Public Health SPOTlight Podcast
Sujani Sivanantharajah, the founder of PHSPOT.org sits down with public health heroes of our time to share career stories, inspiration, and guidance for building public health careers.
The message she hopes to share through these conversations is that building a career is not only about climbing up the ranks, but about crafting a life that you want, around your unique needs, and one that gives importance to your mental health, wellbeing, and building relationships and friendships: you can only do good in the world if you take care of yourself.
Through PH SPOTlight, you will connect with peers you have never met before, and build relationships in a deep and meaningful way.
Public Health SPOTlight Podcast
10 Public Health Careers You Might Not Have Considered (With Real Job Examples!)
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Public health careers extend far beyond traditional roles, with exciting opportunities in tech, communications, behavioral science, and entrepreneurship that offer both impact and excellent compensation.
The roles explored in this episode include:
- UX designers in health tech creating intuitive tools while ensuring clinical accuracy
- Digital health communications specialists managing online campaigns and combating health misinformation
- Behavioral science consultants designing programs to change health behaviors
- Public health data storytellers turning complex statistics into compelling visual narratives
- Global health logistics coordinators ensuring medical supplies reach their destinations
- Infection prevention and control practitioners reducing healthcare-associated infections
- Policy analysts working in non-governmental organizations and think tanks
- Corporate social responsibility managers with health focus leading community investment
- Humanitarian health coordinators working in crisis zones
- Public health entrepreneurs creating innovative health solutions independently
Your challenge this week is to research one of these roles that sparked your curiosity. Explore organizations hiring for that position, read job descriptions, and potentially connect with professionals in that field.
Share your discoveries with us by tagging PH SPOT on social media, and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and check out our Public Health Career Club community at phspot.org/club.
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Welcome to PH Spotlight, a community for you to build your public health career with. Join us weekly right here, and I'll be here too your host, sujani Siva from PH Spot. Hey there, and welcome to another episode of the PH Spotlight podcast, where we share stories, inspiration and guidance to help you build your dream public health career. I'm your host, ujani Siva, and today's episode is a super fun one. It's a little bit different because I'm going to be kind of using my computer as I'm talking to you just to read out real world examples of really cool jobs that you may not have considered in public health. So we are going beyond the typical career paths that you know traditionally public health professionals have taken on, like an epidemiologist or a you know, public health promoter, community worker and we're going to be exploring 10 public health jobs that you may not have considered, and so these are roles that you may have heard of, you may not, or maybe you didn't even realize could be part of the public health world, and I think it's just so cool that we have a lot of these new areas of work where public health can be applied, and I hope that this episode kind of inspires you to think beyond the traditional roles and perhaps explore some of these and to make this like very actionable, I'm going to be sharing like real job postings that are open right now so you can go ahead and explore them on your own as well, and I just hope, because I prepared these notes a couple weeks ago, that the links are still active, so you'll see me, or maybe even hear me, clicking through some of the links that I've saved for myself, so it should be a fun episode, okay? So, whether you're exploring a new direction or just curious about what's out there, I think this episode is just going to be packed with ideas and resources for your next move. So let's dive in.
Speaker 1:The first job is a public health UX designer, so UX is short for user experience, so user experience design is very much part of public health now. So think about health apps, online vaccine portals or even mental health platforms that we're seeing, and what a UX designer can do is ensure that these tools are easy to use and accessible right from a user point of view, and somebody that comes with that public health knowledge and that background could be like an excellent candidate for this role versus somebody who is just a UX designer. So the real world kind of job or example that I pulled out is actually from Apple and Apple is hiring a UX designer for their health division, and as a UX designer in health, the individual will be working on making health tools intuitive and user centered. So when I open up this posting, it was posted on March 26, 2025. And so what it says on the posting is that Apple is looking for a user experience designer with experience in health to join our cross-functional team, contributing to the development of innovative, user-centered and clinically sound features and products for our health-focused initiative. This role focuses on distilling clinical needs into understandable, approachable patterns and systems that enhance the user experience while ensuring adherence to clinical guidelines. And then obviously they have the description qualification bachelor's degree plus a combination of six years is what they're looking for. And then obviously there's a section on preferred qualifications like a master's degree, additional experience and the base pay range for this role is between $17 kind of not common in public health right to be able to earn upwards of $200,000. So this is a cool one If it sounds interesting to you, definitely look into kind of user experience designer type roles in that public health space.
Speaker 1:Second one we're going to look at is a digital health communications specialist, right. So this isn't your typical comms role, but rather think of, like social media campaigns, digital storytelling or even working with influencers to combat health misinformation. Storytelling or even working with influencers to combat health misinformation. And the real world example we're going to look at is from Cook County Health and they are hiring a digital marketing communications specialist to promote their programs and to connect with communities online. And so here it says the digital marketing communication specialist position at the Cook County Department of Public Health is designed to align with the department's mission and vision. So I'm going to actually skip over a little bit about the intro of Cook County. And then it goes on to say that the specialist will focus on providing accurate, culturally and linguistically responsive information related to COVID-19 and health disparities. The position will lead various digital marketing efforts, including managing email campaigns, web content, social outreach. And then there's a large paragraph explaining this.
Speaker 1:The requirements again bachelor's degrees what they're looking for In more of those traditional comms spaces so bachelor's degree in communications, journalism, public relations, marketing or related fields. So if you feel like your public health degree helped you develop some of those communication skills, definitely apply, even if you don't have that traditional communication or marketing degree degree. Unfortunately, this one does not provide salary information, but I will say that I think this specific role was posted several months ago. So while I'm giving these real world examples, part of it is also for you to get familiar with some of the job titles that are out there and then go off to look for similar roles for positions that are currently active. Okay, so this was in the digital health communication space.
Speaker 1:Number three behavioral science consultant. So if you love psychology, psychology and kind of like that, behavioral economics, then this is definitely an area that you should explore and look into. What these individuals do is that they design programs that help people change behavior, right, so think, maybe, improving diet or quitting smoking, increasing vaccine uptake. And the real world kind of example we're going to look at is a senior behavioral science consultant at a company named Concentrix, and so I'm just opening it up right now as we speak, and, um, this role, like the other two that we've talked about, is based in the us, um, pay range of about 7373,000 to $110,000 a year. And, yeah, just going through kind of what the role. So this role specifically is looking for a short-term kind of contractor role and some of the responsibilities they list out is owning and executing the delivery of projects, delivering workshops, co-creating nudges, using client insights and sound behavioral science principles. Produce literature reviews and Not too much information on exactly what the role does. Um, there's more information about the company itself. Um, so you know, like I mentioned, um, it's just nice to have some of these titles in mind so that when you are searching for jobs you can look up those jobs. So that was behavioral science consultant.
Speaker 1:Job number four is a public health data storyteller. So you know, in general, a data storyteller essentially takes numbers and then turns those numbers into compelling visual stories that drive policy and public understanding. And I think this role, you know, is growing really fast. With all the misinformation, disinformation, it's really important for people in public health to be able to tell those stories in public health, to be able to tell those stories, and so, if you are interested in this field, there are lots of roles and they are typically, you know, like data analyst type roles with storytelling skills, and like health tech or nonprofit sectors, and if that seems to be an area that you're interested in, definitely look up those keywords. Like you know, storyteller, data storyteller, and the role that I found is at a organization called murmuration, which amplifies the power of civic engagement, and they were looking for a data journalist. So Murmuration is a not-for-profit organization, also based in the US, and this role in general is a data journalist role.
Speaker 1:Role in general is a data journalist role Somebody who's part scientist, part storyteller, who loves pulling threads in a data set until they reveal something unexpected and then can't wait to tell the world about it. It says that a person in this role will play a critical role in surfacing fresh insights from complex data sets, working with research and data teams to translate those insights into sharp, relevant, compelling stories that help people better understand the civic, political and social world around them. So if this seems to be an area of interest for you, definitely look up data storyteller as a keyword to find similar roles. As a keyword to find similar roles, another role that you may want to consider is a global health logistics coordinator, and this is for somebody who is, like, very strong in the operations side of things, right, like you want to work in the health space, but your strength and your interests are in operations think like supply chain. So in this specific example or actually, you know, just like another example could be ensuring medical supplies and vaccines get to where they need to go, especially in emergencies, and we're thinking about more of like a international health or global health type of role. This role specifically is for a logistics coordinator, like the example that I found to support humanitarian health missions, uh, with medicine demand, um. So just opening up the role, and this is based in uh, um, it's an international role based in the syrian arab republic and job description under the supervision of the general coordinator, you define, plan and implement all supply and logistics activities, while ensuring budget compliance and respect of protocols and procedure, and you're essentially leading and managing the logistics team. So, as I mentioned, it's kind of somebody who has that background knowledge of international health, global health but then working specifically in that logistics area. The role itself that I found is from Médecins du Monde. It is a contract role and a gross monthly salary of about 3,300 euros, and it looks like the role is based kind of in the field. So that was job number five. Halfway through, I really hope some of these have been like eye-opening for you and you're thinking, wow, like I did not even think about kind of looking at roles in these areas or these types of organizations. So job number six maybe a little bit more common and you may be more aware of this one, but interestingly, I did recently talk to someone and they had absolutely no idea this was a role that they could explore with their background.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I thought I'd add this one infection prevention and control practitioner, and this obviously became very visible, like a role that became very visible during COVID-19. But it's always been like a crucial piece of work in hospitals and long-term care facilities. And the example that I found, based in canada, at one of the hospitals here grand river hospital they were hiring for an infection control practitioner to help reduce health care associated infections. Uh, yep, I'm still able to pull up the posting and, and in summary, the role reports to a hub lead and you're essentially building capacity in infection prevention control. You are providing support to implement some of those practices and let's see if they've given salary information. No, so we don't have salary information on this one, but it is a role that's fairly common and you can search for infection prevention, control or infection control practitioner comes up and this is a role that in Canada at least I know, there is a certification that goes along with it. So you might want to explore that a little bit further.
Speaker 1:Job number seven public health policy analyst, but a non-governmental role. So I think the governmental roles are a bit more common right in public health policy, but there are other areas where you could kind of take those skills and apply them to non-governmental organizations as well as think tanks and industry organizations. They all hire policy analysts. For example, here in canada, the egg farmers of canada they're hiring a policy analyst focused on agricultural health policy. The northern policy institute is another one that's hiring support for rural health care policy. So definitely look up public health policy analyst roles, but outside of government.
Speaker 1:Okay, the next role, number eight, is a corporate social responsibility manager with a health focus. So corporate social responsibilities, or CSR for short, are teams and companies who often lead health focused community programs, and I think this is a really great way to apply public health skills in the corporate world. So you know, again moving away from these traditional public health roles that we are often kind of exposed to, and this is one of those roles where you could kind of see how your background in public health could be applied in more of a corporate world. So Molina Healthcare is hiring a CSR manager to lead national health investment strategies. This was again posted a little while ago, about five months ago, salary ranging from $73,000 to $170,000. I know it's a huge range but kind of gives you a sense of the type of salary. So for this specific role Corporate Social Responsibility Manager they're responsible for leading and executing the national community reinvestment strategy aimed at improving the health and well-being of disadvantaged population. This role involves managing corporate philanthropy initiatives, partnerships, public affairs, strategies to enhance brand reputation, support business growth, in alignment with Melina's mission. So I think we've often heard of that corporate social responsibility that big businesses have and if there is a health angle to it, I think it's also a great place for us with the public health background to perhaps see if our skill sets and our experience are valued there and we can contribute something in those areas.
Speaker 1:Number nine is a humanitarian health coordinator. So typically these professionals would work in emergency response, often in international crisis zones, coordinating health programs and working under pressure. So let's see this one example that I have here is working in Jordan to support crisis response and it's a humanitarian coordinator at the United Nations Population Fund, and so here you're essentially assisting the country office in the planning, coordination, implementation of humanitarian interventions, including rapid assessments, resource mobilization, staffing and technical areas of intervention. As I mentioned, this is based in Jordan. They're looking for about seven years of relevant experience. But again, you know, if you don't have exactly what they've listed, it's still worth applying, showing, of course, on your resume how you are able to kind of fulfill the need that they have. So it should be like an easy yes for hiring managers to look at your resume and go, okay, they don't have exactly what I've listed, but I could see how this person is a good fit for this role, so that's what you want them thinking. So that was number nine and number 10.
Speaker 1:One of my favorites is a public health entrepreneur, which is essentially you starting your own thing. Public health entrepreneurs are creating everything from consulting agencies to online health platforms to culturally tailored wellness programs, right so, public health entrepreneurship essentially you starting your own thing. But there's always a way to kind of step into it a little bit by looking at areas that you may eventually want to go into on your own. So one example is Salt Lake Regional Health Center is hiring a digital health advisor. That it's a role that supports tech enabled innovation advisor, that it's a role that supports tech enabled innovation, and it ends up being a great kind of stepping stone and inspiration for somebody who's perhaps thinking about their own idea in that tech space, right? So, even if you're not ready to jump into public health entrepreneurship today, having that goal in the back of your head and then applying to roles that are relevant to the area that you'd one day want to go into is also a great strategy.
Speaker 1:Our 10 jobs that are non-traditional and potentially, you know, overlooked by us in public health because we're so exposed to those traditional roles. And so, just to recap, we looked at number one, a UX designer, digital health communication specialist. Number two, then number three was a behavioral science consultant. Number four, data storyteller. Number two, then number three was a behavioral science consultant. Number four, data storyteller. Number five, global health logistics coordinator. Number six, infection control practitioner. Number seven was a non-government policy analyst. Number eight was a corporate social responsibility manager. Number nine, humanitarian Health Coordinator. And then number 10, a Public Health Entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:So I really hope one or more of these sparked your curiosity today. These roles are essentially proof that public health is everywhere and there are so many ways to make a difference. So your challenge this week that I'm going to be leaving you with is to choose one role and research that role. Research organizations that are hiring for that role, read job description and think of whether these are some areas that you'd like to explore now, maybe in the future, and even connect with individuals who are perhaps in that field right now just to learn more about it, who are perhaps in that field right now just to learn more about it. And if you find something exciting as a result of this episode and because we kind of like sparked a curiosity, definitely message me or tag PH Spy. I'd love to hear what you're exploring.
Speaker 1:And don't forget to subscribe to the PH Spy podcast so you never miss an episode and definitely share it with a friend who is thinking about their next move in public health. And we also have our membership community, the public health career club, where you can meet hundreds of different public health professionals who are working in this field, who are motivated to help each other, to just build some community and friendship. And in addition to that, at ph spot we host weekly events, we have mentor sessions, we have social hours inside the community really a place for you to grow your tribe, your, your people, that you can lean on as you navigate the field of public health. So check that out at phspaorg slash club if you're interested in joining. And once again, thank you for joining me today on this episode. Until next time, keep growing, keep dreaming and keep building your dream public health career.