Location: Toronto-661 University

Department: Data Science and Analytics

The Role To provide subject matter expertise, advice and leadership in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to support evidence-informed public health policies, programs, and practices. This includes advancing analytics capabilities through education and support in machine learning, modeling, and natural language processing, as well as developing forecasting, simulation, and scenario evaluation tools to inform public health and organizational decision-making.

Key Responsibilities-

• Lead the design and execution of data science analyses and modelling projects, including developing code, producing reports, building analytic tools for internal and external clients/partners, and creating detailed documentation to ensure transparency and reproducibility.
• Design, develop, and implement scalable, end-to-end machine learning and AI models, with a focus on public health applications, including but not limited to natural language processing (NLP) models that include large language models (LLM).
• Assist the manager in defining business requirements for the infrastructure, software, and resource requirements to build the department up to be the centre of excellence in a hub and spoke model.
• Build and optimize end-to-end machine learning and data pipelines, encompassing data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, and deployment using Azure Machine Learning Studio, or equivalent.
• Leverage cloud platforms (e.g., Azure and Databricks) for the development, deployment and monitoring of end-to-end machine learning solutions.
• Apply advanced techniques to develop scalable predictive models.
• Provide guidance on complex technical projects, ensuring high-quality output.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams, including those within Enterprise Technology and Cyber Security and Architecture, Digital Governance and Digital Public Health to ensure successful deployment of models into production environments.
• Apply a flexible approach, functioning in an agile development environment, to data science, modelling, and analytics techniques to address evolving public health priorities, adapting to projects beyond AI as required.
• Enhance the capacity of PHO’s AI capabilities, identifies potential opportunities for the use of techniques such as machine learning and natural language processing, and identifies the optimal infrastructure and networks (i.e., with academic partners) necessary to build capacity and expertise.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation of all work, including code, methodologies, and key learnings, to support transparency and knowledge sharing.
• Support the development and maintenance of version control protocols and contribute to the promotion of data science best practices.
• Liaise with members of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health on key deliverables for data science initiatives.
• Monitor, evaluate and enhance data science models to keep up to date with evolving techniques and cutting-edge approaches.
• Stay current with, collaborate with, and provide technical input on behalf of PHO into data science/AI activities of Ontario ministries, Public Health Agency of Canada, and other relevant groups, and links and applies knowledge and information back to relevant program areas.
• Remains informed of emerging trends, innovations, and novel developments in data science and artificial intelligence. Establish and maintain a network of external partners at research institutes and post-secondary institutions to support knowledge exchange and innovation.
• Foster strong, collaborative partnerships with internal and external clients, representing PHO’s data science capabilities in various settings.
• Other duties as assigned.

Knowledge And Skills-

• Proven ability to translate complex data into tools and actionable recommendations for clients/partners.
• Skills in collaborating on projects which involve the integration of data science methods and concepts into policy briefs, scientific papers and reports, for communication with stakeholders.
• Skills and expertise in working in providing consultative advice within a multi-disciplinary work environment.
• Skills in developing data pipelines to prepare large datasets for use.
• Knowledge and expertise related to the utilization of data science and analytics software packages (e.g., R, Python, SQL).
• Knowledge of modelling, Machine Learning AI concepts, methods, and toolkits (Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models (LLMs)).
• Expertise in machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Scikit-learn.
• Understanding of deep learning techniques and NLP models such as transformers (BERT, GPT, etc.).
• Quality assurance skills including the ability to document and test to ensure code reproducibility and reusability.

Education And Experience-

• Master’s degree in data science/AI, computer science, machine learning, applied mathematics program combined with at least 5 years of experience in data science, AI, machine learning, or advanced analytics.
• 4 years of experience creating, implementing and applying data science models is considered an asset.
• Expertise in mathematical modelling, simulation and forecasting is preferred.
• Proven experience in NLP, including developing models for text data.
• Experienced with LLMs (extractive and generative), fine-tuning and LLM model development. Familiar with higher level trends in LLMs and open-source platforms.
• Experience and interest in working with Azure Machine Learning Studio, Azure Data Lake, and other Azure services.
• Hands-on experience with Azure Machine Learning, Databricks or similar cloud platforms for building and deploying machine learning models.
• Experience developing large, complex analytic models.
• Experience with Azure and Python NLP libraries such as SpaCy, Hugging Face, NLTK or similar.
• Experience and interest in working with DataBricks as a cloud platform.
• Proficiency in version control (Git) and experience with MLOps practices is a bonus.
• Experience with ML lifecycle management using MLflow, including experiment tracking, packaging, and hyperparameter tuning.
• Public health experience is preferred.

Attributes and Competencies-

• Oral communication skills to provide consultative advice and expertise on data science methods and construction of tools and models to contacts throughout PHO and with external stakeholders.
• Oral and written communication skills to prepare and present detailed scientific, technical and research reports, summaries and presentations as well as new public health scientific studies, programs and other content specific products.
• Ability to clearly communicate complex technical ideas to a non-technical audience.
• Training skills to conduct formal and informal teaching on data science and AI techniques to PHO scientists and staff.
• Develops and maintains relationships across PHO to identify and define data science/AI methods and software and provide consultative services to support the PHO’s role in public health research, surveillance, planning, and disease control activities.
• Develops collaborative efforts with provincial and national organizations and universities.
• Communicates timelines for services and keeps colleagues and clients up to date of risks to timelines.
• Works within the framework of PHO’s mandate, services, priorities, policies and procedures, and scientific standards and methodologies.
• Develops innovative data science/AI approaches to be used within a public health context. As an expert in AI methodologies, analyzes and resolves a range of issues referred to by internal and external clients.
• Identifies potential opportunities/use cases for the use of AI techniques in public health
• Provides input to grant development and research plans with regards to data science/AI approaches.
• Uses quality assurance and quality improvement approaches to develop and implement strategies to improve rigour and relevance of PHO modelling work, knowledge products and services.
• Identifies and mitigates risks to analyses, projects, timelines, etc., raising them to the Manager for decision-making as appropriate.
• Enhances the capacity of PHO to implement AI techniques such as machine learning and NLP, identifying the optimal infrastructure and relationship networks (i.e., with academic partners) necessary to build capacity in this field.
• Provides subject matter expertise throughout PHO as the primary expert and advisor on data science methodologies and in support of provincial public health policy, public health surveillance, and in response to public health issues/outbreaks.
• Provides specialized subject matter expertise, guidance and leadership to inter-disciplinary teams comprised of colleagues, clients, partners, collaborators and service providers.
• Able to work in a matrix management structure for various projects where the project lead may not be the Manager.
• Provides technical leadership to PHO staff (e.g., epidemiologists, scientists) in development of their analytic plans with regards to modelling methodologies.

Duration: Permanent

Hours of Work: Full time, 36.25 hours per week

Compensation Group:Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario

Salary :$105,121.00 - $147,158.00

Posting Date: 09-2-2025

Closing Date: 09-17-2025

Please note: applications will be received no later than 11:59pm on the date preceding the closing date as indicated on the Job Requisition.

Note: Internal candidates will be considered first. While we thank all applicants for their interest, only those selected to move forward in the recruitment process will be contacted. Any information obtained during the course of recruitment will be used for employment recruitment purposes only, and not for any other purpose. PHO is committed to ensuring equity in employment. Our goal is to create a diverse, inclusive workforce that reflects the communities we serve and to ensure our services and communications are accessible to all individuals. Any candidate who requires a job posting in an alternative format may email a request to HR_Inquiries@oahpp.ca. Once an applicant has been selected for an interview, they can inform PHO about any accommodations they may require at any stage of the interview process.