• Details

Reference number

398776

Salary

£54,416 - £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

Commercial

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time

Number of jobs available

2

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and London (Canary Wharf)

About the job

Job summary

The wider Directorate is pivotal to UKHSA’s mission, overseeing the comprehensive delivery of commercial, contract management, and business development functions. It manages a vast commercial portfolio, ensuring the agency has the resources to address health security threats. The directorate leads the procurement, storage, and distribution of vaccines and countermeasures for national immunisation and emergency response programmes. It fosters industry partnerships, drives strategic market engagement, and builds supply chain resilience. Additionally, the team is responsible for investment governance, dispute management, and building commercial capabilities. They also develop and execute strategies for income generation, leveraging UKHSA’s expertise and facilities to secure funding and commercial opportunities.
This role is part of the Vaccines Programmes & Operations department and reports into the Head of Vaccine and immunisation Programmes.
This role leads on a set of immunisation programmes for VCD, ensuring that the programme of work is delivered to ensure continued supply of vaccine for those specific programmes. They will oversee the procurement and supply activity necessary, working closely with enabling functions and colleagues across the health ecosystem, as well as vaccine manufacturers.

• Ensure a continuous supply of vaccines to the UK NHS by supporting procurement efforts for all ongoing vaccine programmes.
• Creating expert business cases and progressing cases through approvals, including Ministers where necessary. Drawing on enabling functions as needed.
• Responsible for UK Vaccine supply and stock optimisation, including leading operations within UKHSA, ensuring rapid and responsive actions when needed, whilst organising business requirements to deliver a lean and efficient service, and mitigating any losses. Drawing on enabling functions as needed.
• Work well with the enabling function in Vaccines & Countermeasures Delivery (VCD) to make best use of the expertise available across both teams. Champion a matrix way of working, ensuring team members, and wider stakeholders, are bought into this approach.
• Programme planning and implementation across 4 nations, including docking into wider Programme Governance (workstream supply lead for each programme) ensuring flow of communication upwards, downwards and across teams.
Overseeing the ordering and distribution of products to the NHS and other customers in support of immunisation and vaccine programmes responsible for, directing service providers and ImmForm supply functions as and when needed.
• Stakeholder relationship management, to include leading, building and managing trusted relationships with suppliers and external stakeholders in relation to programmes leading on.
• Developing strategies with VCD Quality and Surveillance and Detection (S&D) Team to manage vaccine shortages or recalls, to resume supply as quickly as possible and minimise wastage.
• Contributing to the procurement of future national S&D infrastructure requirements and working closely with colleagues to build and execute resilient systems. Project performance and controls: build project plans and apply appropriate project principles to deliver stated objectives. Identify and set appropriate project controls, track, and report delivery against milestones. Lead as appropriate areas of business cases, utilising subject matter experts to produce robust cases.
• Engage with a wide array of internal and external stakeholders including UKHSA CPH, DHSC counterparts, academics and industry experts. Ensure effective communication with project stakeholders and senior sponsors/SROs.
• Proactively review programmes to identify opportunities for enhancements, making collaborative recommendations to drive improvements across the supply chain or deployment. Focus on optimising patient outcomes and ensuring value for money (VfM) by implementing learnings in a timely and inclusive manner, maintaining a culture of ongoing evaluation and refinement.
• Line management responsibilities.
• Identify, discuss, and action own professional performance and training / development needs with your line manager through appraisal / individual development plan. Attending internal / external training events
• To participate in all mandatory training as required, i.e. fire safety, information governance and all other mandatory training.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrable experience of working in a pharmaceutical/supply chain environment
• Proven experience in managing complex supply chain operations, including planning, monitoring, and delivering end-to-end projects.
• Experience in Project Management and Programme Delivery.
• Capable of mitigating risks, optimising processes, and achieving timely, cost-effective outcomes aligned with organisational goals.
• Ability to work autonomously to make decisions and lead projects at middle management level.
• Ability to build and sustain relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including senior leaders, partners, and suppliers. Skilled in navigating complex stakeholder environments to ensure alignment, effective communication, and collaborative problem-solving.
• Ability to quickly understand the core aspects of vaccine programmes and how to best access the range of expertise needed across His Majesty’s Government (HMG) to maximize impact.
• NVQ in Supply Chain, Business Management or Programme Management

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of line managing a team
• Ability to draft robust and evidence-based business cases
• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and develop high-performing teams, fostering a collaborative and supportive work environment. Provides clear direction, empowers team members, and ensures accountability for delivering objectives.

Benefits

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%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

Stage 1: Application & Sift

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the listed 9 essential criteria and this will be in the form of a:

• Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)
• 1000 word Statement of Suitability.

There are 3 desirable criteria (which will only be assessed in the event of a strong field of candidates and as a second stage after all essential criteria have been considered)

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

Statement of Suitability and Application form will be scored 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

In order to be shortlisted you must meet all essential criteria.

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

• Demonstrable experience of working in a pharmaceutical/supply chain environment will be conducted.

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

Please do not exceed 1000 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview (success profiles)

You will be invited to a face to face interview at our Canary Wharf office. However remote interviews will be allowed in exceptional circumstances.

Behaviours will be tested at interview.

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

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) 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.

Reasonable Adjustments

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 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)
• 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

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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 .

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment .

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Gareth Davies
• Email : gareth.davies2@ukhsa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : rosie.ogrady@ukhsa.gov.uk

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: Complaints@ukhsa.gov.uk 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