JOB SUMMARY

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.
The postholder will be the lead modeller in the Immunisation and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Division (IVPD) for respiratory virus diseases. This is a permanent post. This is a key post contributing to UKHSA’s capacity and capability in transmission-dynamic modelling and health economic evaluations to further understanding and inform decision-making. As well as requiring specific technical expertise, this post requires broad scientific knowledge and involves substantial interdisciplinary working (e.g. with medical, clinical, and scientific staff) within UKHSA and in other organisations, nationally and internationally. The postholder’s work will directly inform deliberations by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and UK policy.
The work done by the postholder will help shape future policy making and scientific advances in this field. Hence it carries considerable potential for original scientific work and requires a high degree of personal motivation.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The post holder will work closely with colleagues in other parts of UKHSA, including Commercial, Vaccine, Countermeasures Delivery (CVCD) and the Statistics, Modelling and Economic Division (SMED), as well as Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) analysts and DHSC immunisation policy teams. The IVPD division’s academic collaborations include Imperial College, University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), including through the recently renewed Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs) for Respiratory Infections at Imperial and Immunisation (LSHTM). Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs) are collaboration between UKHSA and UK universities, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
You will line manage one post initially, a mathematical modeller / statistical epidemiologist, and be managed by a consultant epidemiologist.
Current work areas will include:
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination programme modelling, including population dynamics as vaccines for older infants and toddlers are developed, working with the Respiratory Infections HPRU and other organisations. Adult risk group RSV cost-effectiveness may be a further area of work in a lead or supporting role.
Influenza. Current activities include analysis of the impact of the seasonal flu vaccination programmes on hospitalisations and mortality, including identifying where additional data collection could reduce model uncertainty, and comparative cost-effectiveness of different vaccines including novel technologies. You may also contribute to influenza pandemic preparedness and countermeasures modelling. There may be opportunities to support analysis of geo-temporal patterns of influenza disease and their relationship with vaccine uptake. Collaborative work on forecasting seasonal influenza impact using population serosurveillance, strain diversity data and healthcare surveillance data is also within scope.
Human metapneumovirus vaccines are in development (many as dual vaccines with RSV) and this is expected to be a developing area of work in collaboration with academic partners to support programme decision making.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

DETAILED JOB DESCRIPTION AND MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

• To lead development of infectious disease transmission-dynamic models and integrated cost-effectiveness analysis, primarily related to viral respiratory infections and the role of vaccination in their control.
• To identify knowledge gaps, prioritise them, and address the most important through novel analysis and helping design empirical studies where appropriate.
• To synthesise evidence from surveillance and other data sources to understand the natural history and epidemiology of infection, and the effectiveness of control measures, using relevant software.
• To design and build new models or adapt and extend existing models as appropriate.
• To parameterise models by analysis of appropriate data and literature review.
• To develop and implement protocols/quality assurance plans for the development and analysis of data and models.
• To work and communicate effectively within a multidisciplinary team to coordinate research.
• To manage own programme of work and to use considerable initiative and independence.
• To work with colleagues in UKHSA’s Immunisation and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Division, Statistics, Modelling and Economic Division; Immunisation Division; and with JCVI, DHSC, and other organisations as appropriate.
• To liaise and collaborate with public health and academic colleagues in the UK and internationally.
• To participate in teaching and training at UKHSA and elsewhere, including informal training of colleagues and participation in formal teaching (including preparation of teaching materials).
• To give presentations at national and international meetings, as appropriate.
• To write papers for high-quality peer-reviewed scientific journals

ESSENTIAL ROLE CRITERIA:

• An undergraduate or master’s degree in a quantitative discipline (e.g. mathematics, physics, biology or economics)
• PhD in infectious disease dynamics or in a comparable specialism with post-doctoral infectious disease dynamics experience relevant to the role
• Strong skills in scientific programme in R or in a directly transferrable language e.g. MATLAB, C++
• Experience of parallelization e.g. HPC/GPU
• Experience in successfully modelling respiratory infections, with an internationally recognised track record of research
• Ability to pay attention to detail and devise ways of checking own work carefully (including debugging code), and strong skills in developing robust workflows, including version control and reproducible research.
• Ability to apply health economic approaches to provide insight into complex health problems.
• Demonstrated excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the proven ability to:(i) communicate complex ideas, methods, and results clearly and succinctly to a wide range of audiences;(ii) publish scientific papers in high-quality peer-reviewed journals;(iii) give presentations at international meetings (conferences and invited presentations);
• Experience of working with a wide range of data, such as healthcare data, serology and pathogen genomics.
• Ability to work both with considerable initiative and independence, and as a team member (in a multidisciplinary team), including initiating, planning and executing own work programme and coordinating with collaborators.
• Ability to liaise effectively with a wide range of health professionals, demonstrating strong interpersonal and leadership skills when working with team members and working collaboratively across disciplines and levels of seniority.
• Ability to identify, formulate and solve problems, make judgments based on analysis and interpretation of complex data or situations, and assess and devise appropriate responses.
• Organisation, planning and time-management skills and ability to develop long-term plans, taking into account uncertainties.

DESIRABLE ROLE CRITERIA:

• Knowledge and experience of cost-utility/cost-effectiveness analysis in the field of infectious diseases and vaccination.
• Experience of developing packages in R or comparable languages/environments
• Demonstrable track record in writing successful funding applications