Vectorborne Disease Epidemiologist

Job Description

Job ID: 36417
Agency: Department of Health - Division of Disease Prevention and Control
Location: Pierre, Sioux Falls, or Rapid City, SD
Salary: $70,672.54 annually, depending on experience
Pay Grade: GK
Closing Date: 06/30/2026

Summary:

As the Vectorborne Disease Epidemiologist, the incumbent works within the Division of Disease Prevention and Control (DPC) to manage surveillance and response activities for vectorborne diseases, including West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and spotted fever rickettsiosis. The position also provides support and technical expertise to DPC staff, leads epidemiological investigations when needed, and collaborates with partners to coordinate mosquito and tick surveillance activities.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities

• Maintain knowledge of current surveillance and response practices for vectorborne diseases.
• Initiate, investigate, advise, disposition, and report cases of vectorborne diseases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including: review incoming ELR and eCR for tick and mosquito-borne disease messages, initiate investigations to DIS staff, review completed investigations to assign case classification (e.g., confirmed, probable, not a case) for submission to CDC.
• Work with academic and other agency partners at South Dakota State University, SDSU Extension, Sioux Falls Health Department, and SD Public Health Laboratory to maintain mosquito and tick vector surveillance.
• Participate in planning and program development of the annual Mosquito Control and West Nile Virus Conference.
• Participate on CDC grantee and disease-specific conference calls and work groups as well as Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) vectorborne disease subcommittee calls.
• Evaluate vectorborne disease investigation timeliness, completeness, and control measure implementation.
• Support informatics projects designed to enhance vectorborne disease surveillance, such as maintaining Maven system support for arboviral mapping guides, reporting of mosquito and ticks to VectorSurv, assessing data quality of electronic laboratory reportings, and using syndromic surveillance for disease identification.
• Represent SD-DOH at federal, state, and professional meetings.
• Provide weekly, monthly, or annual disease summaries, depending on the timeliness required to support clinician and community awareness, including producing weekly WNV disease summaries and creating WNV seasonal projections using the WNV Prediction Model.
• Lead grant writing and budget preparation for Vector-borne Disease Surveillance outlined in the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) grant.
• Conduct after-action reviews following outbreaks and generate outbreak reports, webpages, presentations, infographics, manuscripts, and other communication products for awareness and data sharing.
• Serve as a member of the on-call team to provide support to the general public, medical providers, veterinarians, and others during nights, weekends, and holidays;

The ideal Candidate Will Have:

• a master's degree in public health (MPH) or a Master of Science degree in public health (MSPH) from an accredited university; or
• a graduate degree in entomology from an accredited university; or
• Bachelor's or other non-epidemiology professional degree or certification (e.g., RN, MD/DO, DDS/DMD, DVM, PhD, RS) without formal academic epidemiology training and with greater or equal to two years' experience performing complex epidemiology work under the guidance of a higher-level epidemiologist.

Knowledge of:

• infectious disease surveillance;
• Epidemiology principles;
• biostatistics;
• public health practices and concepts;
• accounting principles;
• budgetary and financial management principles.

Skills:

• strong interpersonal skills.

Abilities:

• communicate effectively with professionals and agency officials;
• communicate effectively with public health staff;
• communicate clearly with media representatives;
• communicate with the general public.

Additional Requirements: To be considered, please attach your resume or curriculum vitae.

This position is eligible for Veterans' Preference per ARSD 55:10:02:08.

The State of South Dakota does not sponsor work visas for new or existing employees. All persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and complete an Employment Eligibility Verification, Form I-9. The State of South Dakota as an employer will be using E-Verify to complete employment eligibility verification upon hire.

The State of South Dakota offers $0 premium employee health insurance option plus eleven paid holidays, generous vacation and sick leave accrual, dental, vision, and other insurance options, and retirement benefits. You can view our benefits information here . This position is a member of Class A retirement under SDRS.

Must apply online: https://gen-stateofsouthdako-trn.inforcloudsuite.com/hcm/xmlhttp/shorturl.do?key=48J
You must apply online, emailed resumes or submissions will not be accepted.
South Dakota Bureau of Human Resources and Administration
Telephone: 605.773.3148 Email: careers@state.sd.us
http://bhr.sd.gov/workforus
"An Equal Opportunity Employer"

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