Senior Infectious Disease Modeller

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 407247

**Salary**:

- £58,589 - £68,344
- per annum, pro rata
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

**Job grade**:

- Grade 7

**Contract type**:

- Permanent

**Type of role**:

- Science
Other

**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

**Number of jobs available**:

- 1

**Contents**:

- Location
- About the job
- Benefits
- Things you need to know

**Location**:

- Colindale (Scientific Campus)

**About the job**:
**Job summary**:
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.

**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 pro