Scientist / Senior Scientist (Food Safety Analytics & Epidemiology)

[What the role is]

The National Centre for Food Science (NCFS) is the scientific arm of the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), providing scientific evidence to support regulatory functions and ensure food safety in Singapore. The Exposure & Data Science Branch (EDSB) conducts qualitative and quantitative research to inform food safety risk assessment, risk management and risk communication.

[What you will be working on]

The officer will be expected to:

• Plan, execute and manage research to estimate the health and economic burden of foodborne hazards in Singapore, including the development and application of epidemiological and health economic models to quantify disease incidence, health impacts (e.g. DALYs and QALYs) and associated economic costs.
• Design and conduct population-based surveys, and analyse existing epidemiological and surveillance data, to estimate community disease incidence, healthcare-seeking behaviour and case under-ascertainment for burden of disease estimation.
• Develop and apply approaches to estimate the proportion of disease attributable to foodborne transmission, including structured expert elicitation, epidemiological studies and other source attribution methodologies.
• Manage, analyse and integrate epidemiological, surveillance and other relevant datasets, applying statistical and mathematical modelling techniques, including sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, to generate robust, policy-relevant insights.
• Conduct epidemiological and statistical analyses to investigate associations between risk factors and food safety outcomes, informing food safety policies and intervention strategies.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams across internal departments and external institutions to advance food safety research in Singapore.
• Communicate research findings to policymakers, operational teams and scientific peers through stakeholder engagement, scientific publications, conference presentations and technical reports.
• Support project administration, including procurement, preparation of research proposals and management of collaborative agreements.

 

This job description provides a high-level overview of the work performed. Other job-related duties may be assigned as required.

[What we are looking for]

Essential:

• Degree in epidemiology, public health, biostatistics, statistics, health economics or other relevant quantitative disciplines.
• Experience in quantitative research, statistical analysis, epidemiological modelling, health economic evaluation or other relevant analytical work.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to learn and apply new methodologies to analyse complex datasets.
• Proficiency in at least one statistical programming language (e.g. R or Python) for data analysis and modelling.
• Good written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical findings clearly to both scientific and non-technical audiences.
• Good interpersonal skills, with the ability to work independently and collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams.
• Self-motivated, resourceful and able to take initiative and responsibility for delivering quality work.
• Good project management and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines.

 

  Preferred:

• Postgraduate qualification (Master’s or PhD) in a relevant discipline.
• Experience in epidemiological or burden of disease modelling, including the application of DALYs and QALYs or other population health metrics.
• Experience in health economic modelling or economic evaluation, including sensitivity and uncertainty analysis.
• Experience in designing or analysing population-based surveys, epidemiological studies or surveillance datasets.
• Familiarity foodborne disease source attribution methods or structured expert elicitation.
• Experience with data visualisation tools (e.g. Power BI or Tableau).
• Prior research experience in food safety, environmental health or public health.
• Track record of peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Work Location: National Centre for Food Science, 7 International Business Park, Singapore 609919