Epidemiologist

The Gastrointestinal Infections, Food Safety & One Health Division (GIFSOH) is located within UKHSA's Epidemic and Emerging Infections Directorate (EEI) at Colindale. The Divisional remit includes providing specialist epidemiology and surveillance for a broad range of gastrointestinal pathogens including enteric and foodborne bacteria, viruses and parasites, coordinating national outbreak investigations, advising government on the risks posed by various gastrointestinal (GI) pathogens and responding to national and international health concerns. The Division uses advanced techniques such as whole genome sequencing (WGS) to track outbreaks and monitor antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and also plays an important role in Food Safety and One Health both within the UK and internationally. The postholder will work on the surveillance, epidemiology and investigation of gastrointestinal infections by providing specialist scientific support for a range of national surveillance programmes, outbreak investigations and research projects. This will include the design and development of new surveillance and data management systems in response to developments in microbiological typing methods in collaboration with other epidemiologists and IT/bioinformatics specialists and will be required to conduct complex statistical analyses to produce GI pathogen surveillance, outbreak investigation and risk assessment outputs., The postholder will:

• Develop, manage and maintain gastrointestinal pathogen surveillance systems (including surveillance databases) and produce comprehensive surveillance data outputs for both internal and external stakeholders, incorporating whole genome sequencing and epidemiological data.
• Develop automated analytical solutions, respond to complex or sensitive data requests, and contribute to public health scientific reports and peer reviewed publications.
• Undertake and coordinate routine analysis of national surveillance data to support the wider GIFSOH team, such as the detection, investigation and management of national outbreaks of GI illness.
  
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