Are you seeking an opportunity to bring your professional expertise to a global organization focused on re-imagining public health?

Vital Strategies, headquartered in New York City, is an international public health organization. Our programs strengthen public health systems and address the world’s leading causes of illness, injury, and death. We currently work in 73 countries, supporting data-driven decision-making in government, advancing evidence-based public health policies, and mounting strategic communication campaigns. Vital Strategies’ priorities are driven by the greatest potential to improve and save lives. They include non-communicable disease prevention, cardiovascular health promotion, tobacco control, road safety, obesity prevention, epidemic prevention, overdose prevention, environmental health, vital statistics systems building, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment research. Our programs are primarily concentrated in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific; the Overdose Prevention Program is our first initiative in the U.S. Please visit our website at www.vitalstrategies.org to find out more about our work.

Vital Strategies is committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) organization. We believe our programs are strengthened when they are developed and supported by individuals with diverse life experiences, whose understanding of social and cultural issues can help make our work and workforce more inclusive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or creed, gender, national origin, ancestry, actual or perceived age, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, marital status, sexual orientation, predisposing genetic characteristics, alienage or citizenship status, gender (including gender identity or expression), partnership status, arrest or conviction record, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal laws.
Read about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Vital Strategies: https://www.vitalstrategies.org/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-at-vital-strategies/

Project Overview:

In collaboration with Pure Earth, Vital Strategies is leading public health surveillance design and implementation, statistical analysis and reporting of results, clinical and lay health worker training for the “Realizing Children’s Full Potential by Ending Lead Poisoning” project. This project aims to protect children from lead poisoning, enabling them to reach their full potential, by strengthening countries’ systems to identify, monitor, treat, and reduce toxic childhood lead exposure.

We are working with local partners in five locations including Colombia, India (Maharashtra), Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru to overcome key technical and clinical hurdles and implement effective national action to monitor and reduce lead poisoning risks. Vital Strategies achieves this by providing epidemiological and research design expertise, technical assistance, and direct support to advance national and regional governments’ health and exposure monitoring. Located in Indonesia, this role will work with local government and health sectors to strengthen national health systems and local expertise.  The Epidemiologist will collect, store, analyze, report, and use childhood lead exposure data to identify lead sources, raise awareness, and enable governments to plan, advocate for, and enact sound, cost-effective policies to address root causes.

The epidemiologist will lead efforts to engage the public health sector in Indonesia, including 1) assessing and building laboratory and health care system capacity to monitor lead exposure among children 2) working with the government to design and establish a national and regional surveillance system to monitor lead exposure among children and 3) strengthen the ability of clinical professionals and lay health workers to identify, treat, and prevent lead poisoning, and to educate communities and children about lead poisoning and ways to avoid/mitigate risks. The technical advisor will be supervised remotely by an expert environmental epidemiologist.

Job Purpose:

Vital Strategies seeks an experienced public health epidemiologist to work with local government and health sectors to strengthen Indonesia’s national health systems and build local expertise in childhood lead exposure to enact sound, cost-effective policies to address exposures.

The Epidemiologist will work with local government and health sectors in strengthening Indonesia’s national health systems and building local expertise in child lead exposure. This role will provide technical assistance in how to collect, store, analyze, and use data to raise awareness and enable governments to plan, advocate for, and enact sound, cost-effective policies to address exposures.

This is a full-time position based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Through its local employer of record in Indonesia, Vital Strategies provides comprehensive health benefits, paid vacation and sick leave, and other benefits. The salary range for this position is 666,000,000 IDR to 740,000,000 IDR.

Duties and Responsibilities:

In-Country Technical Guidance – 

• Lead and implement in-country work plan activities, including the development of study protocol and survey instrument, obtaining ethical approval, training field teams, overseeing data collection, quality assurance, and producing reports;
• Analyze and report surveillance data and findings using multivariate statistical methods and software;
• Organize and lead technical meetings with local government and partners to design a national biomonitoring surveillance system, evaluate lead exposure among children, and develop work plans with clear milestones, timelines, and monitoring plans related to country activities and projects;
• Coordinate efforts across different departments to inventory relevant hazard, exposure, and demographic data;
• Lead a process for developing summary indicators, support data management, quality control, and visualization of indicator data in an integrated data store and visualization platform;
• Develop and deliver health-oriented content for workshops and training with local stakeholders or health professionals as needed.

Program Management and Operation – 

• Support project start-up, recruitment, contracting, and procurement activities;
• Coordinate and monitor the implementation of key project activities;
• Act as a Vital Strategies focal point and representative for key partner organizations in Indonesia;
• Assist with other duties as specified by the supervisor.

Qualifications:

Education & Degree – 

• Master’s degree in epidemiology or related public health field (e.g., biostatistics, demography) or related field with 8 years of relevant experience.

Skills & Abilities – 

• Professional oral and written proficiency in English and Bahasa-Indonesian with strong writing skills for policymaker and public audiences;
• Strong understanding of public health surveillance in Indonesia;
• Strong foundational understanding of public health principles, especially epidemiology, analysis, terminology, and exposure assessment;
• Excellent epidemiologic and data analytic skills, including the ability to use statistical software and GIS packages (e.g., R, Stata, SAS) to calculate weights and conduct multivariate analyses;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to negotiate relationships and develop partnerships among diverse governmental and civil society stakeholders, communicate effectively to technical and non-technical audiences, and contribute to an interdisciplinary international team;
• Outstanding organizational skills and ability to successfully manage competing priorities and meet deadlines;
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative, work independently, and make sound, informed decisions;
• Solid knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook).

Experience Required:

• Minimum five years of experience in epidemiology, environmental health, global health, and/or program implementation with prior work experience in environmental epidemiology, especially related to public health surveillance, lead poisoning prevention, or heavy metal pollution ;
• Prior experience working in government and/or in collaboration with governmental health or environmental ministries;
• Prior work experience with international non-governmental organizations;
• Experience conducting public health surveillance;
• Experience managing complex data flows;
• Experience and comfort in public speaking.

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements:

• Ability to be flexible with colleagues across time zones;
• Willing to travel to in-person meetings with local partners throughout Indonesia;
• Residency in Jakarta and work authorization in Indonesia.

To Apply:

Please apply via the Careers page on the Vital Strategies website, or apply via the link below.

https://phg.tbe.taleo.net/phg01/ats/careers/v2/viewRequisition?org=VITASTRA&cws=37&rid=720