Epidemiology and Information Scientist

The Field Services Division (FS) was established to provide a national comprehensive service which is geographically dispersed and integrates epidemiological, microbiological, infectious diseases and data sciences capacity and skills delivering surveillance and outbreak investigations consistently of the highest quality.

FS provides an effector arm for UKHSA, supporting the translation of evidence into practice as well as having a role in strengthening surveillance through closer links with the NHS and other partners. It also provides valuable links to academic centres and effective leadership and coordination of the UKHSA applied epidemiology training function.

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 under‑represented 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.

An opportunity has arisen for an individual to join the South West Field Service and Health Protection Team as an Epidemiology and Information Scientist. This is a South West Regional post, embedded in and managed by South West Field Services.

The Epidemiology and Information Scientist will support senior epidemiologist colleagues in the provision of a range of activities including contributing to outbreak management and response and epidemiological investigation through designing questionnaires and outbreak databases, contributing to the production of outbreak reports and preparing descriptive epidemiology. Exceedances will also be investigated. The interface with local, regional and national colleagues, as well as with external stakeholders, will be an important feature of this role.

Specific duties of the role may vary depending on the site and teams / functions.

• Where appropriate, undertake specific steps of an epidemiological study under direction including designing and developing questionnaires using Select Survey, designing and administering outbreak databases, preparing descriptive epidemiology, contributing to the production of outbreak reports, investigating exceedances and interviewing cases and controls.
• Undertake complex analytical tasks and use common statistical, database and mapping software and tools to support analysis such as producing tables, graphs, maps etc. and developing advanced queries.

• Maintain and improve databases for surveillance of infectious diseases, test functionality of new surveillance systems, validate the quality of surveillance data including use of automated routines and through audit and produce and update Standard Operating Procedures.
• Have knowledge of, apply and interpret basic statistical tests, conduct statistical analyses of surveillance data, produce reports and outputs using common statistical / database / mapping tools such as Stata, R, ArcGIS, network analysis, SQL, etc., respond to routine and more complex data requests and produce routine surveillance reports, including basic descriptive analysis and interpretation of results.
• Contribute to surveillance activities through assuring data quality, undertaking complex data analyses and seeking to improve and enhance databases and systems.
• Produce routine surveillance reports that include basic descriptive analyses and interpretation.
• Undertake more complex analytical tasks using common software packages to support analysis such as advanced querying, data validation and pivot tables.

• Support research through contribution to scientific papers and projects on public health surveillance, outbreaks and infectious disease control as well as through designing study databases and sharing findings at conferences and meetings.
• Design a…