DEPT OF HEALTH/MENTAL HYGIENE
Job Posting Notice
Job ID: 141527 1
Business Title: Research Analyst
Civil Service Title: CITY RESEARCH SCIENTIST

Title Code No: 21744 Level: 02
Job Category: Health
Career Level: Experienced (non-manager)
Proposed Salary Range: $ 63,662.00 - $ 79,899.00 (Annual) Work Location: 42-09 28th Street Division/Work Unit: Communicable Diseases

Job Description
The Reportable Disease Data, Informatics, and Analysis Unit is responsible for the database systems, processing, data quality, and analysis of surveillance data for more than 73 infectious diseases. The unit also provides data management and epidemiologic and analytic support for outbreak investigations, including large-scale public health emergencies. The Research Analyst will assist in maintaining the critical daily operations and quality assurance of notifiable communicable disease surveillance data, supporting the analytic needs of research staff in the Bureau of Communicable Disease (BCD), and applying statistical methods to track trends, describe risk factors, and detect aberrations that could suggest disease clusters, outbreaks, or data quality issues. Activities will include the following:
- Support daily operations, maintenance, and quality assurance for surveillance data residing in and extracted from Maven, BCD's reportable disease surveillance database.
- Work collaboratively with BCD staff to develop general and disease-specific quality measures to ensure and improve the accuracy, timeliness, and efficiency of BCD investigations and data.
- Support BCD epidemiologists and subject matter experts by, e.g., ensuring that Maven data are clearly documented, advising BCD analytic staff on efficient methods for accessing data, automating data processes, and ensuring the quality and completeness of data available for analysis.
- Serve in weekly rotations, every 4-5 weeks: As analyst of the week, run automated statistical analyses to detect reportable disease clusters, review output and address issues, and de-duplicate persons requiring human review. As electronic clinical laboratory reporting analyst, clean electronic laboratory data requiring human review, run automated analyses, and collaborate with the Division of Informatics, Information Technology, and Telecommunications to identify and resolve laboratory reporting issues. As consultant research scientist, support disease cluster investigations.
- Write, adapt, debug, maintain, and produce documentation for SAS programs for automated processing, quality control, analysis, visualization, and archiving of data and results.
- Assist in improving and automating reportable disease data analyses, including incorporating spatial elements into routine surveillance and visualizing and disseminating results.
- Support BCD in data cleaning and analysis of novel data sources as they become available (e.g., electronic medical records or hospital discharge records) to enhance reportable disease surveillance.
- Provide data and meta-data in response to internal and external data requests.
- Develop and refine maps of surveillance and outbreak data as needed to support BCD and agency investigation activities.
- Provide data collection and analysis support for outbreak investigations, emergency response activities, and special epidemiologic projects, as needed.
- Contribute to summary reports for internal and external distribution and research papers describing surveillance methodologies and analysis results, including formal evaluations of the utility of these systems.
- Participate in conferences, meetings, and seminars to present surveillance methodologies and analysis results.

Minimum Qual Requirements
1. For Assignment Level I (only physical, biological and environmental sciences and public health) A master's degree from an accredited college or university with a specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological or environmental science or in public health.
To be appointed to Assignment Level II and above, candidates must have:
1. A doctorate degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and one year of full-time experience in a responsible supervisory, administrative or research capacity in the appropriate field of specialization; or 2. A master's degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and three years of responsible full-time research experience in the appropriate field of specialization; or 3. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least a master's degree in an appropriate field of specialization and at least two years of experience described in "2" above. Two years as a City Research Scientist Level I can be substituted for the experience required in "1" and "2" above.

Preferred Skills
Expertise in manipulating and analyzing large datasets using SAS and SQL.
Experience in the management and analysis of public health data stored in Access or other database management systems. Experience in helping colleagues to access and analyze data. Experience with data visualizations, including geocoding techniques, mapping using ArcMap or other mapping software, and interactive data displays.
Knowledge of infectious disease epidemiology and biostatistics. Experience in outbreak investigation and public health emergency response. Excellent writing and speaking ability, strong interpersonal communication and time management skills, and attention to detail.

To Apply
Apply online with a cover letter to https://a127-jobs.nyc.gov/. In the Job ID search bar, enter: job ID number #141527.
We appreciate the interest and thank all applicants who apply, but only those candidates under consideration will be contacted.
Work Location
42-09 28th Street, Queens, NY
Residency Requirement
New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment.
However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.