JOB PURPOSE
Amref Health Africa is seeking a highly skilled Data
Scientist/Analyst to join the Health System Strengthening Directorate. The
successful candidate will play a crucial role in leveraging data to enhance
decision-making, drive programmatic impact, and contribute to the overall goal
of improving health outcomes in Africa by making sense of existing data,
developing a system of data collection and analysis and presenting the data to
key stakeholders for utilization
Key
Responsibilities
Program
Management:
- Lead in the development of
an HSS Data Management and information use blueprint and Implementation
Plan with representation of all the four strategic pillars within the HSS
directorate
- Continuously reviewing and
improving data management processes, analytical methodologies, and
reporting mechanisms to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of
program management with the Directorate
- Contribute to the
development and implementation of performance monitoring frameworks to
track and assess the effectiveness of health system strengthening programs
within the Health Systems Strengthening Directorate
- Contribute to the
Directorate’s evidence-based work planning and budgeting efforts
- Lead in the review and
adaptation of essential data-related policies, Minimum operating Standards
(MoSs), and Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs)
Work closely with the Health System Strengthening team and Amref country offices to identify opportunities for data-driven interventions to improve health systems.
The specific roles under program management include: –
- Maintain the data for Health
System Strengthening Directorate:
- Maintain the data dashboards of
the HSS data
- Develop data collection systems,
data analytics and other strategies that optimize statistical efficiency
and quality ensuring the database is updated as per schedule.
- Acquire data from primary or
secondary data sources and maintain the data, identify, analyze, and
interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets.
- Work with management to
prioritize business and information needs of the HSS directorate.
- Locate and define new data
process improvement opportunities while providing technical support in
data collection, compilation and quality control.
- Regularly review, analyze and
evaluate business and user needs and experience to improve the design,
development and implementation of the database.
- Collect and analyze feedback
from users to assess the quality, relevance and usefulness of the portal
and the data in particular.
- Work with Amref’s IT team in
capturing bugs and any technical issues in the issue tracker and follow
up with the developers.
- Provide database liaison support:
- Serve as the data focal point
for HSS In order to consolidate and communicate information regarding
data updates and other developments.
- Work closely with Amref’s IT
team to coordinate the database and data requirements.
- Communicate regularly with IT
team to provide updates on database maintenance, support, and other
relevant issues.
- Develop custom data
visualizations and dashboards:
- Produce customized data
visualizations to support HSS data and impact stories.
- Create custom dashboards and
interactive data features.
- In collaboration with Amref’s M
& E department Develop and manage the data dashboards for HSS to
support Health Financing, Reproductive Maternal Child and Adolescent
Health [RMNCAH], Primary Health Care (PHC), and Social Determinants of
Health (SDoH)
- Support data hub web development
and content:
- Build custom sub web pages on
the HSS data and work with the IT team in updating web content as
required,
Evidence
Generation and Translation:
- Conduct comprehensive
analysis of health-related data to identify trends, patterns, and insights
that can inform programmatic decisions and strategies within the HSS
directorate and Amref in general.
- Utilize statistical
modeling and forecasting techniques to predict future health system needs,
resource allocation, and potential outcomes of program interventions.
- Contribute to the design
and implementation of rigorous evaluation studies to assess the impact and
effectiveness of health system strengthening initiatives. This involves
developing evaluation frameworks, coordinating data collection and
analysis, and reporting findings.
- Ensure the accuracy,
completeness, and reliability of data by implementing data quality
assurance processes, data cleaning techniques, and validation checks.
- Staying updated with the
latest advancements in health system strengthening and data science,
exploring innovative approaches, and contributing to research publications
and conferences.
- Ensuring compliance with
data governance policies and privacy regulations, such as HIPAA, GDPR, and
applicable local laws, to protect sensitive health data.
- Develop and maintain data
pipelines for efficient data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL)
processes.
- Create visually appealing
and informative data visualizations to effectivel communicate complex
information to technical and non-technical stakeholders. This includes
building interactive dashboards, charts, and graphs to support
decisionmaking
- Guide HSS directorate
staffs and Amref country offices on the utilization of emerging evidence
generated from data extraction and analysis.
Business
Development
- Support proposal
development to secure funding and business for HSS directorate and Amref
Health Africa at large
Stakeholder
Engagement & Capacity Building
- Collaborating with
cross-functional teams, including healthcare professionals, donors,
policymakers, and program managers, to understand their data needs and
provide insights that support evidence-based decision-making.
- Provide technical support
and training to Amref’s staff on data-related tools, methodologies, and
best practices and promoting a data-driven culture.
- Work with Amref’s COs and
directorates in building a data utilization for decision making COP
- Undertake related duties as
required.
Required
Qualifications
The successful candidate will have a strong technical
background in data management, analysis, synthesis, and modelling. The
incumbent will contribute to the implementation of the directorates research
vision to maximise the value of data and information systems as strategic
research assets ensuring relevance, accessibility and usability of health
system data and analysis.
Education
Qualification
- Master’s in Data Science
and a data science certification.
- Master’s in Mathematics,
Statistics, Computer Science, actuarial science, or a related field and a
data science certification.
- PhD is an added advantage
Professional
Qualification and Competencies
- Minimum five (5) years of
experience in technical knowledge of managing and making sense of data to
enhance decision-making, and drive programmatic impact
- Programming Skills – knowledge of
statistical programming languages like R, Python, and database query
languages like SQL, Hive, Pig is desirable. Familiarity with Scala, Java,
or C++ is an added advantage.
- Statistics – Good applied
statistical skills, including knowledge of statistical tests,
- distributions, regression,
maximum likelihood estimators, etc. Proficiency in statistics is essential
for data-driven companies.
- Machine Learning – good knowledge
of machine learning methods like k-Nearest Neighbors, Naive Bayes, SVM,
Decision Forests.
- Strong Math Skills (Multivariable
Calculus and Linear Algebra) – understanding the fundamentals of
Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra is important as they form the
basis of a lot of predictive performance or algorithm optimization
techniques.
- Data Wrangling – proficiency in
handling imperfections in data is an important aspect of a data scientist
job description.
- Experience with Data
Visualization Tools like matplotlib, ggplot, d3.js., Tableau that help to
visually encode data
- Strong analytical skills
and problem-solving skills in extracting insights from complex datasets,
identify patterns and make data-driven decisions
- Familiarity with the
healthcare industry, especially in relation to health systems
strengthening is highly desirable
- Excellent written and
verbal communication skills with ability to present complex information to
both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Good understanding of
ethical considerations related to data privacy, security, and data
confidentiality. This includes familiarity with relevant regulations such
as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is highly desirable
- Strong interpersonal and
capacity-building skills, including training, mentoring, and coaching
skills.
- Technically sound in
DEIB-focused approaches
- Demonstrate ability to
build networks and with various stakeholders
- Fluency in French would be
an additional advantage.
Key
Performance Indicators for this role include: –
- Up to date and accurate
data dashboards.
- Maintained and updated
country fact sheets
- Effective communication
with IT directorate and related departments.
- Quality data visualizations
are produced based on up-to-date design and technology.
- Custom pages are built
using modular templates and modifications are made as needed.
- Custom dashboards are built
and maintained to support specific data initiatives.
Compensation
- This role attracts
competitive benefits commensurate with experience
How To Apply
Interested? Please visit our website https://amref.org/vacancies/ to
make your application. You will be directed to our online portal where you will
need to create an account in order for you to be able to submit your
application.
Your application should include a cover letter detailing
why you are the best fit for this position and your CV with relevant skills and
experience. Closing date will be Monday, 18
th March 2024. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted