Epidemiologist

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.

Working for your 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.

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Job description

The postholder will develop, manage and maintain gastrointestinal pathogen surveillance systems (including surveillance databases) and produce comprehensive surveillance data outputs for external stakeholders, incorporating both whole genome sequencing and epidemiological data. They will develop automated analytical solutions, respond to complex or sensitive data requests, and contribute to public health scientific reports and peer reviewed publications.

• 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.
• Apply a broad range of statistical methods, translating analytical processes into automated, reproducible solutions where appropriate, alongside use of statistical, database, mapping and web tools such as STATA, R, ArcGIS, SQL and SharePoint in routine surveillance and reporting, and undertake complex analytical, programming and data validation tasks to support data extraction and system development
• 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 and/or research 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 to inform decision-making and 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.
• Writing Briefing Notes (BN’s) and Situation Reports (SitReps).
• Present epidemiological findings at national and international meetings and conferences.
• Update the gastrointestinal infections webpages with data and associated information
• Manage the technical and analytical aspects of outbreak investigations, under the supervision of the Lead Epidemiologist/Consultant Epidemiologist 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

The above is only an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role. You shall carry out any other duties as may reasonably be required by your line manager.

Person specification

Qualifications and Registrations

For roles where specific qualifications or registrations are required, successful applicants will be asked to provide appropriate evidence. Employment cannot commence until satisfactory documentation has been received and verified.

• MSc or equivalent experience in Public Health, Epidemiology, or an allied subject (e.g. environmental health, infectious disease, global health).
• Experience of postgraduate work/study in public health, epidemiology or an allied subject(e.g. environmental health, infectious disease, global health).
• Knowledge of principles and practice of surveillance, including data management, data validation, data transmission, data security, data quality, data analysis including descriptive statistics and graphics and data reporting
• Significant experience of analysing, interpreting and evaluating epidemiological data, using databases, statistical and graphics packages to an advanced level (e.g. R skills).
• Demonstrable experience of outbreak investigation
• Demonstrable experience of writing scientific papers and/or reports.
• 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.
• Experience of research activities with one or more first author publications in peer reviewed journal

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £46,310, UK Health Security Agency contributes £13,416 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides