Principal Pharmacist / Principal Pharmacy Technician and Joint Head of Medicine Supply Team

Posting date:	09 March 2026
Salary:	£70,730 per year
Additional salary information:	Leeds - £70,730 London - £74,962
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	22 March 2026
Location:	London
Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Job type:	Temporary
Job reference:	451979/2

Summary

In the Department of Health and Social Care, we are proud of our purpose – to enable everyone to live more independent, healthier lives for longer. To achieve this, and create a great place to work, we have four values: we are inclusive, we constantly improve, we challenge, and we are agile. If this sounds like an environment you would like to work in, we would love to hear from you.

Medicines are a key medical intervention and the second largest element of NHS expenditure. The department’s Medicines Supply Team (MST) is responsible for overseeing the NHS pharmaceutical supply chain, ensuring that patients get the medicines they need. This work is focused on the management of medicines shortages and discontinuations.

Medicine supply is global, with the UK hugely dependent on medicines from the EU and from further afield. There are multiple threats to the continuity of supply of medicines to the UK, including (often unknown) disruptions to global manufacturing and/or transportation/supply chains, including disruptions in countries on which the UK supply chain is highly dependent, such as China and India.

There will always be a number of medicines shortage that need to be managed at any given time, but the government has a responsibility to take up-stream preventative action to help minimise the number and impact of those shortages.

For more critical shortages, the team escalate and discuss the issue with the Medicine Shortage Response Group, working with national clinical experts across the UK to develop management plans that can be adopted locally so that patients can be managed appropriately.

The Medicine Supply Team also provides professional pharmacy and operational input to other wider policy areas within the Medicines Directorate, including pricing policy, and sit on the pricing committee which is responsible for assessing and agreeing the price of all new branded medicines before they can be launched in England.

There is considerable stakeholder engagement in this role, including senior pharmacists within NHS England and the devolved administrations, regulatory bodies including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), global counterparts and senior DHSC officials and ministers. The postholder will also develop excellent relationships with individual pharmaceutical companies.

Please note if applying for the role on a part time basis, the successful candidate will be required to work a minimum of 0.8 full-time equivalent (FTE).

The Department’s Medicines Supply Team (MST) oversees the NHS pharmaceutical supply chain, ensuring patients get the medicines they need, focussing on the management of medicines shortages. The team is part of the Medicines Supply Branch within the Medicines Directorate.

We are seeking a highly motivated and skilled pharmacy professional to jointly lead MST. MST plays a crucial and leading role in responding to and managing national level supply issues. The focus of this post will be to manage current supply challenges and provide professional advice to DHSC as needed. The postholder will also contribute to the development and implementation of medicines supply policy and play an active role in responding to parliamentary business, including preparing briefings and answers to parliamentary questions and supporting policy work across government.

The candidate will jointly manage a diverse team and respond to emerging threats in the supply chain. They will demonstrate outstanding leadership and problem-solving skills, and effective partnership working with a range of stakeholders. They will need the ability to grasp complex matters quickly and translate this into clear advice, including in the context of parliamentary and policy work.

MST is a flexible team that regularly needs to change focus and reprioritise given shifting threats to the continuity of supply of medicines. The candidate will need to be adaptable, whilst providing leadership and support to the team. The candidate will encourage the team to undertake continued professional development.

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