Epidemiologist 2 (Infectious/Chronic Diseases) (35 Hour)

Data Scientist? Statistical (SAS, R) programmer? Quality Assurance Engineer? Health Informatician? Statistician? Each of those roles have skills that are valuable to this Epidemiologist 2 position at the State of Connecticut, Department of Public Health (DPH).  As a member of the Surveillance Analysis and Reporting (SAR) unit in the Health Statistics and Surveillance section, you will expand your technical, analytic, and epidemiological skills through a variety of applied public health activities and daily mentoring by experienced epidemiologists.   

The Health Statistics and Surveillance section (HSS) is responsible for data collection, analysis, and dissemination of a wide range of critical public health data.  Within HSS, the Surveillance Analysis and Reporting unit has several primary responsibilities for the agency:

• Prepare and disseminate vital event (births, deaths, fetal deaths, and marriages) statistical files
• Develop quality assurance workflows and reports to ensure high quality birth and death data are available for public health needs
• Produce annual surveillance reports summarizing vital health indicators (e.g., fertility rates, infant mortality, low birthweight rates, leading causes of death) for use by the agency, local health directors, and other stakeholders
• Undertake advanced analytic projects, such as Life Expectancy estimates, town-level population estimates with demographics, linkages with other datasets, longitudinal data linkages, and Data Briefs to support agency needs
• Publish population estimates for the State of Connecticut, in collaboration with the US Census Bureau, and serve as the subject matter expert on population estimates for the State 

DPH is modernizing its systems and establishing FHIR-based interoperability between the Office of Vital Records, CDC, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and various DPH surveillance systems. This position with the Vital Statistics program has an integral role in programming quality assurance reports for the modern systems to ensure high quality birth and death data are available for surveillance. This position will be part of a team of epidemiologists developing surveillance projects and publications on natality (births) and mortality (deaths) with a focus on identifying health inequities.  Recent publications include a DPH Data Brief on COVID-19 mortality in Connecticut during the first 12 months of the pandemic and a 2018 CT Registration Report that evaluates 15-year trends in perinatal risk factors and outcomes, such as low birthweight, prenatal care, and infant mortality.

The Mission of the Department of Public Health (DPH) is to protect and improve the health and safety of the people of Connecticut by assuring the conditions in which people can be healthy, preventing disease, injury, and disability, and promoting the equal enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, which is a human right and a priority of the state. 

DPH accomplishes this through the implementation of its Strategic Plan which outlines the actions that DPH is taking to accomplish its Mission.

Are you interested in joining our team as an Epidemiologist 2? We encourage you to apply today! This position is conveniently located in Hartford, CT. The work schedule for this position is typically Monday - Friday, 35 hours per week. There may be opportunities for an alternate work schedule in accordance with State policies.  

We offer a competitive benefits package, excellent health care, generous leave policies, retirement plan, and more! We also encourage a healthy work-life balance to all employees!

The minimum experience and training requirements must be met by the close date on the job opening, unless otherwise specified.

This position will be filled in accordance with contractual language, reemployment, SEBAC, transfer, promotion and merit employment rules. In order to be considered for this job opening, you must meet the Minimum Qualifications as listed on the job opening. You must specify your qualifications on your application.  

Due to the volume of applications anticipated, we are unable to provide confirmation of receipt or status during the recruitment process. Updates will be provided through your JobAps portal account. 

Interviews will be limited to candidates whose experience most closely meet the preferred requirements of the position.  At any point during the recruitment process, applicants may be required to submit additional documentation which support their qualification(s) for this position. These documents may include: a cover letter, resume, performance reviews, attendance records, supervisory references, licensure, etc., at the discretion of the hiring agency. Applicants must meet the minimum qualifications as indicated to apply for this position. 

Please Note: You will be unable to make revisions once you submit your application for this posting to the JobAps system.

This posting may require completion of additional referral questions (RQs). You can access these RQs via an email that will be sent to you after the posting's closing date or by visiting your JobAps Personal Status Board (Certification Questionnaires section). Your responses to these RQs must be submitted by the question's expiration date. Please regularly check your email and JobAps Personal Status Board for notifications. Please check your SPAM and/or Junk folders on a daily basis in the event an email provider places auto-notification emails in a user's spam. 

Although applicants will receive correspondence via email, as a backup they are also encouraged to sign on to their Personal Status Board on a daily basis to monitor their status, view all emailed notices and complete tasks required in the recruitment process. 

The immediate vacancy is listed above, however, applications to this recruitment may be used for future vacancies in this job class.

All State employees shall follow the guidelines as listed in Executive Orders 13F (3a) and 13G (3a) .

Should you have questions pertaining to this recruitment, please contact Chelsea Moore at Chelsea.Moore@ct.gov

In the Department of Public Health this class is accountable for performing the full range of tasks in investigating infectious, chronic and non-infectious diseases and implementing disease prevention methods.

Leads and participates in routine epidemiologic investigations to identify risk factors and implements and evaluates resulting intervention measures; collect and collates data including performing interviews; performs data analysis and summarizes relevant epidemiologic investigation data into tables, charts and written reports; provides technical information to the professional and lay public including local health departments; collaborates in the preparation and presentation of workshops; may respond to media inquiries; maintains an orderly surveillance system capable of detecting risk factors and changes in disease patterns; may administer biologics or collect specimens such as blood and urine samples, throat and rectal swabs under the supervision of a physician.

Considerable knowledge of infectious and/or chronic disease processes; considerable knowledge of relevant disease processes which affect humans and animals; considerable knowledge of epidemiological methods and techniques; knowledge of basic biological processes; oral and written communications skills; interpersonal skills; computer skills; ability to independently perform epidemiological investigations; ability to independently collect, analyze and interpret epidemiological data.

Six (6) years' experience in conducting epidemiological investigations in a responsible technical or professional capacity.

One (1) year of the General Experience must have involved interviewing and performing trend analyses at or above the level of Epidemiologist 1.

1. College training may be substituted for the General Experience on the basis of fifteen (15) semester hours equalling one-half (1/2) year of experience to a maximum of four (4) years for a Bachelor's degree.
2. A Master's degree in Public Health, Community Medicine or a related health science may be substituted for one (1) additional year of the General Experience.
3. A Doctorate in a related discipline such as Public Health, Medicine or a natural or behavioral science may be substituted for the General Experience.

• Experience using SAS (Statistical Analysis Software) or another statistical and data management software (R, Systat, SQL, Python) to manage large administrative datasets or databases and to produce tabulations and reports
• Formal training in statistics or 2 years practical experience using statistical approaches for descriptive and analytical purposes
• Experience with report writing which resulted in a peer-reviewed publication or in dissemination to the public by an academic, government, or healthcare institution
• Experience developing and maintaining project documentation and data dictionaries
• Experience developing and implementing QA/QC protocols to improve data integrity, completeness, accuracy, and timeliness
• Experience with analysis and interpretation of health disparities and their social determinants of health
• Experience with specialized software packages such as ArcGIS, Tableau, Power BI, MatchPro, and JoinPoint

1. Incumbents in this class must be willing to be immunized for communicable diseases as necessary and appropriate.
2. Incumbents in this class may be required to travel.

Incumbents in this class may be exposed to communicable diseases and hazardous substance.

AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.