Assistant Professor (Education) in Health Data Science Education - Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences - 107113 - Grade 8

Position Details

Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, School of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine and Health

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £47,389 to £56,535 with potential progression once in post to £63,606

Grade: 8

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to May 2029

Closing date: 9^th April 2026

UK and International travel may be required for this role

Interviews Scheduled to take place between 5th and 8th May

The post is available immediately and is one of four to support our Masters education at Jinan-Birmingham Joint Institute. Details of the related posts are can be found below:

Assistant Professor (Education) in Bioinformatics Education 107112

Assistant Professor (Education) in Bioinformatics Education 107116

Assistant Professor (Education) in Health Data Science Education 107117

Academic Development Programme - new Assistant Professors will undertake a development programme. The programme consists of a variety of development opportunities and the time to reflect and develop.

Background

An opportunity has arisen to become part of the University of Birmingham (UoB) and to join our mission to deliver a world-class university education as part of the Jinan Birmingham Joint Institute (JBJI) MSc Health Data Science. 

We are looking for an academic to join our education team to create and disseminate knowledge through developing and delivering postgraduate programmes; and to contribute to the activities of UoB through management, leadership and enterprise activities, as appropriate.

The University has a large and successful portfolio of teaching Health Data Science, this includes teaching at the University of Birmingham campuses in Birmingham and in Dubai. We are now extending our teaching portfolio to deliver the MSc Health Data Science in collaboration with Jinan University in Guangzhou China and seeking to recruit an Assistant Professor in Health Data Science Education to support teaching across our portfolio. It is expected that the postholder will support teaching in Epidemiology and Health Informatics related modules. 

The post-holder will be expected to contribute towards administration in Data Sciences, applied to the Life Sciences within the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences and the College of Medical and Dental Sciences. Management and administration are likely to involve contributions at the department level, and/or making an important contribution to some managerial/leadership activities (e.g. working groups) within the University. This may include developing and making substantial contributions to knowledge transfer, enterprise, business engagement, public engagement, widening participation, school outreach, or similar activities at department level, or further within the University.

Role Summary

The post holder will be based within the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences on the main University of Birmingham campus but will coordinate and deliver teaching in our joint institute (JBJI) in Guangzhou China. We anticipate that the postholder will travel twice a year to China and spend approximately one month at a stretch in China.

The post-holder will organise and coordinate key modules and deliver teaching, particularly in the area of Epidemiology and Health Informatics. In addition, the post-holder will be expected to contribute to the whole range of teaching and administration across the University’s data science programmes, including management of programmes and supervision of individual research projects.

Teaching also includes a substantial contribution to: (a) the management, development (including programme/module review) and delivery of teaching and assessment; and (b) enhancement of the student experience or employability. The role will typically also involve developing and advising others, including: (a) providing expert advice to staff and students, (b) supervising and examining PhD students, and (c) developing and advising others on learning and teaching tasks and methods.

Given the education-focused nature of this role, all candidates must include details of the level and nature their teaching experience (including topics taught, teaching and assessment strategies) at undergraduate and/or postgraduate levels, both listed in their CV and described in a cover letter limited to 500 words.

Main Duties

Learning and Teaching

The post-holder will:

• Lead key modules in the programme – specifically modules related to Epidemiology and Health Informatics
• Provide substantial contributions to other teaching duties as assigned
• Teach and examine courses
• Develop and manage approaches to teaching and learning that are innovative to the subject area or institution
• Undertake and develop a full range of responsibilities in relation to research supervision, marking and examining
• Advise others on aspects of learning, teaching and assessment
• Deliver (where appropriate to the discipline) specific professional programmes;
• Advance the practice of teaching in their modules, and play an important role in student academic support
• Inform their teaching practice by discipline based research
• Frequently update their own subject expertise, and undertake personal professional development in teaching, including self-reflection on own teaching, using student and peer review feedback, to enhance own teaching and learning processes
• Typically carry a higher teaching load than those staff who carry out both teaching and research

In addition, they will play an important role in the recruitment and admission of students.

Management/Administration

To contribute to the UoB administration or have a high level of responsibility for others. This may include:

• Contribute to the administration/management of research and/or teaching across the Data Science programmes
• Lead and manage a team to devise and implement a new and/or revised process (e.g. new programme or a recruitment drive)
• Advise on personal development of colleagues and students
• Make a major contribution to some administrative activities within the University (e.g. appeals panels, working groups)
• Manage enterprise, business development, and public engagement activities of manifest benefit to CGS, College and University
• Develop and make substantial contributions to knowledge transfer, enterprise, business engagement, public engagement, widening participation, school outreach
• Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour

Person Specification

• PhD or equivalent experience in Epidemiology, Public Health, Health Informatics, Medical Statistics, Health Services Research, or a closely related discipline
• Extensive teaching and ideally research experience within Epidemiology and Health Informatics, including epidemiological study design (descriptive, analytical and experimental studies), population health analysis, and the use of collected health data. The successful candidate will have considerable experience working with large-scale primary and secondary health datasets (e.g. EHRs, registries, surveillance data)
• Strong expertise in health information systems, including clinical coding systems (e.g. ICD, SNOMED CT), data governance, data ethics, data quality, interoperability standards, and the use of digital health technologies within healthcare and public health contexts
• Proven ability to devise, advise on and manage learning and research, including curriculum development and academic leadership within interdisciplinary environments
• Demonstrated skills in managing, motivating and mentoring others successfully at all levels, including students and early-career colleagues
• Ability and willingness to travel twice per year to China for approximately 1 month per visit

Teaching

• Ability to design, deliver, assess and revise teaching programmes
• Extensive experience and demonstrated success in developing appropriate approaches to learning and teaching, including the use of real-world datasets, case studies, and applied assessments, and in advising colleagues on pedagogical practice
• Experience and success in knowledge transfer, enterprise or similar activity that enhances the student experience, employability or engagement with healthcare, public health, or industry stakeholders
• Experience and expertise in teaching epidemiological methods and principles, including the design, analysis, and interpretation of population and health-related studies
• Experience in teaching Health Informatics topics, such as electronic health records, clinical information systems, data governance and ethics, digital health technologies, and the use of health data for service evaluation and public health decision-making
• Competence in teaching quantitative and analytical skills, including the use of statistical software and programming environments (preferably R, with familiarity with Python or other relevant tools), for the analysis and interpretation of epidemiological and health informatics data

Management Administration

• Ability to contribute to School/Departmental management processes
• Ability to assess and organise resources effectively
• Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action

OH &DBS required

The University is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice, therefore all associated pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Occupational Health and DBS clearance prior to appointment.

Further particulars can be found here

Informal enquiries to Dr Richard Tuxworth, email: r.i.tuxworth@bham.ac.uk or Dr George Gkoutos, email g.gkoutos@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 on our website.