Job responsibilities
Role Description
Job Title
Project Support Officer
Pay Grade
Executive Officer
Location
10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf
Hours
37 hours, excluding lunch breaks, FTC to March 31st 2026
Reports to
Yellow Card Biobank Programme Manager
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency enhance and improve the health of millions of people every day through the effective regulation of medicines and medical devices, underpinned by science and research.
The agency is made up of c.1300 staff working across two main centres and peripatetically across the UK and abroad.
The agency consists of Corporate, Partnerships, Transformation, Governance, Communications & Engagement, Scientific Research & Innovation, Healthcare Quality & Access, Safety & Surveillance and Technology groups.
About the Division
To deliver effectively on our central mission of protecting public health, we need robust vigilance processes that are able to quickly detect, monitor and evaluate signals across the product lifecycle, the ability to evaluate the benefit/risk of signals of concern and design effective risk mitigations and a healthcare system able to implement them. The Safety and Surveillance Group brings together into a single integrated structure expertise on the safety of all medical products with enforcement capabilities. These functions are supported by the Agencys data and evidence generating capabilities complementing our signal generating abilities delivered via the common vigilance platform SafetyConnect.
Medicines and devices have traditionally been regulated separately largely driven by different regulatory processes and ways of working and the consequence has been a failure to capture on synergies and expertise and a duplication of effort in signal detection infrastructure, data capture and communications. As science and technology drives increasing understanding of disease, it is also opening new opportunities for treatments with both medicines and devices. As a result, product profiles are changing, becoming ever more complex and the boundaries between medicines and devices are blurring with increasing interdependencies. These changes provide the opportunity to bring medicines and devices capabilities together to better address the regulatory challenges of the future.
Against this background and the drive to improve treatment availability for patients, safety remains at the heart of all our decision making across the product life cycle. The central mission of the Safety & Surveillance portfolio is to protect the public by appropriately identifying, assessing and managing the risks associated with medical products. In every aspect of this work, we harness the best science, technology, information and professional practice to protect patients in new and impactful ways.
The MHRA recently launched the Yellow Card Biobank to investigate the role of genetics in the development of adverse drug and vaccine reactions. The aim of the Biobank is to identify patients most at risk of serious harm from side effects due to genetic factors and enable evidence-based testing to reduce the burden on both patients and the NHS.
Role Purpose
Reporting to the Yellow Card Biobank Programme Manager, the post holder will be responsible for providing efficient, effective, and proactive support to the Yellow Card Biobank Team. This includes, organising and preparing meetings and taking accurate minutes, to agency standards. The successful applicant will also act as the primary point of contact to manage the Yellow Card Biobank mailbox, promptly addressing important communications and gathering input from team members as needed. Additionally, they will manage and coordinate busy project diaries, ensuring that meetings are appropriately scheduled, and deadlines are met.
To excel in this role, the post holder will prioritise tasks as they arise, demonstrating a strong ability to multitask while maintaining a keen attention to detail. Coordinating correspondence is another essential aspect of their responsibilities, both to support internal and external communications and to ensure that all timescales are met effectively. At times the post holder may support administrative activity within the wider Safety and Surveillance Group of the MHRA.
The successful applicant will actively support the team in engagement activities to convey key messages and foster a positive working environment. Overall, the post holder is dedicated to contributing to the success and efficiency of the Yellow Card Biobank, in all aspects of its operations.
Key responsibilities and results areas
Providing efficient, effective, and proactive support to the Yellow Card Biobank team.
- Organising and preparing meetings and events.
Writing accurate meeting minutes to agency standards, ensuring key meeting outputs are communicated and actions are tracked.
- Acting as a point of contact and managing the Yellow Card Biobank mailbox.
- Identifying important communications that require immediate action, proactively gathering input from team members.
- Managing and co-ordinating busy project diaries to ensure meetings are covered appropriately and deadlines are met.
- Prioritising tasks as they occur and multitasking where necessary with emphasis on attention to detail.
- Co-ordinating correspondence to support internal and external communications to ensure timescales are met.
- Supporting the team with engagement activities to deliver key messages.
Processing invoices and raising purchase orders as directed. Training to be provided for this.
The job description is not intended to be exhaustive, and it is likely that duties may be altered from time to time in the light of changing circumstances and after consultation with the postholder.
Person Specification
Important Candidate information:
The Civil Service recently launched a new recruitment framework called Success Profiles, which has replaced the Civil Service Competency Framework.
Success Profiles are made up of 5 elements: Ability, Behaviours, Experience, Technical, Strengths but it is unlikely that you will be assessed against all 5.
Behaviours, Experience and Technical elements will be assessed through your application form, in the first instance.
Success Profile
Criteria
Method of assessment: A-Application, T-Test, I-Interview, P-Presentation
Behaviour
Managing a Quality Service - Demonstrable experience of a flexible and adaptable attitude towards work, providing a proactive service and the ability to use initiative, foresight, and have a willingness to go the extra mile and excellent attention to detail.
Working Together - Encourage joined up teamwork within own team and across other groups. Establish professional relationships with a range of stakeholders and collaborate effectively with all.
Communicating & Influencing - Proven customer service skills to deal confidently and diplomatically with colleagues at all levels and external contacts.
Delivering at Pace - Regularly monitor your own and teams work against milestones ensuring individual needs are considered when setting tasks.
A,I
Experience
Excellent written and oral communication skills including the ability to communicate scientific information.
Experienced at taking meeting minutes accurately.
Experience in managing multiple diaries.
A, I
Technical
University degree OR equivalent relevant work experience.
Excellent IT skills use of MS Office (particularly Excel).
Proven customer service skills and ability to build relationships at senior levels within own Assessment team, the Service Management team, and external industry contacts.
A
Strengths
Team Player: excellent team working skills to work across teams, functions and professional disciplines.
Organiser: Demonstrates effective organisation skills in a pressurised, target driven environment, with the ability to influence the delivery of work on time whilst maintaining high standards of quality where there are a range of competing deadlines and priorities.
Precise: you are detail focussed and endure everything is accurate and error free.
Problem solver: You take a positive approach to tackling problems and find ways to identify effective solutions.
I
The Civil Service Code
These core values support good government and ensure the achievement of the highest possible standards in all that the Civil Service does. You can find out more about our values, standards of behaviour and rights and responsibilities in The Civil Service Code.
The code is reflected in the Agencys values,which state that we will strive to be:
Agency Values
We focus outwards on patients and public health.
We work together with respect.
We take responsibility and are accountable.
We create an environment where learning and innovation thrive.
Civil Service Values
Integrity
Putting the obligations of public service above your own personal interests
Honesty
Being truthful and open
Objectivity
Basing your advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of the evidence
Impartiality
Acting solely according to the merits of the case and serving equally well governments of different political persuasions
