Job summary
The post holder will act as a specialist health data scientist and technical lead within the Research & Development department at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP).

They will provide advanced analytical, machine learning, governance, reporting and service-development expertise across diverse medical and clinical datasets. Working at Band 6, the post holder will work with a degree of autonomy within defined operational policies, exercising independent judgement on complex analytical projects. They will act as a key technical interface for commercial and non-commercial research partners and will contribute to building health data science capability across UHP and South West partner organisations. The role offers an excellent development opportunity for an ambitious data scientist looking to establish themselves as a specialist in NHS research data infrastructure.

This is a 12 month fixed term contract.

Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year Per Annum (Agenda for Change, Band 6)
Contract: Fixed term, 12 months
Working pattern: Full-time
Location: Research Office, 5 Research Way, Plymouth Science Park, Plymouth, PL6 5FP
Closing date: 17 November 2026

For more information please contact:
Dr Stephen Mullin, Consultant Neurologist, s.mullin@nhs.net

Applications from temporary workers who have been engaged with the Trust for a minimum of 3 months are welcome. Available as a fixed term contract or secondment opportunity (with current line manager's agreement).

Main duties of the job
The post holder will contribute to health data science workstreams across a wide range of clinical and research data sources. This includes supporting the establishment of research data pipelines for the Trusts incoming Epic electronic health record (EHR) system, and contributing to the analytical use of regional resources such as the One Devon dataset, linked health data, imaging, and disease registries.

The role involves working on complex external data partnerships, supporting the development of research use cases for EHR data, and contributing to the infrastructure, governance, and analytical pipelines required to make routinely collected clinical data accessible for regional research. The post holder will be supervised by and report to a senior colleague, with the opportunity to develop towards a more independent leadership role over time.

The University Hospitals Plymouth Research & Development department is based at Plymouth Science Park across two buildings. Potential candidates need to be aware that there are distances they will need to be able to cover between the buildings and the different research clinics based in the main hospital site.

Job responsibilities

• Research Data Science and Analysis: Apply advanced machine learning and data science techniques to diverse clinical and health datasets, under the guidance of senior colleagues. Contribute to the development, validation and interpretation of predictive models, risk stratification tools and analytical pipelines for research and clinical applications. Extract, clean, link and harmonise large-scale data from multiple sources for research, evaluation and quality improvement purposes. Support the design and delivery of reproducible analytical workflows with appropriate validation, performance assessment and interpretability. Produce analytical outputs including statistical summaries, visualisations and model performance metrics to publication-ready standard. Keep abreast of developments in health data science methodology and contribute to the adoption of best practice within the team.
• Data Infrastructure and Governance: Support the integration of routinely collected clinical data into research workflows, including contributing to preparation for the Trusts incoming Epic EHR system. Assist in the design and establishment of data extraction pipelines and analytical workflows to ensure a seamless transition of research data operations during the Epic implementation. Prepare and validate datasets for integration with research secure data environments (SDEs), ensuring they meet required structural and governance standards. Contribute to the development of processes and infrastructure to enable research use of Trust data at scale, including data curation, metadata, documentation and data quality frameworks. Work collaboratively with digital, informatics and clinical teams to ensure that data are appropriately structured, governed and accessible for approved research use. Support governance processes relating to large datasets, including contributing to ethics committee submissions, HRA approvals and data sharing agreements. Ensure strict compliance with relevant legal, ethical and regulatory standards, including information governance, confidentiality, Caldicott principles and data protection (UK GDPR / Data Protection Act 2018).
• Research Support: Provide data science support to research studies, contributing to study design, feasibility assessment, data extraction planning and analytical input. Support the analytical content of ethics applications, study documentation, reports and publications. Contribute to the use of routinely collected, linked and regional datasets (including resources such as One Devon) for approved research purposes. Assist senior colleagues in producing high-quality research outputs, including reports, conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.
• Partnership Working: Support the Trusts relationship with commercial and non-commercial research partners in relation to data access, analytical collaboration and governance requirements, under the direction of senior colleagues. Participate in collaborative initiatives across UHP and the wider South West Peninsula to build regional approaches to research data use and infrastructure development. Represent UHP in relevant networks and forums, contributing to health data science development across partner organisations.
• Service Development and Training: Identify and support opportunities to use routinely collected and linked datasets to drive service and quality improvement across partner sites. Contribute to training, knowledge sharing and capability development in health data science, research data governance and analytical best practice. Support and mentor junior staff and trainees (such as value-based healthcare trainees), facilitating placements within the team as appropriate. Contribute to patient and public involvement (PPI) and engagement activities to build public confidence in the lawful research use of routinely collected data.
• Communication and Relationships: The post holder will communicate complex analytical, technical and governance information clearly to a range of stakeholders, including clinical staff, researchers, digital teams, and external sponsors. They will build and maintain effective working relationships across organisational boundaries to facilitate data sharing and collaborative analytics, escalating complex issues to senior colleagues as appropriate.
• Analytical and Judgement Skills: The post holder will apply problem-solving skills to large, complex and heterogeneous clinical datasets. They will exercise professional judgement in assessing data quality, selecting appropriate statistical or machine learning methods, and interpreting findings in a clinical context, seeking guidance from senior colleagues for the most complex governance or methodological decisions.
• Planning and Organisational Skills: The post holder will manage their own analytical and project workload across multiple competing priorities. They will be responsible for contributing to longer-term infrastructure and research development tasks, meeting technical workflow deadlines and supporting governance submissions in a timely manner.

Person Specification
Qualifications (Essential)

• Degree (2:1 or above) in a quantitative discipline such as mathematics, statistics, computer science, bioinformatics, health informatics or a related field.
• Postgraduate qualification (MSc) in data science, health informatics, medical statistics, clinical research or equivalent.

Qualifications (Desirable)

• PhD in health data science, medical statistics, clinical informatics or a related discipline, or equivalent demonstrable specialist experience and demonstrable research output.
• Proven evidence of continuing professional development in data science or health informatics.

Knowledge and Experience (Essential)

• Demonstrable experience applying data science, statistical or machine learning methods to complex datasets.
• Strong programming skills in Python, R and/or SQL, with proven evidence of applying these in a healthcare or research context.
• Demonstrable experience of extracting, cleaning, linking and validating large-scale data from multiple sources.
• Proven understanding of model validation, performance assessment and interpretability techniques.
• Proven understanding of NHS research governance frameworks, including the role of ethics committees and Health Research Authority (HRA) approvals.
• Proven awareness of UK GDPR, Caldicott principles and information governance requirements in the context of health research.
• Demonstrable experience contributing to research studies from study design through to analysis and reporting.
• Proven ability to work effectively within a complex NHS or academic health setting, understanding operational and research pressures.
• Demonstrable experience of working collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams, including clinical, managerial and technical colleagues.

Knowledge and Experience (Desirable)

• Demonstrable experience working with NHS clinical systems and electronic health records (e.g. Epic, EMIS, TPP SystmOne).
• Demonstrable experience applying natural language processing (NLP) to clinical text data.
• Familiarity with cloud computing environments (e.g. Azure, AWS) and version control (e.g. Git).
• Demonstrable experience preparing datasets for use in secure research environments (SDEs) or Trusted Research Environments (TREs).
• Demonstrable experience working with linked or regional datasets (e.g. One Devon, CPRD, HES, SUS).
• Track record of contribution to peer reviewed publications, conference presentations or externally funded research grants.
• Demonstrable experience managing interfaces with commercial and/or non-commercial research partners.
• Demonstrable experience contributing to patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) activities in relation to research use of routine data.

Aptitude and Abilities (Essential)

• Ability to produce clear, publication-quality analytical outputs including reports, visualisations and model summaries.
• Ability to design reproducible analytical workflows and maintain thorough documentation.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to analytical rigour and data quality.
• Ability to communicate complex analytical and technical concepts clearly, both verbally and in writing, to non-technical audiences.
• Ability to write clearly and accurately for a range of purposes including research reports, governance submissions and presentations.

Aptitude and Abilities (Desirable)

• Demonstrable experience with data visualisation tools (e.g. Tableau, Power BI, ggplot2, matplotlib).
• Familiarity with containerisation or workflow management tools (e.g. Docker, Snakemake, Nextflow).
• Demonstrable experience presenting research findings at internal or external meetings, seminars or conferences.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

Employer details
Employer name: University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
Address: Research Office, 5 Research Way, Plymouth Science Park, Plymouth, PL6 5FP, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/