Together with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID), we are working on Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tools to improve infectious disease surveillance. In this research project, the goal is to improve event-based surveillance efforts which includes the screening of publicly available, unofficial sources for hints for disease outbreaks with a focus on COVID-19. To achieve this, we will develop an end-to-end natural language processing (NLProc) pipeline where its output is used to generate signals and further insights for our public health colleagues. Remote work is possible and applicants from outside of Germany are also encouraged to apply.

Previous work: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008277

Tasks and responsibilities
• Co-develop scientific software tools for AI-based digital surveillance
• Assist picking the right tools to get the job done
• Building an ETL-pipeline for various textual sources such as news articles, social media, etc.
• Developing and fine-tuning NLProc-models to filter relevant texts for public health agents
• Collaborate with national and international partners in public health intelligence activities
• Help publish results of this project in a scientific journal

Your profile
• University graduate (State Examination, university diploma, Master's), preferably in computer science or related
• Proven experience with data-driven solutions. Preferably with text data and in an epidemiological setting
• Strong skills in Python or R. Additional experience in relevant libraries such as scikit-learn, PyTorch, SpaCy, NLTK, quanteda, text2vec, tidytext or similar is preferred
• Applicant should be familiar with git. Jira and other project management tools are a plus
• Experience cooperating with international partners is an advantage
• Familiarity with infectious diseases or other experience solving health-related questions is an advantage
• Strong oral and verbal skills in English or German are required. If English is the main communication language, fundamental German comprehensions skills are advantageous. More languages are a plus.
• Curious, driven, team player, open minded, and thrilled to make an impact in digital epidemiology

You structure your own work in a meaningful way and keep an overview of your own tasks. You set priorities based on importance and urgency. You enjoy cooperating with international partners and are trustworthy, professional and reliable. You present facts clearly and vividly and argue precisely and objectively. You are committed to team results and contribute your skills.

You will have the opportunity to work in a dynamic and international environment on an interesting project which will have a real impact on the day-to-day tasks of public health intelligence. We offer flexible work hours, value work-life-balance, and health promotions. We ensure professional equality. We particularly encourage women, people of color, and people with disabilities to apply.