Medicines Inspector - Registration Team

Grade B - £42,044 (National) or £47,900 (London - for London office based or home-based workers within the boundary of the M25). There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £600 per annum for those working from home.

Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week

Contract Type: 12 Month Secondment Opportunity

Closing date: Sunday 26 July 2026 at 11.59pm

Make a difference: Every role at CQC contributes to our mission. If you’re a pharmacy professional looking for a new role in CQC’s Medicines Optimisation Team that gives a true sense of meaning and purpose, then you’ve found it! As a Medicines Inspector based in Registration, you’ll use your pharmacy expertise to help ensure people receive safe and effective care by supporting CQC’s registration teams.

Picture this: Imagine being the trusted expert on medicines safety, helping registration teams across CQC make informed decisions that protect people and improve care. By the end of the year, as a Medicines Inspector in the Registration Team, you will have supported the assessment of the medicines aspects of registration applications for a range of prospective health and social care providers.

The role: You’ll work closely with others to deliver shared outcomes. In this role, you’ll:

• Assess the medicines aspects of registration applications for health and social care providers, providing expert input on medicines optimisation.
• Support learning: Help train and develop CQC staff to improve their understanding of medicines optimisation.
• Manage workload effectively.

Show us: We will be looking for specific skills, knowledge, and experience in your application form:

• Pharmacy registration and experience: Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council and at least 3 years of experience as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician.
• Medicines knowledge: Understanding of medicines law and how it applies to health and social care services.
• Clear communication: Ability to explain complex medicines issues in a simple, accessible way to different audiences.

Compliance: Note for internal candidates: This is a secondment/fixed term opportunity. Please read the recruitment and selection policy section on secondments. You must discuss your application with your line manager before applying. To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps: If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description. If you’d like an informal chat about the role contact – Victoria Lea, Deputy Director of Medicines Optimisation and IR(ME); Victoria.Lea@cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, please email recruitment@cqc.org.uk.

The Benefits: We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

• Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Training and development opportunities.
• Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
• NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
• Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

Equity for all: We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.

We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact recruitment@cqc.org.uk. Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.

We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks.

Values and vision: We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.

• Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
• Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
• Integrity – doing the right thing.
• Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.

We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

A Note on AI: AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

• AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
• Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
• Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
• Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.