Epidemiology Activity Manager - Beirut in Lebanon at Médecins Sans Frontières

Context:

MSF OCG has been present in Lebanon for several years, supporting vulnerable populations through a combination of MSF standalone clinics, Mobile Medical Units (MMUs), support to public Primary Health Care Centers (PHCCs), hospital support, and community-based interventions across Bekaa, Beirut/Mount Lebanon, and South Lebanon. Core activities include non-communicable diseases (NCD) care, pediatrics, sexual and reproductive health (SRH), mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), referrals, and emergency medical activities.

Since the recent escalation, the mission has shifted into an emergency response posture, with large-scale population displacement, increased emergency and trauma-related needs, and significant pressure on the Lebanese health system. MSF is currently scaling up emergency activities through deployment of MMUs in shelters and host communities, support to public hospitals including ER, trauma stabilization and surgical capacity support, mental health services, emergency referrals, and continuity of care for vulnerable patients.

The context remains highly volatile and dynamic, requiring continuous adaptation of medical activities, strengthened surveillance and data systems, rapid assessments, contextual analysis, and close coordination with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), WHO, and other health actors.

In parallel, the mission continues to support continuity of care for vulnerable populations, including patients with chronic diseases and mental health conditions, while monitoring secondary healthcare (SHC) pressure, referral pathways, displacement trends, outbreak risks, and access to care across intervention areas.

Given the evolving humanitarian and public health situation in Lebanon, MSF teams regularly conduct assessments, epidemiological analysis, and operational reviews to ensure interventions remain relevant, adapted, and operationally impactful.

The medical activities, including management of NCD patient cohorts and innovative models of care in humanitarian settings, require regular evaluation and operational research initiatives to document outcomes and assess the effectiveness of current medical strategies. This includes operational research on diabetic management tools and digital health approaches (DTx) supporting continuity of care, treatment adherence, patient education, and decentralized follow-up models. Such evidence is valuable both for MSF operations and for the broader humanitarian and public health community working on NCD care in emergency settings.

The Epidemiology Activity Manager is expected to support the mission through epidemiological analysis, surveillance, emergency assessments, outbreak monitoring, contextual analysis, and interpretation of routine medical data to support operational decision-making and emergency response priorities. From Q4 2026 to Q1 2027, the planned activities will include analyzing the quantitative survey data on Type1 DM using R and progressing the findings toward publication in a paper.

The position requires strong flexibility, capacity to work in a rapidly evolving emergency context, and close collaboration with Medical Coordination, PMRs, MoPH, WHO, and other operational departments.

Functions:

Define, schedule and organize, in close collaboration with other medical team members, the annual epidemiological activity plan as well as its associated budget, in order to improve early detection of risk factors to better define treatment approaches and preventive practices. Lead the implementation of the protocols and epidemiological methodology, ensure all related staff follows them in order to improve the epidemiology activities efficiency.
Supervise, according to annual plan, the epidemiological activities ensuring that contacts with community groups and authorities are aligned with the objectives of those activities . Report on the progress of data collection, on ongoing analysis or on any issue causing delay, in order to achieve epidemiological goals on time.
Define in coordination with the MSF medical team on epidemiological activities that would contribute to the MSF social mission (eg. Surveillance, surveys, research, advocacy,…).
Supervise the implementation of epidemiological activities (including for example data filing procedures), ensure that all epidemiology software tools are properly used and are updated regularly, in order to ensure full data traceability and availability
Ensure that the outcomes/results of the epidemiological activities are analysed, contextualized and used for the MSF social mission
Plan and supervise, in close coordination with the HR department and the MSF vision, policies and values, the associated processes (job description, recruitment, training, performance evaluation, development and internal/external communication) of the epidemiological staff in order to ensure both the sizing and the amount of knowledge required, to improve staff technical capabilities, contribution and commitment to MSF values.
Participate in operational reports and organize and/or assist medical staff in preparing epidemiological reports
The epidemiology activity manager should also assume the responsibilities of the Epidemiologist if required (view Epidemiologist job description).
Ensure and maintain technical collaboration with the Epidemiology Advisers in the Medical Department (HQ).
Participate in workshops organised by the Medical Department (HQ) on topics related to the Epidemiology domain.
While the final responsibility of the quality and analysis/interpretation of the routine data should remain on the PMR/MedCo, the Epidemiology Activity Manager could provide feedback and should work together with PMR/MedCo to improve the quality or the analysis/interpretation of the routine data
Contribute to the analysis and interpretation of routine medical and emergency response data from MMUs, hospitals, PHCCs, MHPSS and outreach activities to support operational prioritization and emergency decision-making.
Develop regular epidemiological updates, dashboards, sitreps and analytical summaries to support Medical Coordination, emergency response teams and operational planning.
Support monitoring of access to care, referral pathways, hospitalization trends, morbidity patterns, population movements and continuity of care for vulnerable groups including NCD and mental health patients.
Collaborate closely with data, HIS and medical teams to improve data quality, completeness, consistency and interpretation across projects and emergency activities.
Support emergency response and further preparedness activities through analysis of contextual and epidemiological information, including population displacement trends, shelter conditions, disease risks and healthcare system functionality.
Support capacity building and technical mentoring of field teams on surveillance, data interpretation, outbreak monitoring and epidemiological tools adapted to emergency contexts

Requirements

Education: Master degree in Epidemiology, Public Health or equivalent with extensive training in statistics and epidemiology. Desirable to have medical or nursing related diploma.
Experience: Medical or para-medial profile with extensive field experience in MSF or another humanitarian NGO, including having worked in the context of health systems in a developing country. Experience in protocol writing and use of different quantitative study designs. Experience of at least two years in epidemiological activities related jobs. Essential experience on epidemiological data analysis.
Language: Fluent in Arabic and English.
Knowledge: Computer literacy (word, excel, internet), mastering in (at least) one statistical packages (eg. R, Stata, etc.), data management and integration skills, including experience with KOBO and APIs-based data work flows.

Competencies

People Management and Development L2
Commitment to MSF Principles L2
Behavioural Flexibility L3
Results and Quality Orientation L3
Teamwork and Cooperation L3