Public Health Researcher

Job Title: Public Health Researcher
Starting Salary: £42,839 to progressing to £47,181 per annum (pro rata for part time)
Hours: 37
Location: Countywide
Contract Type: Permanent
Directorate: Public Health

About the team

Join our dynamic JSNA team within the wider Public Health Evidence & Intelligence team and play a pivotal role in shaping a deeper understanding of our community’s health and social care needs. This is your chance to make a meaningful impact by identifying key areas of inequality and driving informed, equitable change across our local population.

About the role

You will work in the JSNA team to:

• Undertake rapid literature reviews of academic/scientific articles and other evidence, applying critical appraisal and scientific good practice in evidence review methods.
  
  
• Undertake, interpret and present in visual and written form analysis of quantitative data to a high standard, working in collaboration with the Epidemiology sub-team as appropriate, and applying appropriate statistical methods.
  
  
• Working under the guidance of the Strategic Lead (JSNA) and the Senior JSNA Researcher and in collaboration with others, lead and undertake the writing of health needs assessment content, including evidence reviews, findings from the data, gap analysis of current service provision and drafting recommendations.
  
  
• Share responsibility for dealing with ad hoc requests received by the JSNA and PH Evidence and Intelligence teams providing information and guidance to a myriad of stakeholders.
  
  
• If resource permits, line manage Assistant JSNA Researchers, allocating tasks as appropriate, ensuring their continued development, overseeing their work, providing regular feedback and ensuring quality.

About you

Essential:

• The successful candidate should hold (or is currently studying for) a Master in Public Health or other relevant Master’s degree.
• A minimum of one year’s experience working as an assistant public health analyst/researcher/evaluation officer or equivalent.
• Knowledge of literature searching techniques, critical appraisal frameworks and public health evidence databases.
• Demonstrable recent experience of undertaking the creation of bespoke JSNA or similar content, including data visualisation and written reports.
• Excellent communications skills, both oral and written, to analyse highly complex statistical information, sometimes in a consulting role, resulting in the need to have high level persuasive, motivational and negotiating skills.
• Demonstrates excellent ability to present highly complex and sensitive information to other statistical specialists and non-specialist audiences and individuals in a confident and engaging manner.
• Experience of working with limited supervision to achieve agreed objectives and make decisions on how they may be best achieved, while adhering to broad professional or organisational policies.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of public health principles and their practical application in relation to the JSNA process.
• Demonstrable recent experience of working with a broad range of public health datasets.
• Demonstrable recent experience of presenting both quantitative and qualitative public health information in high quality written reports.
• Specialist knowledge, across epidemiology and statistics that enables the creation of high quality data content on the JSNA, drawing from a wide range of data sources.
• Demonstrable recent experience of working with a broad range of public health datasets and good working knowledge of various statistical software packages to undertake complex data manipulation.

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is within the Corporate Services, level CORP11 job profile. Please locate this via:

Job profiles - Corporate services

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Stephany.villanueva@hertfordshire.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the role.

Interview Dates: w/c 1st & 8th December 2025

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.