Deputy Head of Radiotherapy Treatment Planning Physics

Job description

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

Barts Health supports the Pregnancy Loss Pledge and commits to supporting their staff through the distress of miscarriage.

We are dedicated to being an outstanding place to work and will work with you to get the best experience. We know flexible working is not a one size fits all and will mean something different to everyone. We are inclusive, so if you are interested in flexible working, please speak to the recruiting manager.

Job overview

The Radiotherapy Physics team at Barts is looking for a highly experienced Radiotherapy Clinical Scientist and Medical Physics Expert with a passion for Treatment Planning to join the team as a Band 8B Principal Clinical Scientist. The successful candidate will work with significant autonomy, reporting into the Head of Treatment Planning and taking a lead role within treatment planning, with a team of 12 dosimetrists and 3 other physicists. They will also work as a member of the integrated team in other aspects of the department, maintaining their skills and experience across the broad range of Radiotherapy Physics.

The Radiotherapy Department has 5 TrueBeam linacs with Hypersight OBI, RapidArc and Gating facilities. Two have 6DoF couches and HyperArc for SRS. External Beam Treatment Planning is carried out on Eclipse v18 and other software includes RadFormation Autocontour and PerFraction SunCheck. The department has a busy stereotactic programme and ambitious plans for the future. This post will strengthen the team for the programme ahead, which includes commissioning a new Ethos, implementing online adaptive radiotherapy, SGRT, RapidArc Dynamic and further automating treatment planning with RapidPlan, RadFormation Autocontour and Aria Core Insights.

Proposed Interview date 23/09/2026

Main duties of the job

The department is an accredited training department for STP and HSST Programmes and has a very successful track record for actively supporting physicists in submitting their portfolio for MPE registration with RPA2000. We are also leading the way in sustainability, becoming the first radiotherapy department to achieve the RCR Green Framework gold award.

Support the Head of Treatment Planning to manage the provision of the Treatment Planning service to Radiotherapy by providing scientific expertise and driving development of clinical radiotherapy physics. Play a leading part in the research and development programme for the department.
Undertake complex treatment planning and checking for the full range of treatment techniques including IMRT, VMAT, SRS, SABR, TBI, conformal, superficial and adaptive radiotherapy.

Manage and lead parts of the planning service as agreed with the Head of Treatment Planning and have responsibility for commissioning treatment planning systems and related software.
Lead innovations as a major part of the role, working with multidisciplinary teams and supervising a range of scientific staff. Maintain an awareness of developments in the field of radiotherapy and radiotherapy physics and seek to introduce innovative practice into clinical use.

Working for our organisation

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates as they are underrepresented within Barts Health at this band

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria

• Substantial experience in radiotherapy physics at the level of a medical physics expert.
• Experience of successfully leading major clinical development projects including implementation of new software, technology and treatment techniques.
• Substantial experience in advanced treatment planning, checking and patient specific quality control, for a range of techniques including IMRT, VMAT, stereotactic and conformal radiotherapy
• Experience of Varian oncology management systems and treatment planning systems
• Experience in equipment commissioning, QA and imaging in radiotherapy
• Experience in teaching, training and mentoring staff including demonstrating compassionate leadership.
• Experience of multidisciplinary working with oncologists, radiographers, physicists, engineers and wider healthcare professionals.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of research, publication and presentation at scientific meetings
• Supervision of post-graduate research

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines, cope with frequent interruptions and prioritise competing demands.
• Ability to configure and commission highly complex treatment planning systems.
• Ability to lead and motivate project teams
• Advanced analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Good IT, report writing and presentation skills.

Desirable criteria

• C# Scripting
• Software development
• Mentoring skills.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Expert knowledge in radiotherapy physics.
• In depth understanding of advanced treatment planning techniques and technologies
• Extensive knowledge of treatment planning systems and dose calculation algorithms
• Knowledge of multimodality imaging anatomy, imaging registration and radiobiology applied to radiotherapy.
• In depth knowledge of relevant legislation, standards and guidance relating to radiotherapy.
• Understanding of the requirements of an accredited quality management system

Desirable criteria

• TPS scripting development and lifecycle
• Knowledge of research and change management methodologies and clinical audit.

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• B.Sc.(Hons) in Physics
• Accredited M.Sc in Medical Physics / Radiation Physics
• PhD in Medical Physics or equivalent
• HCPC Registration (Clinical Scientist)
• Registered Medical Physics Expert (RPA 2000)
• Evidence of development (CPD).

Visa Sponsorship Information

This role is subject to UK immigration requirements. Where sponsorship is required, applicants must meet the eligibility criteria for a Skilled Worker visa in accordance with current UK Visas and Immigration rules, including any salary, qualification, and role-specific requirements applicable at the time of appointment. Candidates who require sponsorship will only be considered where the post is eligible and where all sponsorship criteria can be met. Evidence of the right to work in the UK will be required before appointment. Please note that for roles employed under Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions, the High-Cost Area Supplement (HCAS) is not included when calculating the basic salary for the purposes of sponsorship.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment where staff treat one another with dignity and respect. We aim to create an equitable working environment where every individual can fulfil their potential.

As an Equal Opportunities Employer we actively support applications from individuals' who apply under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme and will process your application as appropriate.

We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once a sufficient number of applications has been received and we regret that we are unable to provide notification if your application is unsuccessful.

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs.

By applying for this post you are agreeing to Barts Health NHS Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Barts Health is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and to child protection. The Trust aims to ensure as far as is possible that anyone, paid or unpaid, who seeks to work in our organisation and who gains access to children, is safe to do so. As such, you may be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Check as part of the recruitment process if appointed to a post with direct access to children or vulnerable adults.

Barts Health promotes active travel as part of its goal to reach Net Zero. Each site is accessible by public transport and the Trust has a cycle to work scheme and some sites have Brompton Hire Pods.

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