About this role
Job summary
The Lead Health Economist is a senior technical and professional leadership role within the Strategic Value Unit, working across the integrated Strategic Value Unit and Population Health Unit function. The postholder will lead the health economics discipline, ensuring that economic principles and methods support strategic commissioning, population health management, evaluation and effective stewardship of ICB resources.
The postholder will lead complex economic evaluations and decision models, translating evidence on costs, outcomes, equity, affordability, uncertainty and opportunity cost into practical recommendations. They will work within a multidisciplinary decision intelligence function, collaborating with analytical, public health, finance, commissioning and clinical colleagues to inform resource allocation and service design.
Proposed Interview Dates - 19th - 20th November
Main duties of the job
Job Summary
The postholder will lead complex health economic work from definition of the decision problem through evidence appraisal, modelling, analysis of uncertainty, interpretation and translation into recommendations. They will determine where health economic analysis adds value, select proportionate methods and provide technical assurance for high-impact economic analyses.
The role will
- provide professional leadership for health economics across the integrated Strategic Value Unit and Population Health Unit function;
- lead complex health economic programmes supporting strategic planning, commissioning, transformation and evaluation;
- develop and apply economic evaluation, decision modelling, budget impact and prioritisation methods where these strengthen decision-making;
- make explicit the outcomes, costs, equity, affordability, trade-offs and opportunity costs associated with alternative uses of resources;
- establish standards for evidence appraisal, modelling, documentation, peer review, uncertainty analysis and technical assurance;
- translate complex economic evidence into clear, actionable recommendations for decision-makers; and
- build organisational health economics capability through line management, coaching, technical supervision and shared methods and resources.
About us
We are committed to promoting equal opportunities to achieve equity of access, experience and outcomes and to recognising and valuing people's differences. We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity; we see this as a strength and part of our founding mission, values and behaviours. We know through experience that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers patient outcomes.
We are committed to creating the best place to work, where your contribution is valued, your wellbeing is supported and all our colleagues can reach their full potential. We welcome and encourage applications from all areas of the community, who meet the criteria for the role, regardless of their protected characteristic. We work to ensure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible to everyone, including making adjustments for people who have a disability or long-term condition and support with the recruitment process for people with lived experience.
We are happy to discuss flexible working options for all roles.
We operate a Carer friendly working environment that is supportive and inclusive. We actively encourage Carers to self-identify themselves.
We are a Disability Confident Employer and commit to shortlisting suitable applicants who meet the essential criteria for an interview. Please inform us of any adjustments you may require.
Job description
Job responsibilities
A. Professional leadership and strategy
Lead the health economics discipline across the integrated Strategic Value Unit and Population Health Unit, providing authoritative professional advice and setting its direction.
Work with the Head of Evaluation and other professional leads to align the work programme and health economics capability with ICB priorities.
Identify where health economics can materially improve decisions and advocate proportionate approaches based on the question, evidence, uncertainty and intended use.
B. Economic evaluation and decision modelling
Lead complex economic evaluations and decision models supporting commissioning, transformation and resource allocation.
Apply methods such as cost-effectiveness, cost-utility, cost-consequence, cost-benefit, budget impact, return on investment, multi-criteria decision analysis and scenario modelling where appropriate.
Develop, adapt and interpret decision models suited to the decision context, available evidence and implementation maturity.
Assess assumptions, uncertainty and sensitivity, ensuring limitations are transparent and conclusions proportionate to the evidence.
C. Strategic value, prioritisation and resource allocation
Apply health economic reasoning across the strategic commissioning cycle, including prioritisation, option appraisal, business cases, investment, redesign and disinvestment.
Assess marginal benefits, opportunity costs, affordability and trade-offs between alternative uses of ICB resources.
Work with commissioning, finance and clinical colleagues to assess the resource and outcome implications of service configurations and commissioning options.
Support value-based approaches that link resource use to outcomes, equity and population benefit.
D. Evidence, data and technical assurance
Lead appraisal and synthesis of economic and related evidence, including published literature, national guidance and routine health and care data.
Ensure assumptions, parameters and data sources are transparent, defensible and documented.
Provide senior technical assurance of high-impact analyses and models through proportionate peer review, independent challenge and sensitivity analysis.
Promote reproducible, transparent and responsible analytical practice and shared modelling resources.
E. Multidisciplinary evaluation and decision intelligence
Lead the health economic components of multidisciplinary evaluations of pathways, programmes and service changes.
Integrate economic evidence with outcomes, activity, utilisation, equity, implementation and qualitative evidence.
Assess whether interventions deliver value and inform decisions about continuation, scaling, redesign or disinvestment.
Consider distributional effects and health inequalities alongside overall population benefit where relevant.
F. Insight, influence and implementation
Work with decision-makers to define economic questions and translate findings into clear recommendations for strategy, commissioning and delivery.
Communicate costs, outcomes, uncertainty, affordability and opportunity cost clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
Produce or assure economic content for business cases, option appraisals, committee papers, investment proposals and evaluation reports.
Provide constructive challenge where economic assumptions, claims of value or interpretations are unsupported or misleading.
G. Team and portfolio leadership
Line manage and professionally support the health economics team, including objectives, appraisal, performance, development and wellbeing.
Provide technical supervision, coaching and professional development across the analytical function, fostering curiosity, constructive challenge, inclusion and continuous learning.
Lead a portfolio of complex work, balancing priorities, risks, dependencies, resources and timescales.
Contribute to workforce planning, recruitment and development of health economics and wider quantitative analytical capability.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Master's-level qualification in Health Economics, Economics or a closely related quantitative discipline with substantial health economics content.
- Continuing professional development in health economics, economic evaluation, decision modelling or related methods.
Desirable
- Relevant professional recognition or evidence of wider contribution to the health economics profession.
Knowledge & Experience
Essential
- Fluency in economic evaluation and modelling using R or Python, including cost-effectiveness, budget impact and analysis of uncertainty.
- Experience applying health economics to prioritisation, resource allocation, option appraisal, pathway redesign, investment or disinvestment decisions.
- Experience appraising economic evidence, developing model parameters and working with routine health, care, activity, outcome or cost data.
- Experience leading, managing, supervising or developing health economists or analytical staff, setting technical standards and supporting professional development.
- Significant experience providing senior technical or professional leadership and leading complex multidisciplinary health economics or analytical programmes.
Desirable
- Experience of real-world economic evaluation of services, programmes, pathways or system interventions.
- Experience of specialist methods such as preference elicitation, multi-criteria decision analysis or distributional economic evaluation.
- Experience of NICE or health technology assessment methods and adapting national economic evidence to local decision-making.
Skills and abilities
Essential
- Ability to structure ambiguous decision problems, identify relevant comparators or counterfactuals and select proportionate economic methods.
- Ability to develop, interrogate and quality assure complex economic models and draw defensible conclusions from incomplete or uncertain evidence.
- Ability to synthesise complex economic, clinical, financial and population evidence into clear recommendations.
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.
Employer details
Employer name
NHS Central East ICB
Address
Gemini House
Ely
CB7 4EA
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.centraleast.icb.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)