Senior Health Data Scientist - Yaoundé, Cameroon

ICF is seeking a Health Data Scientist (HDS) for an anticipated large USAID-funded malaria project in Cameroon. The HDS will provide technical leadership on malaria data issues, specifically the analytical aspect to streamline implementation of malaria control activities. The project will support the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) and Ministry of Health (MOH) to implement activities to reduce malaria morbidity and maternal and child mortality. The HDS will participate in various aspects of analytics capability development and implementation, including developing analytical approaches for routine data and data from other sources such as program data and survey data. He/ She will contribute to data quality improvement efforts across the continuum of health service levels. The HDS will be part of the project leadership and work closely with Deputy Chief of Party and the project technical advisors. The position will be in Yaoundé with travel to the North in Cameroon.

Responsibilities:

• Support collation, analysis, and interpretation of data from various sources, including Cameroon HIS, Malaria Indicator Survey, other population-based surveys, census data, demographic surveillance site data, civil registration, and vital statistics data
• Support development of dashboards and reports to assess malaria data quality, program performance, and support decision making for specific audiences depending on their data use needs
• Conduct independent analysis to identify new insights on malaria data in Cameroon
• Provide technical leadership through participation in forums, research, and support to government and implementing partners
• Manage project activities, including developing workplans and activity budgets, and ensure timely project reporting
• Mentor county level staff in data science and analytics
• Contribute to dissemination of results through peer-review publications.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in health sciences, physical sciences, or Information Communication Technology
• 8+ years of experience involving quantitative heath data handling, preferably infectious disease data
• 5 + years of experience understanding of routine health data and health information systems in Cameroon
• 5 + years of experience understanding of malaria stratification in the context of the WHO Hi Burden High Impact initiative
• 6 + years of understanding of data quality assessment tools and methods, and experience in addressing data quality issues related to routine health information data
•  3+ years proficiency in analyzing and interpreting routine and non-routine data, and effectively communicating results and findings

Preferred/Desired Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in a relevant field, preferably in a quantitative field (e.g., health systems strengthening, epidemiology, demography, data science, statistics, biostatistics, etc)
• Proficiency in malaria epidemiology and SME
• Good understanding of malaria stratification in the context of the WHO High Burden High Impact initiative
• Knowledge of the Cameroon DHIS2 platform and other health data systems
• Proficiency in abstracting and linking data from large relational data sets
• Prior experience working with Cameroon MoH, USAID-related projects, and PMI
• Ability to be flexible to handle multiple priorities Ability to work in programming languages and big data technologies such as Python, SQL, Hadoop, Apache Spark, etc a plus
• Additional professional certification in data science is a plus
• Good knowledge of Geographic Information Systems
• Excellent problem-solving skills with ability to analyze situations, identify existing or potential problems and recommend solutions
• Advanced verbal and written communication skills in English
• Ability to work with all levels of internal staff, as well as outside clients and vendors
• Solid knowledge of data analytics and visualization tools, techniques, and methods
• Proficiency in statistical analysis and good knowledge of at least one statistical package (e.g., SPSS, R, Stata, SAS)

Working at ICF

Working at ICF means applying a passion for meaningful work with intellectual rigor to help solve the leading issues of our day. Smart, compassionate, innovative, committed, ICF employees tackle unprecedented challenges to benefit people, businesses, and governments around the globe. We believe in collaboration, mutual respect, open communication, and opportunity for growth.

Cameroon (CM02)