Senior Engineer

Job reference: 069729
Location: Edinburgh/Glasgow
Job closing date: 28/02/2022
Job posted date: 31/12/2021
Salary: Band 8B (£61,325 – £66,018)
Employment type: Permanent
Job Type: Administrative Services
Hours of work: 37.5
Department: Facilities PCF
Employer (NHS Board) : NHS National Services Scotland

Job description

The core duty of the Senior Engineer (High Voltage /Low Voltage/ Ventilation/ Water or medical gas) is to be the principal source of specialist advice in each discipline to NHS Scotland boards, and act as subject matter expert in Key Stage Authorisation Reviews.  The post-holder will also discharge the duties of the discipline specific Authorising Engineer as defined in Scottish Health Technical Memorandum (SHTM) 00-00, and SHTM 02-01/ 03-01/ 04-01/ 06-02/ 06-03 as appropriate for NHS Scotland.

The postholder will provide impartial expert advice, guidance and support to a wide range of colleagues at all levels within NHS Scotland, through development and implementation of guidance and mandatory and legislative requirements, through organizing and leading meetings, site visits, seminars and workshops in order to maintain and progress the national engineering agenda.

This will include provision of general and impartial advice on all matters concerned with discipline specific engineering, carrying out facilities and system audits, reviewing equipment validation, revalidation and periodic tests. It will also include involvement in assessing & training key engineering staff e.g. Authorised Person (AP) and Competent Person (CP) and advising management on the appointment of the appropriate AP(s).  The post holder will also play a key role in assessing and advising on new engineering technologies, processes and facilities in this rapidly developing field.

Key activities

1. Provide expert advice, guidance and support in line with the national engineering agenda to NHS Scotland on all aspects of discipline specific engineering including design, capacity requirements and equipment procurement for new and refurbished facilities.
2. Provide advice, guidance and support on a broad range of specialist issues in the appropriate discipline and conduct technical investigations when required into engineering system failures and provide support on specialist hospital engineering issues to the Health Boards. The Senior Engineer (Specialist) shall also assist the development local policies and strategies on behalf of the Health Boards in NHS Scotland as well as advising on matters relating to Incident Reporting and Investigation Centre (IRIC), HAI SCRIBE (SHFN 30) and the Statutory Compliance and Audit and Risk Tool (SCART).
3. Lead expert advice and guidance with regards to the Senior Engineer (Specialist) role in designated sites. This will include early detection and notification of issues or situations which may prove to be staff or public health/health and safety risks or deviations from national technical requirements so that appropriate action can be taken.
4. Provide expert support and advice to NHS Board incident and outbreak investigation exercises. This will include attendance at relevant outbreak control meetings and close working with, for example, Infection Control and Estates teams in order to ensure appropriate corrective action. Demonstrating excellent communication skills in expressing highly technical information which is easily understood by a wide range of stakeholders.
5. Provide expert support and advice to IRIC investigations. This will include excellent communications and close working relations with the IRIC team at HFS, attendance at meetings and providing expert on-site support and guidance, for example, to Infection Control and Estate teams in order to ensure appropriate corrective action. To participate in the investigation of hazards and defects in engineering systems including the provision of services for Procurators Fiscal and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) (if necessary) and taking follow-up action to ensure both that the highest standards in patient and staff safety are achieved and appropriate advice is provided to customers, the Scottish Government and/or Health Facilities Scotland.
6. Required to support the Principal Engineer(s) on the review and commenting of data from the Health Boards relating to the National Design Assessment Process (NDAP), Key Stage Authorisation Reviews, industry safety notification systems and other systems & processes as appropriate.
7. Contribute actively to the generation and review of national standards & guidance via regular contact with policy-making bodies such as Scottish Government, British Standards Institution, HSE and Health Facilities Scotland to ensure Scottish engineering interests are represented and met.
8. Communicate highly complex information to a wide range of stakeholders in a manner such that they are able to implement the recommendations of the SG national engineering agenda requirements consistently throughout all relevant healthcare organisations.
9. Collaborate with the engineering, environmental, decontamination and other services at HFS to ensure an integrated service is provided to customers.
10. Ensuring that Senior Engineer (Specialist) knowledge is up to date, resulting in relevant and accurate advice to colleagues while also ensuring continued professional development and registration.
11. Liaise with NHS Scotland Engineering lead, Principal Engineer(s), SETAG and the National Advisory Groups constantly review customer requirements, promote the effective use of the Authorising Engineering service and contribute to the negotiation of Service Level Agreements to ensure that the service is appropriate to stakeholders’ needs and that the resources are available to deliver stakeholder’s requirements.
12. Assist stakeholders in the assessment of staff for positions of responsibility in engineering, provide training for Managers, Users, Operators and Test/Maintenance Persons (Competent Persons) where appropriate and assist in the preparation of capital, maintenance, testing and other contracts to ensure that customers can provide consistently high quality, low risk engineering services to the patient.
13. Carry out on site audits of stakeholder’s facilities, systems and documentation to current standards and guidance, to provide advice and recommendations to Management and finally to follow up progress with customers to ensure a universally consistent standard of engineering services.
14. Provide up-to-date, independent & impartial advice and problem-solving assistance to all internal and external stakeholders on all relevant engineering matters either on a formal training basis or ad-hoc as required to ensure that current standards and guidance are applied.
15. Lead, as a specialist technical service, the independent evaluation of new equipment, technologies and processes to establish standards to ensure that systems and equipment are safe and appropriate
16. Manage, support and develop trainee Authorising Engineers, Engineers and graduates until such times that they are fully professionally registered and competent to undertake the role independently.
17. Participate and contribute to the work program of the organisation, including Key Stage reviews, site visits, discussion with infection control and Board colleagues as well as external stakeholders.
18. There may be the need to prioritise work to allow the Health Facilities Scotland to respond to national emergencies and/or changes in Scottish Government requests.
19. Provide an audit of the appropriate engineering systems to each NHS Scotland Health Board annually.