Public Health Data Scientist

Key Skills

Data Analysis, Data cleaning / Data cleansing, Data management, Data Visualization, Large data sets, Mathematical modeling, Microsoft Office suites, PowerBI, R Programming, SAS, Stata, Statistical modeling, Statistics, Tableau

Job Description

The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations, and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is the go-to nonprofit authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners and private-sector resources to support CDC’s critical health protection mission. Since 1995, the CDC Foundation has raised over $1 billion and launched more than 1,000 programs impacting a variety of health threats from chronic disease conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer, to infectious diseases like rotavirus and HIV, to emergency responses, including COVID-19 and Ebola. The CDC Foundation managed hundreds of CDC-led programs in the United States and in more than 140 countries last year. Learn more at www.cdcfoundation.org.

The Data Scientist will assist in the data management and analysis for a multi-country study to evaluate the overall impact of Tuberculosis (TB) Preventive Treatment (TPT) on TB incidence and mortality. Despite an extensive body of literature that has demonstrated the efficacy of TPT and antiretroviral therapy (ART) in people with HIV (PLHIV), global scale-up of TPT did not occur globally until 2018, when the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) committed to providing TPT to all 14.6 million PLHIV in care. Since then, progress has been made in adopting and rapidly providing TPT to all eligible PLHIV. However, the overall impact of widescale TPT implementation in program settings on TB incidence and mortality is not known. With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this project is being implemented in six countries (Haiti, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Nigeria, and Kenya) and the goal is to describe TB incidence and all-cause mortality among PLHIV who have initiated TPT, while considering important individual and epidemiologic factors that could affect the outcome measures. All data will come from existing clinical data captured in electronic medical record (EMR) systems. Thus, an additional important component of this project is to evaluate the quality and completeness of data in the EMR, and address gaps, including through epidemiologic methods that address missing data.

The incumbent will be an employee of the CDC Foundation and will collaborate closely with several partners engaged in this project including: 1) Global Tuberculosis Branch, Division of Global HIV and TB, in CDC’s Center for Global Health; 2) Emory University Rollins School of Public Health; 3) CDC country office staff; 4) designated implementing partners in selected countries; and 5) Ministries of Health. The position will be based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 

Job Highlights:

• Position Title: Public Health Data Scientist – Evaluating the scale-up of TPT
• Location: The position will be based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 
• Salary:$95,000 - $110,000 plus benefits

Responsibilities:

• The Data Scientist will work with a diverse team consisting of the CDC Foundation Senior Program Officer, CDC technical experts, and country and implementing partners to support the project analytic needs, data collection and management, synthesis, interpretation, and visualizations of results and findings, reporting, and related activities.
• Specifically, the selected incumbent will work with CDC, Emory, and partners to: 
• Perform data management and data quality assurance activities including development of data quality reports and investigation and resolution of data anomalies or errors
• Communicate with project management staff, researchers, and data collectors regarding data quality issues and assist with tracking problem resolution to improve data quality
• Receive datasets and plan and conduct data cleaning and documentation of issues in consultation with project management staff
• Assist in developing SOPs for data documentation, data dictionaries and routine reports
• Develop and present analytical data files to project managers and researchers. This will include creating SAS datasets from the data source, ensuring the security and confidentiality of analytical data files, providing data file documentation, and assisting researchers or statisticians in developing analytical programs in SAS
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary, international teams of epidemiologists, statisticians, and other study staff to produce high-quality study datasets and documentation 
• Collaborate with teams to analyze data including but not limited to analysis as directed by other team members and interpretation of analytic results
• Manipulate and analyze project-related datasets using SAS, R, STATA, or other statistical applications; create or provide data sets and subsets for specific analyses; and transfer data as imports or downloads between different systems to facilitate data analysis
• Lead analyses in collaboration with other team members
• Guide analytic framework and preparation and stewardship of analytic and primary datasets
• Provide development and review of data management sections of manuscripts and protocols 

Qualifications:

• Masters’ degree or higher in Statistics, Biostatistics, Mathematics, Epidemiology, or related field with a minimum of 5 years of experience
• Proficient in software applications such as Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Teams and other computer general office software.
• Proficient in data analysis and visualization software such as Power BI, SAS, R, STATA, Epi Info, Tableau, or other software. 
• Experience with analytical approaches, statistical methodology, statistical analysis, SAS/R programming, or mathematical modeling.
• Demonstrated knowledge of data management including data capture, data cleaning, data storage and archiving, data analysis, data visualization and data interpretation. 
• Demonstrated knowledge of best practices, methods and strategies to ensure use of high-quality data for decision-making. 
• Experience aggregating and manipulating complex data from multiple sources.
• Experience collaborating with and providing data management support to multi-disciplinary teams. 
• Strong verbal and written skills.
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills with the ability to work independently and with a team.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and changing priorities.

Desirable 

• Candidates with these desired skills will be given preferential consideration:
• Working knowledge of TB/HIV and/or other infectious diseases 
• Practical experience designing, managing, and analyzing large datasets.
• Experience working internationally with public health organizations including but not limited to CDC Country Offices, Ministries of Health, and other partners.