Chief of Bioinformatics, Bureau of the Public Health Laboratory

Job Description

The Division of Disease Control's mission is to safeguard the health of New Yorkers through identification, surveillance, treatment, control, and prevention of infectious diseases, which is achieved through varied and interrelated endeavors of its seven Bureaus. The NYC Public Health Laboratory (PHL) is one of the largest local public health laboratories in the United States where employees contribute to the health and safety of NYC residents by providing clinical and environmental laboratory testing services. PHL is committed to its mission to safeguard the health of all NYC residents by providing quality laboratory testing services that support the priorities of DOHMH and its community partners to prevent and respond to clinical and environmental public health concerns.

Position Summary: The Chief of Bioinformatics will provide strategic and scientific leadership for the development, implementation, and application of bioinformatics tools and data-driven approaches within the Public Health Laboratory (PHL). This role will oversee the analysis and interpretation of high-throughput sequencing and other complex laboratory data, ensuring timely, accurate, and actionable insights that support public health surveillance, outbreak response, and research.

The Chief will collaborate closely with epidemiologists, data scientists, and information technology teams across the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to integrate bioinformatics and data analytics into routine public health practice. Bioinformatics and data analytics play a vital role in PHL's mission and have been central to New York City's response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other respiratory, foodborne, and waterborne disease outbreaks. Reporting to PHL senior leadership, the Chief will lead a team of six scientists and guide the continued growth of the bioinformatics and data analytics program. This is an exceptional opportunity to join a multidisciplinary team of more than 200 laboratory professionals and collaborate with state, federal, and academic partners, including the New York State Wadsworth Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Selected publications and news: Legionella: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/nyregion/legionnaires-disease-new-york-lab.html Mpox: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60486-x COVID-19: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9949853/ Wastewater surveillance: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-025-22306-1

DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:
- Supervise and mentor a team of bioinformatics and data analytics scientists, providing technical guidance and performance oversight.
- Train and develop staff in bioinformatics tools, pipelines, and analytical best practices.
- Design, implement, and apply state-of-the-art computational methods for high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data analysis, including pathogen identification, outbreak tracking, detection of drug-resistance determinants, variant analysis, genome annotation, and phylogenetics.
- Support the development of innovative computational solutions to software and analytical challenges across diverse projects involving microbial, viral, fungal, and parasitic HTS data.
- Maintain rigorous quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) processes to ensure the accuracy, reproducibility, and integrity of HTS data and downstream analyses.
- Promote best practices in code development, version control, documentation, and data management to support transparency and reproducibility.
- Educate and provide expert guidance to internal staff and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) partners on data interpretation and the application of bioinformatics results to public health investigations.
- Lead data modernization initiatives.
- Contribute to the development and implementation of policies, procedures, and standards for clinical and public health testing that incorporate bioinformatics analyses.
- Lead and participate in research studies involving HTS technologies; oversee staff in the design, execution, and analysis of research projects.
- Communicate findings and results clearly and effectively through technical reports, scientific presentations, and peer-reviewed publications.

PREFERRED SKILLS:
- Demonstrated ability to develop complex bioinformatics solutions independently and with minimal supervision.
- Advanced proficiency in at least one scripting language (e.g., Python, Perl, or Bash) and experience working in a Linux computing environment.
- Experience with containerization technologies such as Docker, Podman or Singularity.
- Proficiency in SQL for data querying and management.
- Proficiency in Git.
- Strong experience with statistical and data analysis tools, including R and associated packages.
- Proven ability to provide