Public Health Data Specialist
The EPA Environmental Research and Business Support Program has an immediate opening for a full-time Public Health Data specialist position with the EPA facility in Chapel Hill, NC.
What the EPA project is about
The Environmental Public Health Division (EPHD) within the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at EPA focuses on the adverse public health impacts of environmental exposures. The research utilizes human subject data and publicly available databases to investigate the human health effects of air and water pollutants and other environmental exposures.
What you will be doing
The team member will work with researchers on a number of projects pertaining to environmental epidemiology, including research linking electronic health records (EHRs) to environmental and socioeconomic data and systematic reviews. Research projects will focus on long-term health effects of air pollution, including cardiovascular disease, and disproportionate impacts among disadvantaged groups.
Required skills
- Demonstrated experience in epidemiologic and statistical methods;
- Demonstrated leadership skills and experience working in teams;
- Proficiency with advanced statistical analyses and programming using R and/or SAS;
- Proficiency in critical review and synthesis of epidemiology literature; and
- Strong communication skills (i.e., written, oral, presentation abilities).
Desired skills
- Experience conducting spatial statistical analysis in ArcGIS, QGIS, and/or R;
- Experience with causal inference techniques; and
- Experience extracting, cleaning, and analyzing data from large
- (>100,000 observations) datasets.
- How you will apply your skills
- Analytical responsibilities
- Conducting statistical analyses for epidemiological research, such as time-series, cluster analysis, meta-analysis, longitudinal data analysis, causal modeling, and multivariable regression models; and
- Utilizing spatial statistical methods to develop maps and interactive graphics and conduct statistical spatial analyses.
- Management and Administrative responsibilities
- Management and documentation of large (>100,000 observations) datasets to investigate associations between environmental exposures and adverse health outcomes;
- Developing data management plans, analysis plans and statistical design for epidemiological research;
- Conducting scientific literature searches (for example, Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, etc.) and critically evaluating literature;
- Extracting, formatting, cleaning, linking, merging, documenting and managing large (>100,000 observations), complex databases from both environmental and health platforms;
- Assisting with quality assurance reviews of data acquired from non-EPA sources, including internal consistency, agreement with historical data and with well-established scientific knowledge, evaluation of out-of-range or extreme values; conformity to approved protocols; and the completeness of the accompanying written documentation; and
- Researching and summarizing information relating to environmental quality and health outcomes.
- Communications-related responsibilities
- Participating as a member of a multi-disciplinary research team, including regular staff meetings;
- Interacting with EPA scientists and outside collaborators and stakeholders;
- Preparing detailed documentation of their efforts; and
- Preparing scientific manuscripts on their work and present at relevant scientific meetings.
Location: This job will be located EPA’s facility in Chapel Hill, NC.
Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $28.99 for hours worked.
Hours: Full time
Travel: Occasional local travel may be required. Occasional overnight travel to scientific meetings to present research may also be required.
Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin August 2019. The initial project is through May 14, 2020, with potential options periods.
Working conditions: You will be supervised by a mentor who will provide day-to-day direction, as well as coach, advise, counsel and review your work. The position will involve work in an administrative setting and is not expected to involve exposure to hazardous elements
Qualifications
- Be at least 18 years of age and
- have Master of Science or Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, computational biology, environmental science, public health, or other closely related field from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
- Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.
- EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.