Emergency Epidemiologist (F/M/X)

To fulfill its mission of assistance to victims of conflicts, epidemics or natural disasters, MSF-Switzerland has created an emergency team, of which members are experienced individuals capable of evaluating a situation, implementing a response, as well as starting and coordinating a mission. The post of epidemiologist reports to the emergency coordinators at field level and/or the coordination team in the capital and finally the Emergency Desk at headquarters level in Geneva.

The candidate is expected to

1) work in all contexts set by the emergency desk and

2) have the flexibility to work with different terms of reference and

3) work in emergency contexts with regular cells and fill gaps in regular projects if need be.

Duty Station

All countries where the emergency desk opens activities, which requires an urgent response.On call, the epidemiologist should be available within 48 hours for rapid and short (maximum 3-4 months) interventions. He/she is part of a core group of medicals, para-medicals, logisticians responsible for responding, amongst others, to:

• exploratory missions
• epidemics
• nutritional crises
• displaced populations and/or refugees’ camps
• surgical emergencies
• natural disasters

Job Description (but not limited to)

Define, implement and follow up epidemiological activities, this may include monitoring and analysis of MSF medical activities, outbreak investigation, survey and surveillance.

Responsibilities/Activities

• Defining, scheduling, and organizing, in close collaboration with other medical team members, the epidemiological activity plan as well as its associated budget, in order to improve early detection of risk factors to better define strategies, treatment approaches and preventive practices.
• Leading the implementation of the protocols and epidemiological methodology, ensuring all related staff follows them in order to improve research efficiency. Ensure the epidemiological activities are implemented according to the appropriate methodology, (this may include, writing protocol, training and supervision of staff).
• Analyzing results of epidemiological activities, write reports.
• Advising the MSF medical team on epidemiological matters that arise during their activity research, and, when necessary, design and implement epidemiological tools and data collection to meet new epidemiological needs.
• Ensuring, in coordination with logistics department, that national or international shipment of laboratory samples acquired for research purposes is done within datelines and according to protocols, following security rules and keeping conditions needed for the sample.
• Interacting with the GIS officers as appropriate (in surveys, operational research, surveillance systems, outbreak investigations and response, etc).
• Ensuring that the outcomes/results of the epidemiological activities are analysed, contextualized and used for the MSF social mission.
• Supervising data filing procedures ensuring that all epidemiology software tools are properly used and are updated regularly, in order to ensure full data traceability and availability.
• Planning and supervising, in close coordination with the HR department and the MSF vision, policies and values, the associated processes (job description, recruitment, training, performance evaluation, development and internal/external communication) of the epidemiological staff in order to ensure both the sizing and the amount of knowledge required, improve people technical capabilities, contribution and their commitment to MSF values.