Data Infrastructure Engineer

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.

As a Data Infrastructure Engineer on our Integrated Public Health Infrastructure team, you will play a pivotal role in enhancing our Data Infrastructure, crucial for our advanced public health analytics efforts. Your responsibilities include developing, maintaining, and optimizing a secure, scalable Data Infrastructure that supports meaningful public health insights and outcomes. You will be instrumental in advancing a cross-functional approach to Data Infrastructure, ensuring efficient data processing, scalable storage solutions, and adherence to security and governance measures. Your work will directly contribute to the effectiveness and advancement of our public health objectives, ensuring our practices not only meet current needs but are also strategically aligned to meet future challenges.

This position will be within the Health Department’s innovative Center for Population Health Data Science (CPHDS). The CPHDS is working to strengthen citywide population health surveillance by better linking public health, healthcare, and social service data to fully characterize and improve the health of New Yorkers. Our vision is for these data to be accessible, timely, equitable, meaningfully usable, and protected – and being actively used to protect and promote health and wellbeing of New Yorkers. This position will involve close collaboration with the Division of Information Technology.

The selected candidate will be an employee of Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit organization which is the fiscal and administrative manager of the grant but the work be supervised by DOHMH. This position will be based at the Health Department’s office in Long Island City, NY, with the possibility of hybrid work.

Responsibilities:

• Develop an integrated Data Infrastructure that facilitates efficient data exchange, analysis, surveillance, and reporting.
• Collaborate with public health experts to understand data requirements for health informatics, integrating public health data standards and practices into our integrated data architecture.
• Develop, and maintain scalable, secure data pipelines and platform to support real-time and batch data ingestion and processing from diverse internal and external data sources.
• Guide the selection and implementation of cutting-edge data technologies and tools to enhance our analytics and data science capabilities.
• Promote data governance, quality, and security best practices, ensuring compliance with applicable regulations and standards.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to align Data Infrastructure enhancements with the needs of diverse units.

• Bachelor's or master's degree in Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Health Informatics, or a similar field.
• 2 or more years of experience in data engineering, building and managing scalable data pipelines.
• Experience with cloud-based data solutions (e.g., Azure, AWS, or GCP), programming (e.g., Python, R), Linux systems, and big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark).
• Familiarity with health informatics, public health data standards (HL7, FHIR), and understanding of the unique needs in managing health-related data.
• Leadership experience with the ability to mentor and grow a small team, manage projects, and collaborate across diverse functional teams.
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills to effectively convey technical concepts to a broad audience.
• Salary - $115,000-$115,000

Why Join Us:

• Directly contribute to advancing public health in New York City and setting best practices globally through innovative Data Infrastructure initiatives.
• Lead the transformative integration of modern data engineering practices with health informatics to define the next era of timely and effective public health strategies.
• Be part of a mission-focused organization that is one of the largest public health agencies in the world, serving 8.5 million New Yorkers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds and dedicated to improving their health and wellbeing.
• Enjoy a supportive work environment that values diversity, innovation, learning, and professional growth.

Additional Information:

• This individual must reside in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT) by their confirmed start date.
• Preference may be given to individuals residing in New York City (5 boroughs) or surrounding New York State counties.
• This individual will be expected to work non-business hours during emergencies.
• This position is funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PHS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and veterans.