Job Description

ONLY PERMANENT EMPLOYEES IN THE TITLE AND THOSE THAT ARE REACHABLE ON THE CIVIL SERVICE LIST OF ASSOCIATE LABORATORY MICROBIOLOGIST EXAM NO. 4016 ARE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY.

Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.

As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises from New York City’s yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.

Our Agency’s five strategic priorities, building off a recently-completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:

1) To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems 2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods

3) Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness

4) Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women’s health

5) Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change

Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all of our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.

Program and Job Description:

The New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is a public health leader serving over 8.4 million New York City residents from diverse ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. The NYC Public Health Laboratory (PHL) is one of the largest local public health laboratories in the United States offering a dynamic and innovative work environment where employees contribute to the health and safety of NYC residents by providing clinical and environmental laboratory testing services. With more than 100 years of leadership in public health, a team of over 200 scientific and support staff are committed to its mission to safeguard the health of all NYC residents by providing quality laboratory testing services that support the priorities of the NYC DOHMH and its community partners to prevent and respond to clinical and environmental public health concerns.

The DOHMH PHL seeks two qualified candidates to serve as Associate Laboratory Microbiologist II. These positions will play integral roles in laboratory testing and responding to public health threats, including but not limited to COVID-19, vaccine preventable diseases, HIV, Legionella as well as respiratory, foodborne, and waterborne disease outbreaks. This is an excellent opportunity to join our multidisciplinary team, and collaborate with local, state, federal, and academic partners.

DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:

Direct and coordinate the daily operations of laboratories providing diagnostic services with special supervisory responsibilities during routine testing and outbreak events, including COVID-19.

Supervise, train, discipline and evaluate the performance of laboratory staff and trainees.

Prioritize, schedule, organize and direct the activities of laboratory to provide optimal delivery of services according to PHL standards of quality, productivity and performance.

Lead and coordinate the daily operations of laboratory functional area in collaboration with Analytical Specialists and management during routine testing and outbreak events.

Analyze, verify and release reports.

Help to establish or modify technical procedures as needed, update and maintain SOPMs and quality documents.

Initiate and direct the study of new materials or methods designed to improve diagnostic procedures.

Manage and oversee laboratory staff and purchase of inventory, storage, and supplies usage for routine testing and outbreak responses.

Participate in the cross training program within PHL.

Participate in continuous quality improvement initiatives for laboratory processes and work collaboratively with the section and Quality Management to implement changes.

Ensure all regulatory and safety standards are followed and serve as a resource for regulatory and accreditation compliance.

Prepare annual budget requests.

Troubleshoot method and instrumentation problems, be proactive in solving technical problems.

Perform other duties as required.

Qualifications

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in medical technology or in one of the chemical, physical, or biological sciences, and one year of laboratory experience at the technologist level in the appropriate laboratory specialty or specialties; or

2. Ninety college credits from an accredited college or university including or supplemented by either (a) or (b) below, and one year of laboratory experience at the technologist level in the appropriate laboratory specialty or specialties.

(a) For those whose training was completed prior to September 15, 1963: a total of at least 24 credits in chemistry and biology courses combined, including at least nine credits in chemistry, of which six credits must be in inorganic chemistry; and including at least 12 credits in biology courses

pertinent to the medical sciences.

(b) For those whose training was completed after September 15, 1963: 16 credits in chemistry courses acceptable towards a major in chemistry, including at least six credits in inorganic chemistry; and 16 credits in biology courses acceptable towards a major in biology; and three credits in mathematics.

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.