Job Advert
*** COVID-19 – Please note that during this time all interviews will be conducted remotely. If successful, you will also initially be working remotely in line with the guidance from the Scottish Government***
Hours of Work: 37.5 hours per week (We are happy to consider applicants seeking reduced working hours – up to 30 per week)
Fixed-term for 36 Months
Join us in building the authoritative data record for vaccinations in Scotland
THE VACCINATIONS TEAM
As a member of the Vaccinations team you will be working at scale, solving complex data problems and playing a valuable role in improving lives across Scotland.
Our goal is to build a single source of truth for vaccination records in Scotland – one which is trusted, secure, clinically safe and highly scalable. This directly contributes to the National Digital Platform (NDP) for health and care in Scotland.
The rapid and unprecedented roll out of Scotland’s COVID-19 vaccination programme would be impossible without the work of the vaccinations team and its effective collaboration with colleagues across NHS Scotland and the other key partners.
Our work is technically challenging and hugely rewarding. Cloud hosted we operate at near-national scale; ingesting multiple complex data sets from a wide range of partners; providing accurate reporting services that underpin safe clinical decision making.
We’re highly collaborative – not only with fellow team members (we’re always happy to help each other!) but also health boards and partners involved in scheduling and other aspects of vaccine delivery.
We’ve only just begun…. Learning from our experiences with COVID-19 will help scale our work to other key vaccination programmes.
THE NATIONAL DIGITAL PLATFORM
Information is at the heart of great health care. Our mission is to build the National Digital Platform (NDP) – a single cloud-based canonical source of truth for health data for every citizen in Scotland.
Designed to be both safe and secure the NDP supports the provision of excellent care at the point of contact; increases the range and speed at which new digital services become available and accelerates opportunities for research, planning and predictive modelling.
YOUR ROLE
Working in an agile environment you will have the opportunity to solve a wide range of problems. For example, integrations with 3rd party systems; enhancing API’s; Improving performance; identifying and resolving scalability issues; design requirements for new features; changes required to support changes in vaccine guidance. And of course, documentation, testing and bug fixing.
The vaccination landscape can change quickly meaning we are comfortable with context switching and changing priorities. We work closely with partners to understand their needs, breaking these down to propose and deliver quick actionable solutions.
After 30 Days
In your first month you’ll primarily be focused on learning – understanding our product, partners and health sector landscape. Working with your manager you’ll also begin formulating your personal development goals and learning needs.
After 90 Days
You’ll be well integrated with the team, with increased responsibility and ownership for key areas of work.
Having met regularly with 3rd parties and partners in health you’ll have a clear understanding of who they are and how to work successfully together. You’ll be comfortable clarifying their requirements; flagging issues and proposing solutions and trade-offs where needed.
Having confirmed your Personal Development goals, you will be working on these through your daily work – taking time to learn from colleagues; research and booking courses for example in AWS Certification.
After 12 Months
You are deeply involved in the vaccination data set and working to integrate this consistently and reliably with a wider range of clinical data sets taking a broader view on how vaccination data can help other areas of healthcare.
You’re proud of your progress and impact over the last year. Looking back, you’ll become broader in your technical thinking; have deeper knowledge of large-scale data management and successfully achieved your AWS certification. You’re excited about working with your line manager to identify progression opportunities.
ABOUT YOU
At heart you thrive on solving problems, working with complex data and can work successfully with a broad range of non-technical partners to understand their needs.
With a focus on delivery you can make trade-offs where necessary; can adjust to changing priorities and develop viable solutions which can be iterated on.
From a technical perspective we are interested in Software Engineers with practical and/or theoretical experience of: -
- Agile methodologies and continuous improvement of development processes
- Version control (e.g. git), continuous integration, continuous deployment, unit testing, and test-driven development
- Cloud platforms (e.g. Azure, AWS, Google Cloud) and tools like Kubernetes to design, build, and deploy functioning systems in the cloud
Your core engineering experience is more important than the tools and languages you use
If you lack experience in any areas of our stack, we will provide the support you need to quickly learn and use these in your work.
It’s not essential to be in a Software Engineering role right now
You may be returning from a career break (e.g. maternity, paternity, caring for others) or returning to Software Engineering after working in another field. Your experiences elsewhere can bring a fresh perspective to our work.
We’d LOVE you to apply!
We recognise Software Engineers are a diverse bunch! If you feel you may be light in some areas don’t be put off – you may have strengths in other areas which could be valuable. If you’re considering applying and have any questions please contact matthew.hill@nhs.scot who will be happy to assist.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Developing a truly successful national service for Scotland is impossible without ensuring we consider the diverse needs, perspectives and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland in our work.
We are focused on hiring the very best talent available for NDS, and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and aim to ensure everyone is treated fairly, with respect and has a positive recruitment experience – regardless of the outcome.
BENEFITS
As a valued employee of NHS Scotland, your benefits include…
- Life-work balance - with opportunities for flexible working, remote working, compressed and reduced hours
- 35+ Days Annual Holiday – 27 Days Annual Leave (increasing in line with service) plus 8 days public holiday
- The Opportunity to Learn and Grow – including funded AWS training (and certification if you wish), frequent knowledge sharing sessions with Clinicians and experts in the healthcare field, and a strong engineering department with a diverse background to learn from
- Financial Benefits
o Generous NHS pension scheme
o Extensive NHS discounts
APPLICANTS SHOULD NOTE….
- This position is offered on a 36-month Fixed Term Contract Basis
- During COVID-19, our recruitment process is 100% remote and if successful you would work remotely, only working from our offices once official guidance supports this
- For NHS employees considering this post, appointments will only be considered on a secondment or SLA basis, in the first instance
We actively encourage applicants from a range of backgrounds, regardless of gender, age, religion, race, sexual orientation, religion or belief. https://www.careers.nhs.scot/about/who-we-are/
If you have any queries regarding the application portal or the recruitment process, please contact us at: NES HR Recruitment: recruitment.hr@nes.scot.nhs.uk