Senior Policy Adviser – Life Sciences

Are you looking for an exciting new opportunity leading HM Treasury’s work on life sciences, including health R&D and medicines spending? If so, we'd love to hear from you!

About the Team

We are looking to recruit a Senior Policy Adviser – Life Sciences which sits within the Public Services Group of the Health and Social Care Team. The Public Services Group is at the heart of Treasury’s work to secure sustainable public finances and drive economic growth. We manage public spending of more than £250bn. across key public services and departments, including health, education, the criminal justice system, local government, housing, defence and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Our role offers a range of opportunities to work with senior leaders in other government departments and on the frontline of public services and ensure the effective delivery of public services.

The Group is committed to being an excellent place to work, with a relentless focus on good management, learning and development and continuous improvement in everything we do.

Health and Social Care Team are responsible for Treasury’s oversight of over £170 billion of annual government spending in health and adult social care – accounting for almost a quarter of all public spending!

About the Job

In this role, you will be:

1. Leading on life sciences strategy for HM Treasury
2. Forging strong and collaborative relationships with partners outside of government with an interest in the sector
3. Leading on Health R&D for HM Treasury: setting the budgets for Health R&D at spending reviews, alongside the central R&D team, advising Ministers on the value-for-money of Health R&D programmes, understanding and trading-off priorities for this budget
4. Providing ongoing spending control for health R&D and medicines policy
5. Leading the Health and Social Care’s Growth branch, including line management responsibilities
6. Alongside the team’s other Range Es (Grade 7s) and Range E2s (Grade 6s), acting as part of the Health and Social Care team’s leadership: you will be expected to actively contribute to creating a positive, inclusive and development-focussed team.

About You

The successful candidate will have an ability to evaluate complex and unfamiliar information, balancing trade-offs, to decide a course of action, and communicate a recommendation in an accessible way to senior decision makers. You will develop strong working relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders, across different levels of seniority and other organisations, which remain constructive under stress. You’ll be able to lead a high performing team to deliver high quality work across short and long term objectives, in the face of a dynamic and changing work environment. Lastly, you’ll have experience of working in life sciences in either public or private sector, and/or an understanding of the life sciences sector and interest in life sciences.

HM Treasury is proud of a diverse and inclusive work environment, committed to fairness and the promotion of equality of opportunity for all. We know that having a range of experiences, ways of working and thinking makes us a stronger organisation, better at developing policy that is reflective of the communities we serve. We embrace different views and experiences and value the fresh perspective that people from a variety of circumstances bring to the work we do. We welcome applications from candidates who have not previously worked for the Civil Service, mid- and late-career changers with transferrable skills, people from all backgrounds and circumstances regardless of disability, ethnicity, LGBT+ identity and socio-economic status.

Some of the Benefits our people love!

·      25 days annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the King’s birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant). Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month

·      Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)

·      Generous parental and adoption leave packages

·      Access to a generous Defined Benefit pension scheme with employer contributions of 27%

·      Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme and season ticket advances

·      A range of active staff networks, based around interests (e.g. analysts, music society, sports and social club) and diversity (e.g. women in the Treasury, ethnic minority network, LGBT* network, faith and belief network)

For more information about the role and how to apply, please follow the apply link.

If you need any reasonable adjustments to take part in the selection process, please tell us about this in your online application form, or speak to the recruitment team.