Health Informatics Software Development Officer at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN)

The Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) is a leading and reputable non-governmental organization addressing infectious and non-infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and cancer through the provision of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, capacity building, research, and care and support services.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Health Informatics Software Development Officer

Location: Abuja
Employment Type: Full-time
Scheduled Work Time: Monday - Friday
Reports To: Project Director SECURE-Nigeria & Principal Investigator SECURE-Nigeria

Background

• Through funding from the US -CDC, IHVN is implementing the Strengthening Global Health Security Agenda in Nigeria Project SECURE-Nigeria. This project provides technical support to Government of Nigeria agencies including NCDC and NPHCDA to strengthen surveillance activities as part of IHR 2005. Under this cooperative agreement through various component funding, SECURE–Nigeria is implementing several surveillance projects including:
  • Strengthening routine IDSR reporting and data management
  • Strengthening surveillance systems for adverse event monitoring following the COVID-19 vaccines rollout.
• The 2 projects have its deliverable centered on developing a data analytics & visualization tool (DAVT) that has its version 1.0 completed. Its purpose is to provide a surveillance atmosphere with tools that prompt data-driven decision making thereby increasing data demand and use at both the national and state levels.
• The DAVT as a tool that is built to accept data from any source stands with the potential of continuous expansion in capacity, features, and functionalities as well as continuous management and maintenance.
• Hence, the need for a capable fit for this position.

Position Overview

• The hire will be responsible for directing day-to-day activities of Software Development to deliver software releases on time and with high quality.
• Will be responsible for client communication on project design and process.
• Will ensure appropriate resources are identified, procured, and maintained.
• Will make critical decisions that will contribute to the success of the project delivery.
• The Health Informatics Software Development Officer will implement new features and technologies and deliver high-quality, high-performance code in an agile environment.
• This individual will assist with the design, development, and maintenance of complex solutions with a focus on quality performance and resiliency.
• All these will primarily be targeted at the enhancement and maintenance of the Data Analytics Visualization Tool (DAVT) developed by IHVN to project the transformation of diseases surveillance data reposited in the database of the national disease surveillance data collection and reporting tool, SORMAS (managed by NCDC).
• This tool is developed to support the integration of data-driven decision-making at NCDC and at the PHEOCs in the supported states and for the prompting of data demand and data use.

Specific Purposes
It currently pulls data directly from SORMAS and mSERS to serve the following specific purposes:

• Provide analytics that projects the indicators used for monitoring data and response activities by the surveillance, case management, and laboratory pillars of the epidemic-prone diseases.
• Provide analytics for monitoring and tracking the reporting of IDSR002 via mSERS.
• Provide a mechanism for tracking response to thresholds (alert and epidemic) reported for case-based diseases at the state level. This is equipped with notification systems.
• Provide analytics for monitoring data quality indicators’ performance.
• Other prospects of this tool are the automation and publishing of the weekly epidemiological report and the enhancement of the audit tray for the tool.
• In all, elicit demand for surveillance data and as a prompt for data use in decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify, understand, and plan for organizational and human impacts of office, Health Informatics, and mHealth systems, and ensure that new technical requirements are properly integrated with existing processes and skill sets.
• Provide the project team with program and project support.
• Design and develop software applications as required by the organization and its donors.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues in existing software applications.
• Analyze and study complex systems requirements and prepare design documentation.
• Understand how data flows within and between various systems to provide input on requirements for databases to ensure data is organized properly for reporting and analytics.
• Prepare or update training manuals for users to ensure the application’s ease of use.
• Works daily with a team of self-organized, cross-functional, talented developers within and beyond IHVN to design, build and implement systems and software as may be demanded as deliverables for the projects being implemented or stakeholders.
• Works with a collaborative software development team and end users to implement system functionality and new features based on user requirements, use cases, prioritized project needs, and/or stakeholder direction.
• Support training to users of new systems
• Collaborates with program teams, product owners, and other software developers to plan, design, develop, test, and maintain both web-& mobile-based applications.
• Contribute to the estimation and assessment of the feasibility of solutions.
• Participates in the evolution of company-level software best practices, standards, and policies.
• Promotes valuable skills in software interoperability, architecture, and component-based software design.
• Contribute toward the continuous improvement of project management methodology utilized within the program and development team.
• May be assigned miscellaneous projects and duties to support the program teams

Minimum Requirements
Essential:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or similar technical discipline; or equivalent demonstration experience.
• 5 years systems development experience
• Successful full life-cycle implementation of a least 5 major projects
• An understanding of IDSR guidelines and relevant infectious disease epidemiology and public health issues will be an advantage.
• Experience with software development methodology and release processes.
• Excellent knowledge of software and application design and architecture
• Familiarity with software configuration management tools, defect tracking tools and peer review
• Excellent knowledge of OS coding techniques, IP protocols, interfaces, and hardware subsystems
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Strong project management skills.

Desirable (Specialized Skill):

• Experience in software development and coding in C# programming language.
• Experience in developing web applications using .Net framework.
• Possesses full working knowledge of technologies such as UNIX, Oracle, SQL Server, and TCP/IP for example, as well as knowledge of one or more programming languages.
• Experience in SQL scripting (writing queries, building functions, stored procedures and summarized tables using MS-SQL Server).
• Experience in building analytics dashboard.
• Strong organizational, time management, computer, and communication skills.

Application Closing Date
23rd August, 2023.