Epidemiologist

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

London, London (region), NW9 5EQ

About the job

Job summary

The postholder will work on the surveillance, epidemiology and investigation of gastrointestinal infections by providing specialist scientific support for a range of national surveillance programmes, outbreak investigations and research projects. This will include the design and development of new surveillance and data management systems in response to developments in microbiological typing methods in collaboration with other epidemiologists and IT/bioinformatics specialists and will be required to conduct complex statistical analyses to produce GI pathogen surveillance, outbreak investigation and risk assessment outputs.

Job description

• Manage existing national surveillance systems and co-ordinate the development of new surveillance systems for gastrointestinal pathogens and to supervise and advise junior scientific and administrative staff in the maintenance and development of integrated or enhanced surveillance datasets.
• Conduct complex statistical analyses of data on gastrointestinal pathogens drawn from a variety of surveillance sources in response to enquiries from external stakeholders (e.g. other Government departments and agencies such as Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC), Food Standards Agency (FSA), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) etc), international agencies, public health practitioners, academics and members of the public as well as internal UKHSA stakeholders.
• Advise and support scientific and administrative staff in conducting routine analyses of surveillance datasets for standardised outputs and ad hoc enquiries.
• Supervise junior scientific colleagues and the administrative team in the production of standard GI pathogen surveillance and outbreak reports and publications.
• Coordinate the activities of scientists in partner institutes involved in collaborative surveillance programmes.
• Provide technical advice and assistance on the design, maintenance, analysis and interpretation of surveillance database outputs.
• 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.
• Write or contribute to the drafting of scientific papers for publication in peer reviewed journals and detailed reports for UKHSA or Government departments.
• Conduct complex statistical analyses of data on gastrointestinal pathogens drawn from a variety of surveillance sources in response to enquiries from other Government agencies (DHSC, FSA, DEFRA), international agencies, public health practitioners, academics and internal UKHSA stakeholders.
• Collating and interpreting epidemiological and microbiological data drawn from a variety of sources.
• Providing statistical analyses for government agencies, health protection teams and environmental health departments.
• Writing Briefing Notes (BN’s) and Situation Reports (SitReps).
• Present epidemiological findings at national and international meetings and conferences.
• Update the gastrointestinal infections web-pages with data and associated information.
• Manage the technical and analytical aspects of outbreak investigations, under the supervision of the Head of Incidents & Response by:
• Designing outbreak databases.
• Liaising with governments departments which lead on all aspects of food safety and public health protection related to GI pathogens.
• Coordinating and advising interviewing teams.
• Interviewing clinicians and patients to collect clinical and risk factor data
• Overseeing data entry and ensuring quality control of outbreak databases.
• Presenting epidemiological data to Incident Management Teams.
• Contributing to the production of outbreak reports and subsequent publications.

Person specification

You will be assessed on the below 8 essential criteria, which have been selected from the Job Description.

Essential Criteria:

• Higher degree (MSc or equivalent) in Public Health, Epidemiology or an allied subject
• Experience of postgraduate work/study in public health, epidemiology or an allied subject
• Significant experience of interpreting and evaluating epidemiological data, using databases, spreadsheets, 
• Statistical and graphics packages to an advanced level (R skills) 
• Demonstrable experience of outbreak investigation
• Ability to work independently and take responsibility for own technical work and time and to work as an effective team member
• Ability to analyse, summarise and interpret complex epidemiological data using R
• Ability to create and give presentations to a varied group of internal and external stakeholders and an ability to liaise with a range of health professionals and scientific industry specialists

Desirable Criteria: 

• Thorough understanding of recent advances in the epidemiology and microbiology of infectious intestinal disease and presenting scientific papers at national and international conferences

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,852, UK Health Security Agency contributes £12,993 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Ros Lewis
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email: [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/

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