include responding to the implementation of new vaccination programmes, such as the RSV programme starting in September 2024, and leading on additional epidemiological analyses to evaluate programmes and inequalities in vaccination coverage.
As such, our ideal candidate is a self-starter with strong data management, analytical and scientific writing skills who can work effectively in a team, and with stakeholders, to deliver high quality outcomes. They should be comfortable with working under pressure at times as well as working to tight timelines with multiple stakeholders. 

For a full list of the main duties and responsibilities of the role, please refer to the attached Job Description. 

Essential Criteria  

You will be assessed on the below 5 essential criteria, which have been selected from the Job Description. 

•    Degree in a science subject/Epidemiology or allied discipline or relevant         postgraduate experience
•    Postgraduate work/study in Public Health, public health microbiology,             epidemiology, or an allied subject 
•    Experience of developing/using relational databases (including Access,           SQL), spreadsheets, statistical and graphics packages (e.g., Stata or R) to         an advanced level
•    Experience of writing/evaluating scientific work, including report writing
•    Able to interpret and evaluate microbiological or epidemiological data             on vaccine preventable diseases and numerate with deep analytical                   skills.

Selection Process Details: 

This vacancy will be assessed using a competency-based framework which will assess your Qualifications, knowledge and experience and skills and capabilities outlined in the essential criteria.

Stage 1: Application & Sift  
 Competency-based assessments 
 You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the above listed 5 essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a:  

  • CV/ Application form (Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application) 

  • 1000 word Statement of Suitability.  

 This should outline how your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.  

 The CV / Application form and Statement of Suitability will be marked together.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview and assessment  

 Please do not exceed  1000 wordsWe will not consider any words over and above this number. 

 Feedback will not be provided at this stage. 

Stage 2: Interview (competency based)

You will be invited to a single face to face interview to be held at :

61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5EQ

Knowledge, experience, skills & abilities will be tested at interview   

There will be a Technical Test 30 mins before the interview. 

Interviews will be held on 22nd & 23rd August 2024. Please note, these dates are subject to change. 

 

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. 

Eligibility Criteria

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants).  

Security Clearance Level Requirement  

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.  

Face to Face interviews   

If face to face interviews are planned, in exceptional circumstances, we may be able to offer a remote interview .

 

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • First degree in a science subject Higher degree in Epidemiology or allied discipline or relevant postgraduate experience

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria
  • Postgraduate work/study in Public Health, public health microbiology, epidemiology or an allied subject
  • Experience of developing / using relational databases (including Access, SQL), spreadsheets, statistical and graphics packages (e.g. Stata or R) to an advanced level
  • Experience of writing/evaluating scientific work, including report writing
  • Of interpreting and evaluating microbiological or epidemiological data on vaccine preventable diseases and numerate with deep analytical skills
Desirable criteria
  • Experience co-ordinating projects in complex and challenging environments

Skills / capabilities/ behaviours

Essential criteria
  • Ability to work as an effective team member
  • Ability to work independently and take responsibility for own technical work and time
  • Ability to analyse, summarise and interpret complex epidemiological data
  • Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required
  • Able to liaise with a wide range of external collaborators including health service and academic professionals
  • Ability to work on a number of separate tasks at the same time, whilst keeping to agreed deadlines
Desirable criteria
  • Experience of creating and giving presentations to a varied group of internal and external stakeholders

Knowledge & Experience

Desirable criteria
  • Knowledge of vaccine schedule and polices in the UK

Equality and diversity

Essential criteria
  • An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Purple SpaceApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyAge positiveImproving working livesMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Disability confident employerThe Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion (enei) is the UK's leading employer network covering all aspects of equality and inclusion issues in the workplace.Carer Confident -AccomplishedHappy to Talk Flexible Working

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Irene Scahill
Job title
Resourcing Support
Email address
[email protected]
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