Principal HIV/STI Surveillance and Prevention Scientist

The Blood Safety, Hepatitis, STI and HIV (BSHSH) Division is the national centre for surveillance of hepatitis, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in England. It is based in Colindale, north London. TheDivision consists of around 100 permanent and project-funded medical, scientific, technical and administrative staff including epidemiologists, public health specialists, microbiologists, virologists, data managers, statisticians and IT specialists. The Division is also closely involved with the work of the NIHR-funded Health Protection Research Units, which are collaborative ventures involving UKHSA and academia.

The BSHSH Division aims to:

• Describe trends in the incidence and prevalence of hepatitis, STIs and HIV, especially in important behavioural population sub-groups;
• Describe trends in the incidence and prevalence of all infections transmissible through blood, tissue and organ donations;
• Provide national reference and specialist microbiology and virology services, for public health, clinical and diagnostic purposes;
• Monitor the outputs and effectiveness of hepatitis, STI and HIV prevention activities and programmes and support development of national policy;
• Provide information for local needs assessment, service commissioning and evaluation, and to guide prevention activities aimed at reducing risk behaviours and interrupting infection transmission, including through blood, organ and tissue donation;
• Investigate national and uncommon outbreaks, respond to international health alerts, and provide advice on the risks posed;
• Train those working in blood safety and in hepatitis, STI and HIV surveillance, monitoring and Prevention;
• Lead and contribute to research in hepatitis, STI and HIV epidemiology, diagnostics, and infection prevention and control.

Essential Criteria:

It is important through your application and Statement of Suitability of 800 words that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the essential criteria (for full details of all essential criteria please refer to the attached job description, you must review this to produce your statement of suitability):

Essential

• PhD or equivalent experience in public health, epidemiology, health promotion, health-care research or similar
• Knowledge of HIV/STI/BBV Surveillance and epidemiology
• Experience of using computers and database software packages (particularly Stata, Microsoft Office)
• Experience of working at a senior level with responsibility for multiple projects
• Experience of project management - planning, monitoring and controlling single or multi-disciplinary project groups
• Experience of preparing scientific reports and presentations
• Experience of staff management
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues, working to tight and often changing timescales
• Able to liaise with a wide range of external collaborators including international partners, health service and academic professionals
• Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options
• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly

Desirable

• Experience of obtaining external research funds through grant applications