Principal Scientist (Epidemiology)

Salary: £52,606 - £62,286 per annum

Job ref: 919-CG-S39806012-EXT

COVID-19 has reinforced the impact that threats to health can have on society and the economy and driven health security as a critical component of our national security architecture. 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

UKHSA’s immediate and most important priority is to continue the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the longer term, UKHSA will build on the legacy of the COVID-19 response to ensure resilient and scalable infrastructure to secure the UK in the strongest position to protect the public from future threats to health.

Job overview

The HCAI & AMR Division brings together teams responsible for a range of surveillance programmes, epidemiological investigations, incident/outbreak response, advice to Government and the UKHSA Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Priority Programme. As a Principal Scientist, you will work within the Healthcare-Associated Infection & Antimicrobial Resistance (HCAI & AMR) Surveillance Team. You will be a senior member of the scientific staff, working to develop surveillance programmes and undertake epidemiological studies in a field that is high-profile and attracts much media interest.

The successful candidate will be part of a multidisciplinary team of clinical, scientific and data management staff and will have responsibility for designing, developing and maintaining surveillance programmes, undertaking and overseeing complex epidemiological analyses, interpreting and disseminating results. As a senior epidemiologist, you will be actively involved in collaborative research projects to answer questions of public health importance.

Main duties of the job

Lead and manage a team within the HCAI & AMR Division’s Gram-positive Section delivering on national surveillance of streptococcal and staphylococcal infection, and provide senior epidemiological input for other functions within the Section, including support for outbreak response

Provide national expertise on the epidemiology of streptococcal and staphylococcal diseases and identify key public health questions of importance to this Section.

Oversee the development of existing surveillance systems and research proposals to provide an evidence-base to inform public health policy.

Support the digital development of existing surveillance systems to enrich data flows to improve monitoring of risk factors and clinical endpoints, facilitate outbreak detection and improve reporting to stakeholders.

Closing date: 4 October 2022.

https://www.healthjobsuk.com/job/v4591238