Public Health Careers Weekly | Edition 012
Missed this week’s email? Welcome to the online edition of Public Health Careers Weekly. Every Friday, we publish carefully selected public health opportunities, sector updates and practical career advice to help you build your career in UK public health. If you’d like future editions delivered straight to your inbox every Friday, subscribe to Public Health Careers Weekly.
🌟 Opportunity of the Week
Stop Smoking Practitioner
Provide CIC £25,760 to £27,476 | Fixed term | Colchester Closing: 25 September 2026
Join the Essex Wellbeing Service Tobacco Control Team, delivering evidence-based smoking cessation support through one-to-one, group, telephone and online interventions.
Why it matters: At this salary and experience level, this is one of the more accessible public health vacancies this week and offers direct experience in prevention, behaviour change, community engagement and health inequalities.
💼 Featured Opportunities
Research Assistant in Newborn Health Financing
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine £39,984 to £45,728 pro rata | Fixed term | London Closing: 28 September 2026
Join the NEST360 partnership, which works with governments across several African countries to improve newborn survival and quality of hospital care.
Why it matters: A strong route for someone interested in global health, implementation research and the economics of improving health systems.
Research Officer in Health Economics
Bangor University £38,784 to £46,049 | Full or part-time | Fixed term Closing: 30 September 2026
Evaluate the costs and benefits of using wastewater-based epidemiology to strengthen norovirus surveillance and control in health and social care settings.
Why it matters: An unusual role connecting health economics, surveillance and infectious-disease prevention.
Research Project Manager, Cancer Epidemiology Unit
University of Oxford £39,424 to £47,779 | Full-time | Fixed term Closing: 6 October 2026
Coordinate health-data collection, management and sharing across major studies within Oxford Population Health, including the Million Women Study.
Why it matters: A good example of project management providing a route into population-health research without requiring you to be the statistician.
Data & Project Manager
Queen Mary University of London £44,288 to £51,755 | Full-time | Fixed term Closing: 13 October 2026
Manage data and projects across large multicentre studies in prostate and breast cancer prevention within the Wolfson Institute of Population Health.
Why it matters: Another useful example of public health research needing people who can combine data governance, organisation and project delivery.
📰 This Week in Public Health
Scotland quantifies the health impact of physical inactivity
Public Health Scotland estimates that physical inactivity contributes to nearly 24,000 disability-adjusted life years each year when its latest analysis is combined with previous estimates. The new work adds mental-health and musculoskeletal conditions to the picture.
Why it matters: It strengthens the evidence for treating physical activity as a population-health and inequalities issue, not simply an individual lifestyle choice.
Read the Public Health Scotland update
Scotland evaluates residential rehabilitation
A new Public Health Scotland evaluation found that the number of people starting residential rehabilitation placements increased by around 60% between 2019/20 and 2025/26, while publicly funded placements more than doubled. However, significant barriers to access remain.
Why it matters: It is a useful real-world example of evaluation being used to assess whether major public health investment is translating into improved access.
England confirms major changes to school food standards
The UK Government confirmed updated school food standards on 14 September, including more fruit, vegetables and fibre-rich foods as part of the first major revision in over a decade.
Why it matters: School food sits at the intersection of prevention, childhood health, inequalities and public policy.
Read the government announcement
🎓 Learning Opportunity
Healthy Ageing and UK Public Health
The Faculty of Public Health is hosting an online session on 5 October exploring the new WHO Europe Healthy Ageing Strategy and what it means for UK public health policy, practice and the workforce.
Why it matters: Healthy ageing cuts across prevention, inequalities, long-term conditions and population-health planning.
View the event and register
💡 Career Insight
Public health research does not only recruit researchers
Two of this week’s vacancies are specifically for project and data management within population-health research.
If you have strong coordination, governance or project-delivery experience, research teams may offer more opportunities than your usual job searches suggest.
✍️ Application Tip
Do not make the panel work out why your experience is relevant
Career changers often describe what they did and assume the connection to public health is obvious.
Make the link explicit.
Instead of only describing a community programme you managed, explain how it involved prevention, reducing inequalities, behaviour change, evaluation or improving access.
Translate your experience for the person reading it.
🧰 PHCH Resource of the Week
Public Health Career Roadmaps
Not sure which public health roles match your existing experience?
The PHCH Career Roadmaps break down different career routes, common job titles and the skills employers look for.
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