Principal Scientist

Responsibilities section: As a Principal Scientist your main responsibilities will include:Surveillance, Epidemiology & Public Health Lead and manage the design, development, introduction, audit and continuous improvement of Acute respiratory surveillance systems as required.Conduct complex statistical and epidemiological analyses of data on respiratory infections drawn from a variety of surveillance sources. Providing expert technical advice and assistance to public health and clinical practitioners on the design, maintenance, analysis and interpretation of databases.Provide expert advice in response to ad hoc enquiries from Government agencies, public health practitioners, academics, media, commercial organisations and members of the public.Ensure emerging threats are recognized in a timely manner by the analysis and interpretation of often complex data from a variety of sources to understand the public health significance of the potential risk. Provide epidemiological support to incidents or outbreaks. Ensure the scientific validity and evidence-base of risk assessments, and that findings are communicated to the relevant stakeholders nationally and internationally through situation reports and briefing notes.Provide specialist advice on the epidemiological aspects of the prevention and control of Acute Respiratory infections by contributing to the development of guidance, designing data collection systems, interpreting epidemiological data, conducting statistical analyses, and scientific publications.Manage scientific and administrative staff in the maintenance, development, statistical analysis, quality outputs and reporting from datasets. Undertake periodic evaluation of surveillance systems including stakeholder engagement exercises. Research Design analytical strategies and supervise complex statistical analyses of research datasets for the production of project reports, papers for peer reviewed journals and conference presentations.Initiate collaborative projects within UKHSA and external collaborators to address public health research questions. This may also include taking a lead on research proposals for externally funded projects and provision of expert advice to academic units and other agencies involved in collaborative epidemiological and microbiological studies.Management and Planning To work alongside other members of the TARZET Unit on:The business planning process and the development of surveillance/research, communication, training strategies etcCompare, analyse and interpret highly complex options for running projects identified as key public health priorities, and communicate this information across organisations and key stakeholdersBudget responsibility for Section led grants d. Selection and recruitment of staff, including, shortlisting applicants and interviewing candidates selected for interviewStaff management responsibilities to be agreed with line managerResponsible for developing quality control processes, participating in audits and ensuring resilience through maintaining Standard Operating Procedures and business continuity planning.Be responsible for ensuring their teams work complies to UKHSA standards and governance requirements including maintaining confidentiality and security of surveillance information.Development of business cases to support system developments, this may include undertaking relevant procurement requirements and management of supplier relationships.To deputise for the Section Lead/Lead Epidemiologist as required.Publications and presentations To plan and oversee the development of epidemiological outputs including outward facing publications including annual reports, web pages, writing of scientific papers for publication in peer reviewed journals and to manage junior scientific and administrative colleagues in the development of manuscripts.To represent the Unit and Division on expert committees, national and local incident control teams, national/international meetings and conferences. Teaching and TrainingTo develop public health capacity by contributing to teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level and by supervising those training and working in public health and epidemiology.To contribute to the training for new members of staff on the epidemiology and surveillance of communicable disease.To participate in wider scientific activities to maintain professional standards including peer review of manuscripts.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.