Drug-Checking Data Analyst, Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use

Description

The Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use works to reduce illness and death linked to alcohol and substance use among New Yorkers. It runs treatment, recovery and support contracts, policy work, epidemiology and surveillance, treatment and management guidelines, harm reduction, outreach and education, and community and interagency partnerships.

The Office of Research, Surveillance, Policy, and Communications in the Bureau runs surveillance, program evaluation and research, maintains databases, writes reports and peer-reviewed articles, supports policy development, and produces materials for providers and the public.

Since 2021 the Bureau has run a drug-checking pilot that gives people who use drugs fact-based information about the unregulated supply. Trained technicians use infrared spectroscopy and test strips at syringe service sites in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn, two of which also offer overdose prevention services.

This City Research Scientist role (job code 21744) supports data collection, analysis and reporting for the drug-checking initiative, working with the Drug Checking Team on data management, data quality, data requests and reports for internal and external audiences.

The employer is the city health department, founded in 1805, which is the oldest and largest health department in the U.S.

Responsibilities

• Pull, clean, reshape, organize and analyze drug-checking data, mainly in R, REDCap, Excel and SQL
• Check data quality with the technicians and help put quality improvement steps in place
• Help the Senior Drug Checking Epidemiologist develop new analysis methods that combine drug-checking data with syndromic surveillance data to guide the program
• Help design and maintain the drug-checking database, including queries, data entry procedures and documentation
• Help write and update study and data management documents such as data dictionaries and codebooks
• Prepare programmatic reports, including weekly internal reports, dashboards, external reports, PowerPoint slides and ad hoc data requests
• Keep a drug-checking dashboard running and support other data visualization work
• Help draft protocols, workflows, questionnaires and surveys
• Help prepare IRB applications for research protocols
• Help draft manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals
• Contribute to the Bureau's racial justice and health equity work

Requirements

• Assignment Level I (physical, biological, environmental sciences and public health only): a master's degree from an accredited college or university, specialized in a relevant field of physical, biological or environmental science or public health
• Assignment Level II and above: a doctorate from an accredited college or university, specialized in a relevant field of physical, biological, environmental or social science, plus one year of full-time supervisory, administrative or research experience in that field; or
• Assignment Level II and above: a master's degree from an accredited college or university, specialized in a relevant field of physical, biological, environmental or social science, plus three years of full-time responsible research experience in that field; or
• Assignment Level II and above: education or experience equivalent to either option above, but you must hold at least a master's degree in a relevant field and have at least two years of the research experience described in the second option. Two years as a City Research Scientist Level I can replace the experience required in the first two options.
• Preferred: practical experience applying public health principles and working across systems to address substance use
• Preferred: experience with program monitoring, evaluation or quality improvement
• Preferred: knowledge of, or experience in, substance use and harm reduction
• Preferred: at least one year of applied public health data analysis in R
• Preferred: experience with quantitative data, including reading, interpreting and summarizing epidemiologic and other scientific research
• Preferred: experience collecting survey data and managing databases in REDCap, SQL, Microsoft Access or similar tools
• Preferred: experience with dashboarding and visualization tools such as Power BI or Tableau, or a willingness to learn them
• Preferred: ability to work alone and on a team
• Preferred: strong interpersonal, research, written and verbal communication skills
• Preferred: strong organization and attention to detail
• Preferred: proficiency in Excel, Access, Word and PowerPoint
• Preferred: ability to juggle many tasks in a fast-moving, high-volume setting
• Preferred: motivation to reduce drug-related illness and death in New York City

Conditions

Depending on the position, you may be able to work from home up to two days a week

Appointments are subject to a probationary period of one year

The company is an equal opportunity employer that bans discrimination and harassment based on legally protected characteristics

Benefits

• Possible eligibility for federal or state loan forgiveness and repayment assistance, which can reduce or fully cancel a student loan balance
• Premium-free health insurance that the city estimated in 2024 saves employees over $10K a year
• Additional health, fitness and financial benefits may be available depending on the union or benefit fund for the position
• Public sector defined benefit pension that pays a steady monthly amount in retirement
• Tax-deferred savings program
• Worksite Wellness Program with health resources and activities
• Possibly greater job security than private sector employment