Epidemiologist - BEVD Surveillance

About the role

The Infectious Disease Institute is recruiting a full-time Epidemiologist in Kampala (Kamwokya) to provide technical leadership across seven surveillance sub-pillars, including case investigation, contact tracing, community and facility-based surveillance, mortality surveillance, and Points of Entry screening. The role also covers epidemiological reporting, data entry into national systems and coordination with regional and cross-border partners.

Key responsibilities

• Oversee triage, verification and timely closure of alerts from community, event-based and indicator-based surveillance channels, including alert desks, hotlines and e-registers.
• Lead case investigation for suspected, probable and confirmed cases (including BEVD) and supervise contact listing, tracing and 21-day follow-up.
• Coordinate active case search in high-risk communities and health facilities, and supervise Village Health Teams, CHEWs and facility surveillance focal persons.
• Coordinate mortality surveillance and verification of deaths, linking with Safe and Dignified Burial teams for suspected or confirmed BEVD deaths.
• Support surveillance and screening at Points of Entry, including data review, quality checks and follow-up on cross-border alerts.
• Analyze surveillance and population connectivity (PopCAB) data, and prepare daily and weekly epidemiological reports and alerts for district, regional and national authorities.
• Lead the development, quality assurance and dissemination of daily and weekly BEVD Situation Reports during an active response.
• Ensure field and hardcopy data are entered into national systems such as DHIS2 and eIDSR, and that reports meet CDC/USG donor reporting requirements.
• Attend surveillance pillar meetings, weekly Incident Management Team meetings and cross-border coordination meetings (e.g. Uganda-DRC, Uganda-South Sudan).

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine or a related field; a Master's in Epidemiology or Public Health is strongly preferred.
• Minimum of three to five years' experience in disease surveillance, outbreak response or field epidemiology.
• Demonstrated experience with Ministry of Health structures and cross-border health programs.
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently to border districts and Points of Entry.

Required skills

• Proficiency in epidemiological analysis tools such as Epi Info, STATA and R.
• Health information systems such as DHIS2.
• Excellent analytical, report-writing and communication skills.
• FETP certification is an added advantage.