Epidemiologist, Senior Research Associate, Southern Africa 223 views0 applications

Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance.

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.

CHAI’s global malaria program provides direct technical and operational support to countries around the globe to strengthen their malaria programs and reduce the burden of this preventable, treatable disease. We support governments to scale up effective interventions for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance, with the goals of sustainably reducing the number of malaria-related illnesses and deaths worldwide in the short-term and accelerating progress towards malaria elimination in the long term.

Overview of Role:

CHAI is seeking a highly motivated individual to work as an Epidemiologist, Senior Research Associate to support surveillance and analytics activities in southern Africa, with a focus on Mozambique and Angola. This individual will support national malaria programs to measure and enhance performance of surveillance systems, analyze trends and drivers of malaria transmission, use data to inform strategic decisions, and monitor and evaluate interventions. As such, the individual will work with a number of individuals on CHAI’s global, regional and country teams and will therefore need to possess strong communication and organizational skills. It is expected that the epidemiologist will need to partner with government programs, academics and public health agencies to ensure CHAI’s work is complementary and not duplicative.

CHAI places great value on relevant personal qualities including resourcefulness, tenacity, independence, patience, humility, and strong work ethic.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a thought leader, manage, and implement analytical projects related to malaria epidemiology, interventions, and surveillance, as required

Surveillance support (45%)

• Manage surveillance activities in the region, in coordination with the CHAI malaria health informatics team and with support from their manager
• Support development and review of national guidelines, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and training materials for malaria surveillance activities
• Measure performance and determinants of malaria surveillance systems and provide prioritized recommendations to address key gaps
• Support development, integration, and institutionalization of malaria information systems, including data collection tools and dashboards
• Support integration of data use and analysis in routine programmatic activities at all levels of the health system

Analytical support (35%)

• Manage and coordinate analytical projects across different technical teams related to malaria epidemiology (e.g., drivers of transmission), targeting and evaluation of interventions (e.g., Indoor
• Residual Spraying, Insecticide-Treated Net distributions, health worker allocations), and surveillance (e.g., data quality audits)
• Provide high-quality analytical support to CHAI regional and country teams, government staff, and relevant partners, through the planning, implementation, and presentation of highly complex analyses
• Clean, organize, and merge available datasets and assess their quality and suitability for analysis
• Conduct statistical and spatial analyses (descriptive analyses, regressions, and other relevant methods)
• Translate analytical results to national and sub-national government partners, ensure data are used to inform strategic decisions, and influence program strategy
• Provide mentorship and review for team members conducting and synthesizing analytical work

Programmatic support (20%)

• Perform scientific literature review on relevant topics as needed (e.g., surveillance methods, drivers of malaria transmission, intervention effectiveness)
• Formulate and deliver national and sub-national level training materials with a focus on analytical content (e.g., data management best practices, online data collection tools), and surveillance strengthening
• Develop and implement M&E plans for CHAI and program activities, including monitoring and evaluating the implementation of relevant malaria interventions, and surveillance systems
• Ensure sustainability and country ownership of malaria surveillance and analytics activities by developing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders across government programs, non-governmental organizations, and local academic institutions, with support from program managers
• Indirectly manage other team members in the region and support trainings for regional and country team members on surveillance, analytics, and M&E activities
• Synthesize results and communicate them through high-quality presentations, reports, and publications
• Represent CHAI at external technical meetings within the region, and develop and document dissemination materials from these meetings
• Any other tasks identified

Qualifications

Skills and Qualifications:

• PhD or Master’s degree in Public Health, Epidemiology, or related field
• 3+ years of working experience with increasing levels of responsibility and leadership
• Knowledge of malaria and/or other major global infectious disease problems
• Proven experience in strengthening disease surveillance and information systems
• Proven experience analyzing epidemiological and spatial data and synthesizing results for non-technical audiences
• Statistical and geospatial analysis programming experience (preferably R, STATA and/or QGIS)
• High levels of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and internet applications
• Experience working and communicating with government officials and multilateral organizations
• Ability to work independently in remote and unstructured settings, to adapt to new environments and challenges, and to recommend creative approaches to problem solving
• Ability to be effective, calm, and flexible in high-pressure situations, to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and to effectively prioritize
• Enthusiasm for conducting trainings and ensuring sustainability of program activities
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills
• Fluency in English and proficiency in Portuguese (Portuguese fluency strongly preferred)
• Willingness to travel (up to 30-40% of time)

Advantages:

• Experience living or working in resource-limited settings
• Experience working with a decentralized team
• Experience managing technical staff
• Experience supporting development of strategic plans, policies, and guidelines
• Experience working with surveillance platforms (e.g., DHIS2), data collection tools (e.g., ODK) and/or data visualization applications (e.g., Tableau)

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PI185342272