Main Duties

• To plan and carry out research, using appropriate methodology and techniques appropriate to the discipline:
  • Design, develop and maintain data pipelines and extract-transform-load (ETL) processes to acquire, clean, link and standardise routinely collected primary care, inpatient, outpatient and emergency care data from sources such as PICS, Cerner and related NHS systems and data providers
  • Design and implement a novel, harmonised research data model and database schema for acute care data, applying data modelling and database design best practice to ensure efficient, well-documented and reproducible data storage and retrieval
  • Develop and maintain scalable, secure data infrastructure to support data storage, processing and analysis for acute care research within a secure data environment to enable rapid, reproducible epidemiological research by consortium investigators
  • Develop methods and automated pipelines for external validation and recalibration of prediction models using routinely collected healthcare data
• Pursue personal research including developing research ideas and winning support, including financial support
• Plan, publish and/or execute high quality research
• Project manage research activities, and/or supervise other research staff
• Present high quality findings in publications and conference proceedings
• Develop novel methodologies and techniques appropriate to the type of research being pursued
• Supervise and examine PhD students, both within and out with the University
• Provide expert advice to colleagues and students within discipline
• Contribute to the administration/management of research across the Department/School
• Develop and make substantial contributions to knowledge transfer, enterprise, business engagement, and public engagement activities of manifest benefit to the College and the University
• Contribute to some administrative activities within the University, typically relating to research
• Apply knowledge in a way that develops new intellectual understanding
• Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour in line with university policies
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity duties document. [https://bham.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/HRDC/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B7c460d71-5114-45aa-b9dd-1692b59aeea4%7D&action=default&mobileredirect=true]

This indicative responsibility may also be included in a research role at a lower grade.

Person Specification

• A PhD relevant to the research area (or near completion), or equivalent PhD-level qualifications or extensive professional experience in healthcare data.
• Extensive research experience and scholarship within subject specialism to include:
  • data engineering and statistical analysis, with strong programming skills in SQL, Python, R and other relevant languages for use in research
  • in-depth knowledge of UK healthcare data, including primary care data, and NHS secondary and tertiary care electronic patient records and information systems (e.g. PICS, Cerner), and of related data and interoperability standards in a research context
  • Expertise in advanced data modelling and engineering applied to complex NHS electronic health record data, a strong grounding in clinical prediction modelling and health informatics research methods
  • Demonstrable understanding of data security and information governance principles and practice in a health setting (e.g. UK GDPR, Caldicott principles, NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit, secure data environments/trusted research environments)
  • Experience with cloud-based or secure research data platforms (e.g. Azure, AWS, NHS secure data environments)
  • Experience of risk prediction modelling, including development, recalibration and validation, and relevant statistical methods
• Experience and achievement reflected in a growing reputation
• Extensive experience and demonstrated success in planning, undertaking and project managing research to deliver high quality results
• Extensive experience of applying and/or developing and devising successful data models, techniques and methods such as data models, database schemas, data pipelines and ETL processes for large, complex healthcare datasets.
• Extensive experience and achievement in knowledge transfer, enterprise and similar activity
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity knowledge, skills and experience document.

Further particulars can be found here

Informal enquiries to Nicola Adderley, email: n.j.adderley@bham.ac.uk

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone here.