King's College London

About Us

The PET Centre is part of Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) and King’s College London (KCL) within the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences. 

The Positron Emitting Radiopharmaceutical Laboratory (PERL) plays a crucial role in the clinical PET Centre, serving over 8,000 patients and research participants annually from South-East London and beyond. It is an integral part of both King's College London's School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences and Guy's & St Thomas' National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust. Our PET Center relies heavily on the PERL facility for the supply of radiopharmaceuticals and this is likely to become increasingly important when the new Total Body PET scanner is installed later this year.

Comprising two GMP clean rooms, a QC laboratory, and an R&D laboratory with a total of 24 hot cells, the PERL facility is equipped with a PETtrace high-energy cyclotron and various dispensing units, calibrators, and analysis equipment. It operates under a “Specials” manufacturing license, currently producing [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and [11C]methionine routinely, with ongoing development of additional radiotracers. We anticipate the availability of two more radiotracers for routine and research use by the end of 2024, with plans to expand the portfolio by two to three radiotracers annually.

About The Role

The King’s College London/GSTT new cyclotron and PET Radiochemistry facility (PERL) seeks an experienced Quality Assurance Officer to join its team. The post holder will have responsibility for acting as one of the QA Officers for the PERL. QA duties will focus on being a key point of contact between QA and the PERL radiochemistry team and external stakeholders whilst undertaking QA tasks in support of the PERL.

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 12 months.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience: 

Essential criteria

1. Higher degree (e.g. MSc/PhD or equivalent) in chemistry, pharmacy or related discipline or significant relevant experience of 3 years plus in a QA position 
2. Knowledge and application of GMP, GCP, QA and current pharmaceutical legislation 
3. Demonstrated ability to manage quality exceptions and knowledge and application of a pharmaceutical quality system 
4. Experience working in QA in a licensed pharmaceutical production unit 
5. Experience of aseptic production processes 
6. Excellent verbal & written communication skills including ability to draft documents, e.g., standard operating procedures 
7. Project management skills, with the ability to handle several projects at once and prioritise workload, acting on personal initiative and take responsibility for own work to ensure projects are completed 
8. Experience of meeting targets and deadlines 
9. Strong interpersonal and networking skills, working as part of a multidisciplinary team, flexible approach to hours & duties and ability to work with a variety of people and positive constructive and team-based approach to problem solving 

Desirable criteria

1. Good knowledge of validation including cleaning validation, method validation and CSV 
2. Trained auditor, with experience of supplier audits 3
3. Knowledge of PET and/or SPECT radiotracer synthesis and QC within a Radiochemistry laboratory experience 
4. Supervisory experience and training and mentoring skills 
5. Experience with automated synthesis equipment 

Downloading a copy of our Job Description Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. 

This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community. We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. 

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible. 

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held on 9th May.