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Pandemic Vaccines Operations Lead

  • Public sector
  • Leeds
  • 22/04/2025
  • £54,416.00 - £68,344.00 /yearly
  • Full Time & Permanent
Job expired!

Job Overview

Location

Leeds

Job Type

Full Time & Permanent

Salary

£54,416 - £68,344 yearly

Date Posted:

22/04/2025

Expiration date:

04/05/2025

Additional Detail

Job ID

24881

Work Location

Remote and/or Onsite

Job Description

Locations: Birmingham, Chilton, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Porton
 
The Countermeasures and Preparedness Team (CPT) sits within Commercial, Vaccines and Countermeasures Delivery in UKHSA, reporting to its Chief Operating Officer.  The CPT is responsible for ensuring the UK can respond effectively to new and emerging disease threats, pandemics, and emergency response situations. This includes risks to national and wider health security, such as the accidental or malicious release of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear agent, and in incidents involving certain venoms and toxins.
 
The CPT is at the heart of the UKHSA's mission to keep all our communities safe, save lives and protect livelihoods through effective prevention, preparedness and response to infectious diseases and environmental hazards. We achieve this through the effective oversight, procurement, supply and operationalisation of a range of medical countermeasures. We also manage key pandemic preparedness capability, including an advance purchase agreement with CSL Seqirus, the National Pandemic Flu Service and the Moderna-UK Strategic Partnership. The CPT has a serious remit, but we deliver this with a positive, supportive and fun working culture.
 
The Pandemic Preparedness team within CPT manages vaccines & countermeasures supply against priority pathogens, overseeing the end-to-end design, procurement and operational planning for all products necessary for effective responses to future pandemics. This role is responsible for overseeing the vaccines elements of this important work.
 
This role specifically leads the effective procurement and supply management for pandemic vaccines. The post holder will collaborate with counterparts in the UKHSA Centre for Pandemic Preparedness, DHSC, and wider HMG to identify the right interventions and investments for short, mid and long-term pandemic resilience.

Working for the organisation

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 underrepresented 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.  

Job overview

  • Lead the procurement of contractual arrangements that ensure the UK has a pandemic specific vaccine (PSV) when it is needed
  • Development of strategies for demand management to prevent shortages of vaccines and work closely with contracted storage & distribution providers to implement in the event of a pandemic
  • To lead operational engagement with the devolved administrations and crown dependencies to ensure that a UK wide supply is maintained in the event of a pandemic
  • To ensure the procurement of pandemic specific vaccines arrangements are consistent with DHSC policy and support wider pandemic vaccine strategy
  • To work closely with the ImmForm team who manage web-based product ordering service, to ensure products are available to customers and appropriately controlled and managed in the event of a pandemic
  • To draft correspondence, briefing and other materials on operational and supply issues in addition to keeping senior officials and ministers informed and updated on issues as necessary
  • Lead in the drafting of project related sections in associated business cases, utilising subject matter experts to produce robust cases
  • Engage with a wide array of stakeholders including clinical, policy, operational and technical experts. Ensure effective communication with project stakeholders and senior sponsors/SROs
  • Line management of the HEO Pandemic Vaccines role

Person specification

Essential criteria - you will be assessed on the below 6 essential criteria, which have been selected from the Job Description Document.  

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and ability to respond to sudden, unexpected demands and deliver on time.
  • Ability to build constructive working and influential relationships internally and externally. 
  • Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options. 
  • Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium, and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly in complex environments to manage competing priorities effectively.
  • Be able to use initiative to decide relevant actions and make recommendations to senior managers, with the aim of improving deliverables and compliance to policies.
  • Experience in roles which have a high degree of complexity and application of project management discipline, including in an operational or health security context

Alongside your salary of £54,416, UK Health Security Agency contributes £15,764 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
  • Learning and development tailored to your role
  • An environment with flexible working options
  • A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
  • A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Ability, Experience, Technical skills.

Stage 1: Application & Sift 

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the listed (6) essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a:  

  • Application form (Employer/ Activity history section on the application)
  • 1,200 word Statement of Suitability.  

This should outline how your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.  

The Application form and Statement of Suitability will be marked together.

Longlisting:

In the event of a large number of applications we will longlist into 3 piles of: 

  • Meets all essential criteria 
  • Meets some essential criteria 
  • Meets no essential criteria  

The following will be taken through to the next stage:

  • Meets all essential criteria  

Shortlisting:

In the event of a large number of applications we will shortlist on the following: 

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and ability to respond to sudden, unexpected demands and deliver on time.
  • Ability to build constructive working and influential relationships internally and externally. 
  • Experience in roles which have a high degree of complexity and application of project management discipline, including in an operational or health security context

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview and assessment.  

Please do not exceed 1,200 words.  We will not consider any words over and above this number. 

Feedback will not be provided at this stage. 

Please note you will not be able to upload your CV. You must complete the application form in as much detail as possible. Please do not email us your CV.  

Stage 2: Interview 

You will be invited to a (single) remote interview. 

Behaviours, technical, experience, ability and strengths will be tested at interview. 

 The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

  • Seeing the Big Picture
  • Changing and Improving (Lead behaviour)
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Working Together

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. 

Eligibility Criteria - External  

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants).  
 

Location 

This role is being offered as hybrid working based at any of our Core HQ's. We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, (averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's core HQ's (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London) or at one of our scientific campus sites (Colindale, Porton and Chilton).

Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre transport link and benefit from benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Security Clearance Level Requirement

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.    

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard OR Counter-terrorist Check if you are based at a scientific site.

Reasonable Adjustments 

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone. To help you during the recruitment process, we will consider any reasonable adjustments that could help you. An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work. This is separate to the Disability Confident Scheme. If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon as possible to discuss your needs.  

You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil Service here: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/ 

International Police check 

If you have spent more than 6 months abroad over the last 3 years you may need an International Police Check. This would not necessarily have to be in a single block, and it could be time accrued over that period. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

Your application may be rejected and/or you may be subject to disciplinary action if evidence of plagiarism is detected. Examples of plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence (AI), as your own. 

Internal Fraud check  

If successful for this role as one aspect of pre-employment screening, applicant's personal details - name, national insurance number and date of birth - will be checked against the Cabinet Office Internal Fraud Hub and anyone included on the database will be refused employment unless they can show exceptional circumstances. Currently this is only for External candidates to the Civil Service. 

Careers website 

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
 
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

  • UK nationals
  • nationals of the Republic of Ireland
  • nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
  • individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
  • Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
 
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
 
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact

Recruitment team

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email: [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

 
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