Principal Technical Adviser

Go back NICE - The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

Principal Technical Adviser

The closing date is 01 February 2026

The Principal Technical Adviser (Methods) will support the Programme Director - Methods, Research and Health Economics leading all the method aspects of the development and delivery of the NICE core methods manual for all guidance producing programmes. The postholder will cover the period of development of the NICE core methods manual, which is a time-limited project.

The NICE core methods manual is expected to be drafted by the end of December 2026, undergo public consultation in January 2027 and be ready for publication by end of March 2027, with support for implementation until June 2027. This includes the development of reports, chairing workshops/meetings, collaborating with academic partners and contributing to the engagement and management of internal and external stakeholders. The postholder will be responsible for delivering the final core methods manual for implementation at that time and organising and leading any training requirements (if needed) for manual implementation.

Main duties of the job

The candidate will be expected to:

• Taking full responsibility for drafting and supporting implementation of the NICE core methods manual
• Supporting the Programme Director to ensure the NICE core methods manual delivers the expected outcomes and supports the ambitions for delivering relevant, timely and high-quality guidance
• Oversee the NICE core methods manual development plan and subsequent implementation across guidance producing programmes
• Supporting and liaising with the project management team and other workstreams including process, user research, and content/digital, ensuring the most appropriate approach for the delivery of the NICE core methods manual
• Developing processes and methods to ensure that NICE's methods and processes within the core methods manual are robust and continue to meet our needs
• Providing advice and senior level support on highly complex issues, including the impact of policies both of the Institute and also in relation to national and international developments on the centre's work and on the work of the Institute
• Supporting the Programme Director in the development of strategic relationship with the methods' expert community
• Ensuring effective working relationships with NICE colleagues and external stakeholder groups
• Directing the delivery of the NICE core methods manual in line with the all NICE guidance producing programmes' timely and high-quality KPIs

About us

The Science, Evidence and Analytics (SEA) Directorate is responsible for ensuring that NICE uses the best available evidence in its guidance to support decision makers across health and care. Our remit is to support the whole Institute. SEA is responsible for keeping NICE's methodological approaches fit for purpose. This involves not just internal development but active engagement with our stakeholders to understand what matters most to them in health technology assessment and guideline development. This role will sit within the remit of the Programme Director for Methods, Research and Health Economics at NICE. This remit includes 3 teams:

• Health Economics and Decision Modelling: as the health economics hub for the organisation, the team leads on health economic and decision model development and support to all areas of NICE
• Science Policy: leads on developing policies and methods contributing to the development of NICE's response to science policy issues.
• Research: leads externally funded research activity within NICE, delivering a portfolio of externally funded research projects including the HTA Lab, which offers a safe space for exploring complex methods or policy issues that might otherwise prevent NICE from delivering useful and useable guidance.

Job responsibilities

To be considered for this role, you should be able to particularly demonstrate the person specification criteria in the job advert in your application. However, applicants should be able to demonstrate all essential criteria through the entirety of the recruitment process to be considered for the job.

Please see job description attached for full list of responsibilities.

Person Specification Qualifications

• Doctorate with demonstrable postgraduate specialist experience in a relevant discipline (e.g health economics, systematic review, pharmacy, epidemiology, statistics, clinical research) or equivalent level of knowledge acquire through experience and further training/development

Experience

• Proven examples of experience of taking overall responsibility for a programme of work with minimal supervision

Experience

• Prove examples of experience of preparing reports and providing advice on complex issues at Director or Board level and to specialist committees

Experience

• Proven examples of experience of developing methods guidance related to health technology assessment or guideline production

Skills

• Proven examples of the ability to analyse complex issues, to think and act strategically and to exercise sound judgement in the face of conflicting pressures and deadlines

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.

NICE - The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

£76,965 to £88,682 a yearper annum, plus HCAS if applicable

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

15 months

Working pattern

Full-time,Part-time,Flexible working,Home or remote working,Compressed hours