Description
The Gastrointestinal Infections, Food Safety & One Health Division (GIFSOH) is located within UKHSA's Epidemic and Emerging Infections Directorate (EEI) at Colindale.
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.
Main duties of the job
- Develop, manage and maintain gastrointestinal pathogen surveillance systems (including surveillance databases) and produce comprehensive surveillance data outputs for both internal and external stakeholders, incorporating whole genome sequencing and epidemiological data.
- Develop automated analytical solutions, respond to complex or sensitive data requests, and contribute to public health scientific reports and peer reviewed publications.
- Undertake and coordinate routine analysis of national surveillance data to support the wider GIFSOH team, such as the detection, investigation and management of national outbreaks of GI illness.
Job responsibilities
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Collating and interpreting epidemiological and microbiological data drawn from a variety of sources.
- Writing Briefing Notes (BNs) 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.
Benefits
- Competitive salary: £46,310 to £52,113 a year per annum, pro rata
- Flexible working opportunities, including hybrid working
Requirements
- MSc or equivalent experience in Public Health, Epidemiology, or an allied subject
- Experience of postgraduate work/study in public health, epidemiology or an allied subject
- Knowledge of principles and practice of surveillance, including data management, data validation, data transmission, data security, data quality, data analysis and data reporting
- Significant experience of analysing, interpreting and evaluating epidemiological data, using databases, statistical and graphics packages to an advanced level
- 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