Director of Food Safety Data Analytics, Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy

The Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy (BESP) supports FSCS and other Environmental Health programs with cutting edge informatics, data analytics, and applied research to improve environmental health policy and programs. The Bureaus of Environmental Surveillance and Policy (BESP) and Food Safety and Community Sanitation (BFSCS) are seeking a Director of Food Safety Data Analytics to work with BFSCS in identifying and implementing data driven approaches to streamlining regulatory operations, and to lead the BESP Food Safety Data Analytics team.

The team of four analysts, one informatics product manager and the Director sit in BESP – a bureau with a mission to inform and improve environmental health policy and programs using cutting edge informatics, data analytics, applied research, and legal frameworks. BFSCS oversees regulatory programs to ensure food safety in over 40,000 food service establishments and mobile food vendors in NYC.

The Director’s primary function will be to use data and informatics tools to support food safety program e forts to ensure safe food service environments, in collaboration with units in BFSCS, Office of Environmental Investigations, and Division of Information Technology liaisons.

Reporting to the Executive Director of Environmental Surveillance in BESP, the candidate will assume oversight responsibility for responding to immediate and long-term needs of BFSCS programs, including developing operational tools to increase program efficiency, and directing surveillance and research projects as needed. The Director wild supervise a team of analysts and an informatics product manager on projects that support routine food safety inspections and foodborne illness outbreak prevention.

We are recruiting a full-time research scientist to fill this role. The candidate must have extensive experience in leading data analytics, as well as excellent managerial and cross-functional collaboration skills. Experience with implementing data-driven informatics solutions to operational problems and/or experience with designing and implementing operational process efficiency changes is also desired. They will operate with a wide degree of independence and autonomy.

• Collaborate directly with the Assistant Commissioner and Executive Directors of BFSCS to:
• Understand operational procedures and identify opportunities for optimization or automation.
• Design, develop and maintain automated data solutions, reporting pipelines, and data-driven tools to improve operational efficiency and reduce manual processes.
• Collaborate with supervisors of inspectional staff to ensure user acceptance of data-driven tools; use an iterative process to improve or enhance tools as needed.
• Manage and improve BFSCS’s key performance indicators, including regular refinement to ensure the indicators align with leadership goals and priorities.
• Lead the BESP Food Safety Data Analytics Team by engaging in the following duties and responsibilities:
• Manage staff of up to 4 data analysts and an informatics product manager, providing scientific and project direction and oversight.
• Lead analysis and reporting work to answer questions related to inspection results and trends using SQL, SSRS Report Designer, Power BI, and other software.
• Serve as liaison to inspection program executive leadership to formulate creative approaches for using data to improve inspection program efficiency and effectiveness.
• Ensure data analytic products and reports are accurate and adhere to data documentation standards.
• Liaise directly with Division of IT developers to oversee technical design and enhancements to the food safety inspection SQL database systems, including design of the backend…