Deputy Director of Health & Human Services Public Health

Statement of Duties

The Deputy Director of Health and Human Services Public Health (DD-PH) serves as the senior operational and strategic leader for the Citys public health systems. The DD-PH oversees essential public health services prevention programs and population health initiatives aimed at improving community well-being and advancing health equity. This role provides high-level leadership across five divisions: Prevention Services; Public Health Nursing; Food Access & Healthy Communities; Community Health Workers; and the Public Health Excellence (PHE) Shared Services Program.

The DD-PH strengthens the Citys public health infrastructure by assessing system gaps leading multi-sector initiatives developing evidence-based policies and programs and ensuring compliant high-quality service delivery. As a core member of the Health and Human Service (HHS) Senior Management Team the DD-PH partners closely with the HHS Director Deputy Director of HHS - Human Services and citywide and regional partners to enhance operational efficiency align workflows and build sustainable public health capacity.

Essential Functions

The essential functions or duties listed below are intended only as illustrations of the various type of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar related or a logical assignment to the position.

• Act on behalf of the HHS Director as needed including representing the department at internal and external meetings managing cross-departmental initiatives and providing on-call Department the absence of the Director the DD-PH may be assigned signing authority for the Department.
• Lead departmental strategy goals and operational priorities ensuring alignment with municipal objectives state mandates and emerging public health needs.
• Provide senior leadership and subject-matter expertise in public health practice workforce standards systems improvement and policy development representing the City at regional and state forums.
• Oversee a $1M public health portfolio including operating budgets state and federal grants opioid settlement funds revolving accounts and multi-year contracts; ensure compliance fiscal accountability and sustainability of billable services (e.g. SNAP enrollment PHN immunizations Tobacco Control violations) integrated into existing data and third-party billing systems.
• Lead procurement vendor selection and contract execution for public health programs technology platforms and citywide initiatives.
• Oversee grant performance and sustainability planning supporting managers and coordinators; monitor state legislation and advocacy efforts affecting reimbursable services for CHWs and PHNs and leverage partnerships to enhance workforce development operational efficiency and revenue sustainability.
• Direct immunization infectious disease and emergency preparedness operations including planning training rapid response volunteer management and regional collaboration.
• Strengthen expand and align prevention chronic disease and public health initiatives across divisions city departments and community partners to maximize efficiency reduce duplication integrate evidence-based upstream strategies and advance equitable community health outcomes. Develop and implement policy and programming in coordination with other City departments and agencies to address key health issues and disparities.
• Support and liaise with the Citys Inspectional Services Department on quality improvement efforts related to public health.
• Direct needs assessments evaluation activities and quality improvement processes ensuring programs are data-driven effective and aligned with public health goals.
• Present to the Board of Health providing program updates policy recommendations and data insights as needed.
• Represent the City on local regional and state committees or coalitions strengthening partnerships sharing best practices and advancing public health initiatives.
• Collaborate with regional and state partners academic institutions and community-based organizations to advance best practices and leverage shared resources.
• Coordinate with the Health Communications Officer to ensure timely culturally competent and accessible public health messaging across diverse platforms and audiences.
• Supervise and mentor staff across multiple divisions fostering a collaborative accountable and trauma-informed culture that promotes professional growth high-quality service delivery and effective performance management including facilitating constructive feedback and navigating challenges.
• Support the department through the public health accreditation process leading programmatic documentation evaluation standards and performance improvement.

Recommended Minimum Qualifications

Education and Experience

• Current nursing license preferred. Bachelors degree in nursing social work public health or other related fields.
• Deep understanding of local public health systems and 5- 10 years experience in a public health program management and staff supervision.
• Experience in emergency management large -scale immunization efforts and working with marginalized or priority populations.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and collaborate with external partners to achieve public health objectives.

Knowledge Abilities and Skills

Knowledge:

• Knowledge of applicable public health laws regulations and municipal ordinances with ability to provide guidance and oversight to division directors and staff.
• Extensive knowledge of public health program planning supervision evaluation and sustainability practices including grant-funded and reimbursable services state-run electronic medical records digital health data management platforms and third-party billing integrations.
• Knowledge of methods logistics and safety precautions related to disease surveillance control and public health clinical programming.
• Working knowledge of computer hardware and software in support of department operations

Abilities:

• Analyze and interpret public health data with an equity lens to inform programs and interventions.
• Think strategically about the broader public health landscape and develop upstream primary prevention strategies.
• Integrate reimbursable services into operational workflows.
• Establish and maintain trusting working relationships with diverse partners.
• Provide constructive feedback and navigate challenging conversations with staff.
• Plan coordinate and execute both large- and small-scale immunization and emergency preparedness efforts.

Skills:

• Clinical expertise strong interpersonal and leadership skills and proficiency in data analytics.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to engage diverse audiences.
• Commitment to high-quality customer service and collaborative team environments.
• Flexibility to work beyond normal business hours including evenings as needed.

Work Environment

The work environment involves everyday discomforts typical of offices with occasional exposure to outside elements. Noise or physical surroundings may be distracting but conditions are generally not unpleasant. Employee may be required to work beyond normal business hours in response to attend evening and weekend meetings or complete work assignments.

Physical and Mental Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the positions essential functions.

Physical Skills

Few physical demands are required to perform the work. Work effort principally involves sitting to perform work tasks with intermittent periods of stooping walking and standing. May also be some occasional lifting of objects such as office equipment and computer paper (up to 30 lbs.)

Motor Skills

Duties are largely mental rather than physical but the job may occasionally require minimal motor skills for activities such as moving objects operating a telephone personal computer and/or most other office equipment including word processing filing and sorting of papers.

Visual Skills

Visual demands require constantly reading documents for general understanding and analytical purposes.

Hours: Full-Time
Salary: $120000 annualized plus benefits
Union: Non-Union
FLSA: Exempt
Date Posted: January 21st 2026

The City of Somerville is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race color sex religion age national origin disability or any other protected category. Women minorities veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Auxiliary aids and services written materials in alternative formats and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities free of charge upon request. Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e. CART ASL) written materials in alternative formats or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs activities and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Adrienne Pomeroy at x 2059 or

Pre-Employment Requirements for All Employees:

• MA Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) clearance
• Completion of Conflict-of-Interest Law Education training for municipal employees

Overview of Total Rewards:

• 4 weeks annual vacation for non-union positions. Union positions vary by contract. Please note police officers are members of the SPEA union. Public Health Nurses are part of Union A (SMEA).
• Medical insurance through the Group Insurance Commission (GIC) - 80% of premium costs paid by City
• Dental coverage low and high plans through Cigna
• Vision care through Vision Service Plan (VSP)
• Long term disability through Sun Life
• Group and voluntary life insurance through Boston Mutual
• Health Care and Dependent Care flexible spending through Benefit Strategies
• Deferred compensation plans through a choice of three vendors
• Free confidential services through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provided by E4Health
• Annual cancer screening & wellness release
• Somerville Retirement Pension System
• Tuition reimbursement
• MBTA pass program
• FREE Blue Bikes membership
• Eligible employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF)

Benefits listed are for benefits-eligible positions and the above information is meant to be a general overview of the benefit programs offered by the City of Somerville and not a binding contract.