Epidemiologist (with Medical/Operations profile)

The Emergency Support Department (ESD) is part of the operations department and plays a key role in responding to humanitarian emergencies. The ESD conducts exploratory assessments, initiates and manages large scale or complex interventions to support people in precarious situations. The ESD provides support to existing country programs and the wider organisation to promote and improve emergency preparedness and response capacity.  The ESD consists of a headquarter based Emergency Desk (E Desk) of managers and an Operational Support Team (OST) of advisors and officers, and an Emergency Team of approximately 24 country programme based medical and non-medical profiles. 

We are re-opening the position of:  

 MEMBER AMSTERDAM EMERGENCY TEAM  

 Epidemiologist (with Medical/Operations profile)  

(90% country programme based/10% Amsterdam office) 

This is a country programme-based position. Emergency Team Members spend about 90% of their work days (so excluding holidays) inside country programme locations, often travelling with short notice to any required area. Approximately 10% at the headquarters (or working from home) for briefing/debriefing/trainings/specific tasks. 

Place within the organisation 

• Overall: reports to the Emergency Health Manager in Amsterdam. 

• During country programme assignments reports to the relevant Coordinator, or directly to the Emergency Health Manager in Amsterdam, depending on the response set-up.  

• Liaises with relevant Advisors in OCA for technical guidance, including a team of epidemiologists and public health specialists working on resources, research and learning tools for our programmes. 

Main objectives of the role 

To provide epidemiological support to emergency responses and potential assignment to non-emergency missions for providing support.  

In the event where epidemiological support is not immediately required, they may be deployed in other roles based on their background (Project Coordinator or Medical Team Leader or Medical / Nursing Activity Manager), hence OCA is looking for a polyvalent profile. 

Description of the role 

• In new emergencies, assist with background research on country profiles and epidemiological risks. Use knowledge and information gained in a specific context to provide input into the health and humanitarian response strategy. 

• Conduct rapid assessments- in collaboration with other team members.  

• Design and implement health surveys. Make suggestions for surveys in specific contexts. 

• Design and implement diseases surveillance systems in order to generate a comprehensive understanding of population dynamics and movements, existing livelihoods in these communities (access to water, shelter, food), disease burdens of greatest concern, early warning systems and the detection of unusual health events. 

• Analyse the available medical data together with the medical team to orient emergency interventions being implemented.  

• Conduct epidemiological follow-up with regards to epidemics and implementing specific monitoring systems and databases for diseases with outbreak potential.  

• Strengthen project capacity for outbreak detection and investigation to facilitate outbreak responses. 

• Strengthen existing methods of surveillance within emergency responses, supporting emergency medical teams in collecting and analysing health-related da