Employer: NICE - The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Employer type: NHS
Site: 3rd Floor, Manchester
Salary: £74,290 - £85,601 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 01/05/2025 23:59
Deputy Head of Medicines Optimisation
NHS AfC: Band 8c
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance and advice on promoting high quality health, public health and social care.
As an equal opportunities employer, we are committed to creating an inclusive environment and welcome everyone from all backgrounds to apply so we can continue to create a workforce which is representative of the communities we serve.
If you are suitably qualified and have an interest in remote, hybrid, full time or part time working, we encourage you to get in touch as we are happy to discuss potential flexible working opportunities.
We have modern offices in Manchester city centre and Stratford, London. Please take into consideration that you may be required to commute to one of our offices for business purposes if necessary.
Job overview
The Deputy Head of Medicines Optimisation role sits within the medicines optimisation team in the clinical directorate. The purpose of the clinical directorate is to strengthen clinical leadership throughout NICE and ensure end-to-end clinical oversight of, and support to, all areas of NICE activity. It also enhances the external credibility of NICE and promotes more effective stakeholder engagement.
The core task of the directorate in support of NICE’s strategic direction is to develop and deliver an organisation-wide topic selection and prioritisation process that identifies and prioritises what has the greatest impact on people and the health and care system.
The directorate is also responsible for ensuring that the clinical requirements of NICE are anticipated and met in a dynamic way that is responsive to changing need. We are a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team of health and care professionals and highly skilled technical people.
Interviews will be in person in our Manchester office on 20th/21st May 2025
Main duties of the job
The Deputy Head of Medicines Optimisation plays a key role in supporting the safe, effective use of medicines across the NHS and care system, helping to improve care and deliver best value for the taxpayer.
This role works closely with other NICE teams and external stakeholders in a collaborative, multidisciplinary way. This includes engaging with expert panels, implementation managers, senior NICE leaders, NHS practitioners, and others. The post supports understanding of strategic medicines optimisation challenges and the implementation of NICE guidance through medicines intelligence activities.
It also leads on specific areas of long-term planning, strategy, and policy development related to medicines optimisation within the clinical directorate.
Key responsibilities include:
* Leading and contributing to high-profile programmes of work, such as technology appraisal incorporation, guideline development, the NICE Associate community of practice, patient safety, and oversight of the British National Formulary contract.
* Managing a team of pharmacists who provide clinical and medicines optimisation advice, including review and quality assurance of others’ work within NICE.
* Offering expert input on medicines optimisation policy, strategy, and implementation issues.
* Building and maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders to gather insights and ensure alignment with health and care system practices.
Working for our organisation
The Medicines Optimisation team sits within the Clinical Directorate and provides expert advice across NICE to support the NHS in embedding safe, effective, and innovative medicines use for the benefit of patients and the public.
We contribute to guidance development, quality assurance, and the creation of implementation tools and resources, combining expert input with medicines intelligence gathered from the health and care system.
Our work is highly collaborative. We engage with internal teams such as the Centre for Guidelines, Medicines Evaluation Directorate, and the Impact and Partnerships Directorate, as well as with national stakeholders and front-line practitioners, including the NICE Medicines and Prescribing Associates.
We also offer operational, administrative, and project management support to ensure the planning, production, and delivery of all medicines optimisation work meets NICE standards and processes.
We’re proud to offer a supportive, inclusive working environment with excellent benefits, including:
* Generous NHS Pension – One of the most rewarding pension schemes in the UK.
* Time to Recharge – 27 days’ annual leave, plus Bank Holidays.
* Flexible Working – Options like remote working, compressed hours, and flexible start/finish times.
* Inclusive Staff Networks – Join communities such as Women in NICE, Race Equality Network, and Disability Advocacy.
If this sounds like a place where you’d thrive, we’d love to hear from you!
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To be considered for this role, you should be able to particularly demonstrate the person specification criteria in the job advert in your application. However, applicants should be able to demonstrate all essential criteria through the entirety of the recruitment process to be considered for the job.
Please see job description attached for full list of responsibilities.
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
* Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
Experience
* Working with a wide range of individuals, stakeholders and organisations across a variety of healthcare settings, ideally in a patient facing role and in the NHS.
Experience
* Taking overall responsibility for programmes and projects with minimal supervision, including overseeing, coordinating and managing multiple, complex programmes.
Experience
* Developing effective relationships and working collaboratively with senior medicines optimisation professionals at a national level.
Skills/Knowledge
* Specialist knowledge acquired over a significant period, relating to medicines optimisation, medicines commissioning and medicines policy and strategy, to understand current challenges and developments in the NHS and wider health and care system.
Skills/Knowledge
* Ability to lead on and manage the implementation of change.
Skills/Knowledge
* Calm, persuasive and skilled negotiator in a highly pressured and volatile environment.
Important - Due to NICE’s use of anonymised recruitment practices, we ask all candidates not to include any personal details within their application. Please ensure you provide sufficient detail in the supporting information section to allow our team to make an informed judgement about your suitability for this role at this stage. CVs will not be considered.
We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further submissions when we have received sufficient applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
Candidates must ensure that all information provided in their application is factually accurate. Any examples provided must be taken from personal experience. The Civil Service abides by honesty and integrity as part of its core values; if evidence of plagiarism is found, applications may be withdrawn.
By submitting an application, you agree that it may be rejected or 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 as your own.
Please contact Careers@nice.org.uk if you wish to discuss any additional needs or reasonable adjustments which may support you with your application and/or at interview.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
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