AMENDED: PROPOSED SALARY - $115,000.00.

Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.

As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises from New York City’s yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.

Our Agency’s five strategic priorities, building off a recently-completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:
1) To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems 2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods
3) Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness
4) Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women’s health
5) Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change

Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all of our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.

PROGRAM AND JOB DESCRIPTION:


The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), Public Health Laboratory (PHL) seeks to hire City Research Scientist, assignment level IV-A to serve as Research Scientist of Bioinformatics, reporting to the Chief of Bioinformatics.

PHL’s mission is to safeguard the health of all New York City (NYC) residents by providing quality laboratory testing services that support the priorities of DOHMH and its community partners to prevent and respond to clinical and environmental public health concerns.

The Bioinformatician will lead implementation of bioinformatics tools, oversee analysis of high throughput sequencing (HTS) data produced by PHL and work closely with DOHMH epidemiologists' data scientists and IT staff.

Bioinformatics is an integral part of PHL and has helped NYC respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and other respiratory, foodborne, and waterborne disease outbreaks.

This is an excellent opportunity to join our multidisciplinary team of more than 200 laboratory professionals, and collaborate with State, Federal and academic partners such as New York State Wadsworth Center and CDC.

Recent work (selected):
West Jr. AP., et al. (2021) Detection and characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.526 in New York. Nat Commun. Aug 9;12(1):4886.
Lapierre P., et al. (2017) Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak Caused by Endemic Strain of Legionella pneumophila, New York, New York, USA, 2015. (2017) Emerging Infectious Diseases Nov; 23(11): 1784-1791

DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:

- Design and apply state-of-the-art computational methods. This includes, but is not limited to pathogen identification, outbreak tracking, mapping drug-resistance determinants, development of novel genetic tests, variant analysis, genome annotation and phylogenetics.

- Lead in the development of innovative approaches to software challenges that touch all aspects of high throughput sequencing (HTS) data analysis.

- Analyze microbial, viral, fungal, parasites and human HTS data.

- Maintain quality assurance and control of HTS data generated by the PHL to ensure reproducibility and accuracy of the downstream bioinformatics analyses.

- Guide the development of policies and procedures for clinical test implementation that require bioinformatics analysis.

- Design statistical analysis and participate in HTS scientific research studies and supervise staff in conducting scientific research projects.

- Summarize and communicate results in a comprehensive way for clinical staff, scientific meetings, and journal publication.

- Use best practices for code development and documentation.

- Educate, train and provide guidance to in-house staff and DOHMH partners on the interpretation of results.

- Supervise Research Scientists within the Bioinformatics unit.

- Effectively train staff on bioinformatics procedures.

- Serve as a backup unit chief and supervise other staff as needed.

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.

NOTE:
Probationary Period
Appointments to this position are subject to a minimum probationary period of one year.

- Experience developing complex bioinformatics solutions with no or limited supervision. - Excellent knowledge of at least one scripting language and Linux environment. - Experience with statistical packages such as R. - Act as a resource for guidance during the design, development, and testing phase of projects. - Prior knowledge of producing high-quality scientific Communication and grant proposals. - Strong and inspirational leader with an aptitude to train and lead lower-level bioinformatics staff.

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.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.