Director of Data Acquisition

Overview

Agency Overview:
With an annual budget of $2.3 billion and more than 7,000 employees throughout the five boroughs, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) is one of the largest public health agencies in the world, serving 8 million New Yorkers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We’re tackling a broad range of public health issues with innovative policies and programs and getting exceptional results, but our work is never finished. The breadth of our innovative programs provides the widest range of choices for every member of our team.

With grant funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), DOHMH is undertaking a new initiative that will meet critical infrastructure needs and make possible strategic investments that will have lasting effects on public health. Investments and improvements through this initiative will help modernize DOHMH’s foundational capabilities and data infrastructure, enabling it to partner in complex health and health care environments and, in turn, support better public health outcomes, including COVID-19. This initiative supports larger efforts to rebalance investments in public health and more equitably serve communities and populations.

The selected candidate will be an employee of Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit organization which is the fiscal and administrative manager of the grant but will work be supervised by DOHMH.  This is a grant-funded position ending in November 2027.

Program Description:

The Epidemiology Division and it’s Bureau of Epidemiology Services (BES) support the department in its systematic data collection and monitoring, rigorous analysis, and effective data communication. BES seeks to support the department’s provisions of accurate and timely public health data to inform decision-making, to optimize data use, and to ensure accurate analysis of health data.

To support this initiative, BES will oversee the coordination and implementation of systems and policy that support a developing agency-wide data modernization framework. In addition to data governance, and data science/engineering capacity building, BES will also lead work in data systems, operations, and acquisitions.

Summary of the Position:

The Data Acquisition Director leads a unit which is responsible for onboarding clinical data sources (e.g., health information exchanges and hospital systems), developing data quality and assurance plans, conducting quality assessment of acquired datasets, implementing a master person index, and managing relationships with data providers.

Specifically, the Data Acquisition Director will be:

·       Serving as the subject matter expert for the planning, set-up, and acquisition of internal and external data assets.

·       Creating internal and external data transfer specifications, ensuring data are compatible with the database and meet requirements to support data integration, analyses, and reporting at DOHMH.

·       Creating and ensuring adherence to procedural documents and participating in reviewing and updating of documents to make sure they are reflective of IT Governance standards and regulatory requirements and include optimal processes.

·       Training and mentoring newer Data Acquisition team members on key activities and processes.

·       Work closely with the Data Governance Unit within BES to ensure governance documents are kept up to date and that data governance best practices are implemented into all data related activities and processes.

·       Contributing to the development and application of smart systems and best practices to support the receipt and management of external data sources.

·       Actively participating in and/or leading continuous improvement activities, defining and implementing the changes required to modernize data systems to be flexible and interoperable at DOHMH.

·       Developing strong and productive working relationships with external data stewards.

·       Implementing gaps from the data maturity assessment to foster standardizing of data assets and data management practices, in collaboration with data governance, IT, and DOHMH data managers

·       Supervise MPI manager and vendor developing MPI, in collaboration with Disease Control

Qualifications and Requirements:

·       A masters’ degree in epidemiology, statistics, analytics, machine learning, econometrics or similar.

·       5+ years experiences managing a data team, delegating tasks and conducting quality control.

·       Ability to manage data automation using SQL, Python, SAS, or R.

·       Strong data management, communication, and quality assurance skills.

·       Extensive experience building and troubleshooting challenges with ETL pipelines and/or writing data ingestion scripts.

·       Familiarity with common data problems and how to solve them.

·       Experience producing analytic deliverables in high-pressure contexts.

·       Salary: $120,000.00-$120,000.00

Preferred Skills:

·       Familiarity with health and healthcare data, and/or a background in public health.

·       Experience with stakeholder engagement and project management.

·       Excellent communication (verbal & written) and interpersonal skills.

·       Strong analytical skills and ability to manage and report complex information.

·       Experience with data collection, analysis and interpretation.

·       Desire to grow professionally, develop new skills and willingness to work outside of comfort zone.

·       Experience working with the public health sector and coordinating projects involving multiple stakeholders.

·       Ability to prioritize and work in fast-paced environment with hard deadlines.

·       Fluency in Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Additional Information:

·       This is a temporary grant-funded position ending in November 2027.

·       This individual must reside in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT) by their confirmed start date.

·       Preference may be given to individuals residing in New York City (5 boroughs) or surrounding New York State counties.

·       This individual will be expected to work non-business hours during emergencies.

 

NOTE:  All applicants must comply with PHS’ vaccination policy.  Effective October 1, 2021, employees will be required to provide verification that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (with an FDA-authorized vaccine).

PHS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and veterans.