About the job

Job summary

The Blood Safety, Hepatitis, STI and HIV (BSHSH) Division is the national centre for surveillance of hepatitis, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in England. It is within the Public Health Programmes (PHP) Directorate of the Clinical and Public Health (CPH) Group and is based mainly in Colindale, north London. The Division consists of around 100 permanent and project-funded medical, scientific, technical and administrative staff including epidemiologists, public health specialists, microbiologists, virologists, data managers and statisticians. The Division works closely with other Divisions, particularly Immunisation and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, Health Equity, Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance and Reference and Specialist Microbiology Services and with the Analytics and Data Sciences Directorate and Health Protection Operations. The Division also works in partnership with both national and regional teams in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), NHS England and NHS Improvement and NHSBT. The Division is also closely involved with the work of the NIHR-funded Health Protection Research Units, which are collaborative ventures involving UKHSA and academia.

The BSHSH Division aims to:

• Describe trends in the incidence and prevalence of hepatitis, STIs and HIV, especially in important behavioural population sub-groups;
• Describe trends in the incidence and prevalence of all infections transmissible through blood, tissue and organ donations;
• Provide national reference and specialist microbiology and virology services, for public health, clinical and diagnostic purposes;
• Monitor the outputs and effectiveness of hepatitis, STI and HIV prevention activities and programmes and support development of national policy;
• Provide information for local needs assessment, service commissioning and evaluation, and to guide prevention activities aimed at reducing risk behaviours and interrupting infection transmission, including through blood, organ and tissue donation;
• Investigate national and uncommon outbreaks, respond to international health alerts, and provide advice on the risks posed;
• Train those working in blood safety and in hepatitis, STI and HIV surveillance, monitoring and prevention,
• Lead and contribute to research in hepatitis, STI and HIV epidemiology, diagnostics, and infection prevention and control.

 Location

This role is based in the UKHSA Colindale office, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ

*Please be aware that this role can only be worked from within the UK and not overseas. Relocation expenses are not available.* 

Working Pattern – Full Time, Part Time, Job Share, Flexible Working.

Job description

As a Senior Scientist your main responsibilities will include:

Surveillance

• Manage existing national surveillance systems and co-ordinate the development of new surveillance systems for hepatitis, HIV and/or STIs and to supervise and advise junior scientific and administrative staff in the maintenance and development of integrated or enhanced surveillance datasets.
• Supervise junior scientific colleagues and the administrative team in the production of surveillance reports, publications and ad-hoc enquiries.
• Help coordinate the activities of scientists in partner institutes involved in collaborative surveillance programmes, as well as provide technical advice and assistance to public health practitioners on the design, maintenance, analysis and interpretation of surveillance databases.
• Assist in the design and development of new surveillance and data management systems in response to developments in the application of microbiological typing methods including contributing to the drafting of Standard Operating Procedures.

 Outbreak Investigation

• Manage the technical and analytical aspects of outbreak investigations, under the supervision of the Senior/Consultant lead, by:
  • designing outbreak databases;
  • liaising with relevant specialists to collect epidemiological data;
  • coordinating and advising incident teams;
  • interviewing clinicians and patients to collect clinical and risk factor data during incidents
  • overseeing data entry and ensuring quality control of databases;
  • collating and interpreting epidemiological and microbiological data drawn from a variety of sources;
  • conducting complex statistical analyses of datasets;
  • providing statistical analyses for government agencies, health protection units and others;
  • writing briefing notes and situation reports;
  • presenting epidemiological data to Incident Management Teams;
  • contributing to the production of outbreak reports and subsequent publications.

 Research

• Contribute to the development of research proposals, the coordination, collection and collation of data from collaborators based in specialist laboratories and other institutions throughout the UK, and conduct complex statistical analyses of surveillance/research datasets
• Contribute to the process of writing scientific papers for publication in peer reviewed journals and project reports to funding bodies.

 Publications and presentations

• Supervise scientific and administrative staff in the production of departmental outputs and editorial material for the Health Protection Report.
• Present epidemiological findings at national and international meetings and conferences

 Teaching and Training

• Develop and present lectures and teaching materials on the epidemiology and surveillance of hepatitis, HIV and/or STIs for UKHSA, university postgraduate and professional development training programmes and contribute to the training for new members of staff on the epidemiology and surveillance of hepatitis, HIV and STIs.

 

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary. Please review the job description for a full list of roles and responsibilities.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

It is important through your application and Statement of Suitability of 1500 words that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the essential criteria (for full details of all essential criteria please refer to the attached job description, you must review this to produce your statement of suitability):

Essential

• First degree in a science subject and Higher degree in Epidemiology, Public Health or an allied subject, or equivalent
• Postgraduate work/study in public health, epidemiology or an allied subject
• Analysing, Interpreting and evaluating complex epidemiological data, using Access/ SQL databases, spreadsheets, statistical and graphics packages to an advanced level
• Managing epidemiological studies and outbreak investigation
• Writing scientific papers and/or project reports
• Ability to work independently and take responsibility for own technical work and time and to work as an effective team member and to work on several separate tasks at the same time, whilst keeping to agreed deadlines
• Communicate ideas and methods clearly and succinctly to include excellent oral and written communication skills
• Identify and solve day-to-day practical problems and have the ability to analyse very complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources
• Demonstrated capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decision making
• An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships

Desirable

• Having a thorough understanding of recent advances in the epidemiology and microbiology of hepatitis, HIV and/or STIs and presenting scientific papers at national and international conferences

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

STAGE 1 - APPLICATION & SIFT: 

You will be required to complete an application form. This will be assessed in line with the full list of essential criteria as detailed in the attached job description – please do provide evidence of how you meet this. 

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.

STAGE 2 – INTERVIEW 

This post will involve an interview by video. 

As part of the process, candidates will be invited to interview which will involve an in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification.  Candidates will also be asked to participate in a session where they will be required to prepare and deliver a 5/10-minute presentation to the panel.  This will be followed by a question-and-answer segment.  The presentation will be designed to assess each candidate’s experience in line with the requirements of the role.  Full details will be provided prior to the interview.

Expected Timeline:

Advert close: 23:55hrs on 22nd January 2024 – unfortunately, late applications will not be considered. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Shortlist: w/c 29th January 2024

Interviews: w/c 12th February

Please note these dates could be subject to change. 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.