Epidemiologist, Research Associate, Malaria and NTD Analytics and Surveillance job at Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI)

Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.

CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.

At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication, and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skill sets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with the majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org.

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

Role Overview

CHAI is seeking a highly motivated individual with public health experience and analytical skills to work with CHAI’s global, regional and country teams, as well as with government counterparts to assess, design, and scale-up disease surveillance systems; conduct epidemiological analysis, monitor and evaluate the success of ongoing efforts to reduce disease burden in relevant geographies; and translate results for decision-makers. The individual will be embedded in a team working across Lusophone and Anglophone East, Central, West and Southern Africa, and specifically collaborate with a diverse team spanning Nigeria, Ethiopia and Uganda, as well as with government programs, academic partners and public health agencies. The successful candidate will possess strong communication and organizational skills; be imaginative, pragmatic, and innovative in applying epidemiological expertise to improve real-world health programs; work independently to drive implementation; and have deep personal commitment to producing results.

This role is flexible to be based in a CHAI program country within the region, pending leadership approval, and travel is expected up to 50%.

Responsibilities

• Implement surveillance projects related to disease (malaria and NTD) epidemiology, intervention, commodity and entomology, as required;
• Provide direct support to analytics workstreams including conducting high-quality epidemiological analyses to evaluate effectiveness of current interventions, understand disease patterns, and inform strategic planning related to malaria within the region;
• Support the rollout and monitor the performance of existing and new surveillance processes and platforms for improved data collection, reporting, data management, automated analysis and data visualization e.g. using dashboards;
• Help cultivate a culture of data uses within disease programs by strengthening the quality, use, and analysis of epidemiological, entomological, and programmatic data by the malaria program to inform country strategy planning and program implementation;
• Support institutionalization of data reviews at all levels, including the development and use of data collection tools and dashboards (e.g., Tableau, DHIS2, etc.);
• Contribute to the formulation of relevant disease program documents including but not limited to surveillance guidelines and SOPs, epidemic preparedness and response guidelines, M&E plans, lessons learned documents and operational manuals;
• Design, implement, analyse, and disseminate operational research projects related to surveillance, intervention effectiveness, and entomology;
• Provide technical support, training and ad-hoc programmatic support to staff members involved in surveillance activities such as data quality assurance and management, monitoring and evaluation of existing activities, outbreak detection and responses, surveillance system evaluation, integration of health management information system, and study implementation;
• Synthesize results, translate them to national and sub-national government partners to support evidence-based decision-making, and disseminate findings through high-quality presentations, reports, and publications internally and externally at international venues;
• Represent CHAI at external technical meetings with local academic and technical partners;
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with country teams, key stakeholders across government, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions, with support from technical advisor;
• Any other tasks identified.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Public Health, Epidemiology or related field;
• 2 years of working experience with increasing levels of responsibility and leadership, including in program management;
• Strong project management skills, including the ability to plan, execute, and monitor multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring timely and high-quality deliverables;
• Knowledge of malaria, NTD and/or other major global infectious disease problems;
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation of surveillance systems and/or public health programs;
• Familiarity with disease surveillance and strengthening information systems;
• Familiarity with data entry, data management, epidemiological analysis and statistical analysis using statistical software (R, STATA and/or other relevant software);
• Enthusiasm for applying research methods to solve global health problems, focusing on malaria and/or other major global infectious disease concerns;
• Experience working and communicating with government officials and other external partners;
• High levels of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and internet applications;
• Ability to work independently in remote and unstructured settings and to adapt to new environments and challenges;
• Ability to collaborate and operate as part of a multicultural team;
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills;
• Willingness to travel (50% of time); and
• Fluent in English.

Advantages

• Experience working in fast-paced, output-oriented environments;
• Experience living or working in resource-limited settings, especially in Africa;
• Experience working with a decentralized team;
• Experience in programming (e.g., Python, JavaScript), working with surveillance platforms (e.g. DHIS2), data collection tools (e.g. ODK and Survey CTO) and/or data visualization applications (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI, Metabase).

• Implement surveillance projects related to disease (malaria and NTD) epidemiology, intervention, commodity and entomology, as required;
• Provide direct support to analytics workstreams including conducting high-quality epidemiological analyses to evaluate effectiveness of current interventions, understand disease patterns, and inform strategic planning related to malaria within the region;
• Support the rollout and monitor the performance of existing and new surveillance processes and platforms for improved data collection, reporting, data management, automated analysis and data visualization e.g. using dashboards;
• Help cultivate a culture of data uses within disease programs by strengthening the quality, use, and analysis of epidemiological, entomological, and programmatic data by the malaria program to inform country strategy planning and program implementation;
• Support institutionalization of data reviews at all levels, including the development and use of data collection tools and dashboards (e.g., Tableau, DHIS2, etc.);
• Contribute to the formulation of relevant disease program documents including but not limited to surveillance guidelines and SOPs, epidemic preparedness and response guidelines, M&E plans, lessons learned documents and operational manuals;
• Design, implement, analyse, and disseminate operational research projects related to surveillance, intervention effectiveness, and entomology;
• Provide technical support, training and ad-hoc programmatic support to staff members involved in surveillance activities such as data quality assurance and management, monitoring and evaluation of existing activities, outbreak detection and responses, surveillance system evaluation, integration of health management information system, and study implementation;
• Synthesize results, translate them to national and sub-national government partners to support evidence-based decision-making, and disseminate findings through high-quality presentations, reports, and publications internally and externally at international venues;
• Represent CHAI at external technical meetings with local academic and technical partners;
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with country teams, key stakeholders across government, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions, with support from technical advisor;
• Any other tasks identified.

• Strong project management skills
• Ability to plan, execute, and monitor multiple projects simultaneously
• Knowledge of malaria, NTD and/or other major global infectious disease problems
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation of surveillance systems and/or public health programs
• Familiarity with disease surveillance and strengthening information systems
• Familiarity with data entry, data management, epidemiological analysis and statistical analysis using statistical software (R, STATA and/or other relevant software)
• Enthusiasm for applying research methods to solve global health problems
• Experience working and communicating with government officials and other external partners
• High levels of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and internet applications
• Ability to work independently in remote and unstructured settings
• Ability to adapt to new environments and challenges
• Ability to collaborate and operate as part of a multicultural team
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills
• Fluent in English

• Master's degree in Public Health, Epidemiology or related field
• 2 years of working experience with increasing levels of responsibility and leadership, including in program management