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Northumbria Healthcare - NHCT Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

About

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is an award winning NHS Foundation Trust which provides hospital and community health services in North Tyneside, and hospital, community health and adult social care services in Northumberland.

Contact

Address: Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Human Resources Department; Northumbria House; 7/8 Silver Fox Way, Cobalt Business Park; Newcastle upon Tyne; NE27 0QJ
Contact Number: 0191 2031415 Option 2

Find out more

Jobs Website

Open

Ref: 319-7168655JN Vacancy ID: 7168655

Quality Control Lead Scientist Microbiology

Accepting applications until: 22-May-2025 23:59

Vacancy status: Open

Accepting applications until: 22-May-2025 23:59

Location

Site: Manufacturing and Innovation Hub
Address: Avenue Road
Town: Seaton Delaval
Postcode: NE25 0QJ
Major / Minor Region: Tyne and Wear

Contract type & working pattern

Contract

Permanent

Hours

Full time
Flexible working
Compressed hours

37.5 hours per week

Salary

Salary: £46,148 - £52,809 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Grade: (NHS AfC: Band 7)

Specialty

Main area: Medicines Manufacturing Centre - Research and Development

Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work for an organisation that was voted the best acute and combined acute and community trust in the country, based on the experience of its staff (NHS Staff Survey 2022). Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare and, this is…the Northumbria Way!

What the Northumbria Way means for you:

Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
A range of flexible working opportunities
Generous annual leave and pension scheme
Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
On-site nursery places via salary sacrifice
Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank

We are proud to be one of the country’s top performing NHS trusts – rated ‘outstanding’ overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We provide a range of health and care services to support more than 500,000 people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside across the largest geographical area of any NHS Trust in England. Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes. Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.

We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy.

If Northumbria Healthcare sounds like somewhere you could belong we would love to hear from you. Visit our website to catch up on our latest news.

Whilst Northumbria Healthcare are a highly innovative organisation, the use of Third Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes. If you use AI, and it poses a risk to the integrity your individual recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Support the implementation of stability studies and ongoing stability testing programs, as well as investigational work and validations.

Ensure that analysis on raw materials, packaging components, and finished pharmaceutical products is carried out in line with approved QC worksheets and SOPs.

Oversee the supplier approval process and manage incoming goods checks and testing.

Develop and manage processes for the Microbiology QC Lab and sterility suite, including workload management and resource allocation.

Manage a team of Microbiology Quality Control Scientists, ensuring their development and performance within the laboratory.

Ensure that all QC microbiology equipment is properly qualified and serviced, including managing contractors for outsourced activities.

Demonstrate compassionate and inclusive leadership, contributing to the creation of a collective leadership culture within the Trust by:

- Engaging, enabling, and empowering others
- Using coaching to promote ownership of learning and quality improvement
- Facilitating team working and collaboration across teams, departments, and organisational boundaries

Applicants who are members of the Armed Forces, and those who have a disability that requires support in the work place (two ticks pledge) and who meet the essential criteria will be interviewed under the Trust's interview guarantee scheme.

We recognise the positive value of diversity and inclusion and are committed to a workforce that is diverse, equal and inclusive. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME people are currently under-represented in our workforce as well as other under-represented groups such as LGBT+ and disabled candidates. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, we have a Gold award from the Defense Recognition Scheme, and we are delighted to support Apprenticeships, Age Posi+ive and are a mindful employer.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend interview please make the recruitment team aware as soon as possible by calling our HR Recruitment Team on 0191 203 1415 option 2.

Applicants who meet the Fit and Proper Person Requirements (FPPR) will require additional pre-employment checks in line with CQC and NHS England statutory guidance.

Make sure to read the ‘applicant guidance notes’ before submitting your application and make sure you know everything there is to know before joining our fantastic trust!

Certificate of Sponsorship

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust proudly hold a sponsor licence. In order to provide sponsorship you and the role you are applying for must meet UKVI eligibility requirements. Please check your eligibility prior to submitting an application. Skilled Worker visa: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Please note that it is a requirement of this Trust that all successful applicants pay for their own DBS certification if a DBS check is required for the post. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first monthly pay.

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Degree in relevant scientific discipline or equivalent experience.
Eligible to be Registered Professional with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), Health and Care Professions Council HCPC, Royal Society for Chemistry (RSC) or Royal Society for Biology (RSB), or Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).

Desirable criteria

Professional Registration
Post graduate qualification in Pharmaceutical Microbiology / pharmaceutical science
Post graduate qualification in Quality Assurance / GMP

Experience

Essential criteria

Knowledge of EU Good Manufacturing Practice, including Annex 1
Demonstrated knowledge of pharmaceutical microbiology and its application in a GMP environment
Strong technical and analytical skills, with expertise in system risk assessments and validation
Experience of microbiology testing techniques as per British Pharmacopoeia requirements and qualification of these methods e.g. ID testing, sterility testing, growth promotion, bioburden
Knowledge in the qualification, use and maintenance of laboratory instruments
Knowledge in trending and statistical analysis of data.
Knowledge and experience in implementing laboratory safety requirements. e.g. COSHH.

Desirable criteria

Experience of New Production Introduction management from a Quality Control Perspective
Experience of using Pharmaceutical Quality Systems, including, leading out-of-specification investigation, root cause analysis tools, change controls, document management
Experience in QC micro testing requirements of sterile medicines, in alignment with pharmacopeial requirements and formulation requirements.
Awareness of developments in technical areas of Pharmaceutical Manufacture.
Experience of managing a team
Experience of managing a laboratory
Knowledge of or experience in coaching and mentoring practices and tools.
Knowledge of or experience in Quality improvement tools, techniques and methods.