Job Advert
This post is a 12 Month Fixed Term / Secondment position
Public Health Scotland (PHS) is a new organisation, launched on the 1st April 2020 with the formal status of a National Special Health Board employing around 1100 people, and with an annual budget of around £60 million, Public Health Scotland provides authoritative information and services to support people and communities across Scotland. It leads the national response to unforeseen health emergencies, such as COVID-19, and contribute to national and local government policy through its provision of robust data and intelligence.
The Clinical and Protecting Health Directorate are seeking to appoint a bioinformatician on a fixed term or secondment until the 31st March 2022 in the first instance with the possibility of extension or becoming permanent.
Protecting Health plan and deliver effective and specialist national services which co-ordinate, strengthen and support activities aimed at protecting all the people of Scotland from infectious and environmental hazards. This is done by providing advice, support and information to health professionals, national and local government, the general public and a number of other bodies that play a part in protecting health. The Public Health Microbiology Team coordinates and oversees strategic direction for the delivery of the Public Health Microbiology functions for PHS and also on behalf of the Scottish Health Protection Network (SHPN).
As part of the expansion of whole genome sequencing capacity for SARS-CoV-2 in Scotland, an exciting opportunity has arisen within PHS’s Public Health Microbiology team for a full time Bioinformatician. The post holder will be responsible for helping to deliver bioinformatics to support the COVID-19 response. The post holder will be part of a team analysing SARS-CoV-2 genome data and generating results that will be used by public health teams in PHS. The role will require close working with those groups to ensure effective integration of SARS-CoV-2 genome into the COVID-19 response.
The post holder will help maintain, enhance and develop reliable and efficient infrastructure for bioinformatics tools and processes to ensure the highest quality public health microbiology service. This will initially focus on SARS-CoV-2, but will include other pathogens as the genome sequencing is expanded in Scotland.
You will be educated to degree level and you will have a proven track record as a team player, have excellent planning and organisational skills. You will be expected to simultaneously work across a number of projects and be able to take a flexible approach to your workload and planning of it.
The post holder will report to the clinical lead for Public Health Microbiology, and operationally report to the PHS Service Manager for Public Health Microbiology, they will also work alongside laboratory quality managers.
The successful candidate will be required to undergo a PVG Scheme Disclosure/Disclosure Scotland check. Any candidate who has worked overseas for more than 3 months will also be required to provide a criminal record check from the appropriate overseas agency.
Our benefits package includes pension scheme, comprehensive range of work life balance policies, occupational health services, learning resource centres and discounted leisure, financial and shopping benefits.
For an informal discussion on the post, please contact matt.holden@nhs.scot or patricia.kennedy@phs.scot
Closing date for completed applications is the 25th May 2021
Further information on PHS is available from: https://publichealthscotland.scot
Please note that the majority of correspondence is sent by e-mail only, so please check your e-mail regularly (including junk folders).
Public Health Scotland is an equal opportunities employer and as committed participant in the disability confident scheme, guarantees to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for our vacancies