Epidemiologist

Key Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership across all seven surveillance sub-pillars within the assigned area:

• Alert Management: Oversee triage, verification, and timely closure of all alerts received through community, event-based, and indicator-based surveillance channels, including alert desks, hotlines, and e-registers, in line with national turnaround timelines.
  
• Case Investigation & Contact Tracing: Lead case investigation for suspected, probable, and confirmed cases (including BEVD), and supervise contact listing, tracing, and daily monitoring of contacts for the full 21-day follow-up period.
  
• Active Case Search: Coordinate active case search in high-risk communities and health facilities to identify missed or unreported cases and strengthen case ascertainment.
  
• Community-Based Surveillance: Supervise and mentor Village Health Teams (VHTs), CHEWs, and other community actors on community-based and event-based surveillance, alert notification, and referral pathways.
  
• Facility-Based Surveillance: Support integrated facility-based surveillance in health facilities, mentoring facility surveillance focal persons on case detection, screening, e-registers, and IDSR/eIDSR reporting.
  
• Mortality Surveillance: Coordinate mortality surveillance and verification of community and facility deaths, ensuring linkage with Safe and Dignified Burial (SDB) teams for suspected/confirmed BEVD deaths and other notifiable deaths.
  
• Points of Entry (PoE) Surveillance: Support surveillance and screening activities at gazetted and informal Points of Entry, including data review, quality checks, and follow-up on cross-border alerts.
  

Other Responsibilities

• Analyze surveillance and population connectivity (PopCAB) data to identify trends, hotspots, and cross-border transmission risks.
  
• Prepare and disseminate accurate daily/weekly epidemiological reports and alerts to district, regional, and national health authorities.
  
• Lead the development, quality assurance, and timely dissemination of daily/weekly BEVD Situation Reports (SitReps) to the District Task Force, Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), and national/regional stakeholders during an active response, ensuring consistency with surveillance and line-list data.
  
• Support Points of Entry capacity assessments and joint national/regional/district technical support supervision visits.
  
• Represent the project at regional and cross-border coordination meetings (e.g., Uganda–DRC, Uganda–South Sudan).
  
• Ensure timely and complete entry of field and hardcopy surveillance data into national systems (e.g., DHIS2, eIDSR).
  
• Support ring vaccination micro-planning and target-list verification where BEVD vaccination is deployed.
  
• Contribute to preparedness planning, risk communication activities, and after-action reviews.
  
• Ensure epidemiological and programmatic reports meet CDC/USG donor reporting requirements and timelines, including required indicators, data quality standards, and supporting documentation.
  

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

• Attend and actively contribute to Surveillance Pillar meetings, ensuring activities are aligned and coordinated across all seven surveillance sub-pillars.
  
• Attend weekly Incident Management Team (IMT) meetings to report progress, flag challenges, and receive and cascade guidance to field and Points of Entry teams.
  
• Participate in surveillance sub-pillar coordination meetings to synchronize activities, resolve bottlenecks, and ensure consistent application of case definitions and protocols across pillars.
  

Academic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine, or a related field; a Master's degree in Epidemiology or Public Health is strongly preferred.
  

Person Specification

• Bachelor's degree in Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine, or a related field; a Master's degree in Epidemiology or Public Health is strongly preferred.
  
• Minimum of three to five years' experience in disease surveillance, outbreak response, or field epidemiology.
  
• Field Epidemiology Training Programme (FETP) certification is an added advantage.
  
• Proficiency in epidemiological analysis tools (e.g., Epi Info, STATA, R) and health information systems (e.g., DHIS2).
  
• Demonstrated experience working with Ministry of Health structures and cross-border health programs.
  
• Excellent analytical, report-writing, and communication skills.
  
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently to border districts and Points of Entry