THE GIG:

As our onboard Public Health Director, you will be a part of our exciting, high-volume shipboard operation team. The Public Health Director is responsible for leading all Shipboard Teams in training, implementing and coordinating the execution of the Company’s public health protocols and ensuring Food & Water Safety standards are met and/or exceeded onboard.

The Public Health Director is not only the Department Head for Sanitation but has responsibilities as they apply to any international Public Health Standards or/and Regulation in the following areas:

• Food Safety
• Water Safety Program (including Legionella prevention)
• Recreational Water Facilities
• Potable Water
• Housekeeping
• Integrated Pest Management
• Air handling systems (HVAC)
• Public health auditing and training

The Public Health Director is the main point of contact for all external Public Health Authorities that come onboard and must escort these officials throughout their time spent onboard.

What You’ll be Up To:

In his/her role as head of public health onboard, he/she will work very closely with the medical team by supporting the Infection Control Officer with implementation, execution and oversight of Communicable Disease Prevention onboard. The Public Health Director will be expected to perform, coordinate and/or oversee the following in each of the above-mentioned areas:

• Assures that the delivery of public health services is evidence-based and/or best practices.
• Ensures company policy meets and/or exceeds regulations and requirements set forth by Public Health Regulatory Agencies world-wide including USPH-VSP, ShipSan, ANVISA, etc.
• Ensures company compliance with relevant public health regulations
• Manages and implements the Vessel Sanitation Standards onboard with the Infection Control Officer as oversight.
• Represents company in collaborative efforts with public health authorities.
• Ensures that previous observations from internal and external audits and inspection reports are properly corrected.
• Assist ships with tracking and implementation of corrective actions necessitated by items identified through inspections
• Ensures all external inspection report corrective actions are completed in a timely manner and feedback is sent to the relevant Public Health Authority on or before the due date indicated on the report or as per relevant regulation.
• For all internal audits and inspections conducted, a written report must be provided to the relevant department head, outlining observations of concern, trends and repeat violations found during the review.
• Coordinate and implement lessons learned from these reports, establish and communicate training opportunities in the inspected areas.
• Send a monthly “Focus Report” to the Sanitation Officer based on lesson learned or significant findings from recent cruise industry published external inspection reports.
• Send a quarterly “Public Health Trends Report” to the onboard SLT detailing the significant findings made in the industry published on the VSP website.
• Liaise with onboard department heads regarding any Environmental Health and Sanitation issues and assists them with preparing for any expected public health inspections.
• The Public Health Director will be available to support the Medical Center staff as an administrator during times of outbreak, pandemic or mass casualty incident.
• Collaborates with the Infection Control Officer to organizes and deliver public health awareness training to shipboard staff (classroom style), ensuring awareness of all OPP protocols, Covid-19 and outbreak prevention practices and routinely communicates program effectiveness, best practices and lessons learned to shore side public health and medical department
• Make recommendations to the Company SLT to improve the onboard health and sanitation program.
• Participates in periodic updates of the QMS, IPM and Water Safety Manuals
• Participates in the development of new health and sanitation related training programs.
• Assists land-based Crew with the review and implementation of new equipment, chemicals, procedures and policies designed to improve overall public health programs onboard.
• Assists the Risk Management team with the development of new regulations and forms designed for inclusion in SQM to ensure consistency.
• Provide support through inspections and audits during the delivery of new vessels, ship spaces and any other task as they relate to Public Health, to ensure public health policies and procedures have been implemented according to regulatory and company policies

Additional Responsibilities:

• Oversee that all Sanitation scheduled/necessary performance evaluations are completed to company standards;
• Periodically review onboard public health knowledge and utilize performance improvement methodology.
• Use a systematic approach to evaluate sanitation budget costs, benefits, and efficacy.
• Oversees and assists the Sanitation Department follows and understands the company’s environmental policies, rules and regulations always.
• Discuss sanitation department costs and control with the Hotel Controller regularly and make sure the sanitation department is operating within budget.
• Support Medical team with training and monitoring compliance with infection prevention procedures.
• Assist the F&B Director with the Safe Return to Port Locker and supplies if directed to do so in an emergency.
• Attend any Sailor functions as required by the Hotel Director and/or SLT.
• Partake in any meetings as required by SLT and/or any Head of Department.
• Periodically meets with onboard Infection Control Officer and Medical Team to discuss observations and identify areas of focus or improvement.
• Attend all safety drills and any other mandatory trainings and training exercises

Pest Control:

• The Public Health Director has direct responsibilities to ensure the Sanitation Officer is managing the IPM Program.
• Must update the IPM Manual Annually and ensure the team are trained in the latest technologies and applications
• Discuss IPM requisitions with the Sanitation Officer and approve necessary supply orders before being placed
• Conduct knowledge assessments with the assigned chemical applicator and certify the relevant crew at the beginning of their contracts.
• Conduct at minimum weekly rounds with the Pest Control team to identify weekly projects or issues that require attention

Super Powers Required:

• Must be a Rockstar with superpowers and smiling personality
• Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health or related field of Food Safety and/or Public Health or
• Minimum 3 years’ experience as a Fleet Sanitation Officer or similar equivalent onboard a large 4/5* Cruise ship
• Must have at least 5 years experience in Communicable Disease Outbreak Management, related report writing and administration during actual outbreaks of one or more of the following: Acute Gastroenteritis related and/or any Water Borne Disease outbreak.
• Excellent organizational skills and able to juggle several operations in one go.
• Demonstrated experience in motivating, leading and engaging a diverse workforce to increase synergy and improve productivity.
• Ability to lead and make decisions
• Ability to perform under pressure
• Ability to work with a multicultural and diverse team
• Product cost and quality conscious
• Excellent administrative skills
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Experienced in coaching and developing subordinates
• Comfortable in training large groups of Crew in public health related topic
• All certificates as required by the STCW code for this position.
• Expert knowledge of the US Vessel Sanitation Program and its regulations and procedures. Previous score history participation details an advantage
• Must be up to date in all matters of Environment and Safety related issues and have knowledge one or more of the following public health regulations such as Europe, Canada and Brazil.

Reports To:

Directly Reports to the Hotel Director with line reporting to Captain. They will also work closely with the Senior Doctor and assist and support the Infection Control Officer.

Deputies:

• Sanitation Officer
• Sanitation Supervisors
• Head Utility
• Hotel Utilities

What Matters to Us

At Virgin, your personality matters as much as how good you are at what you do. We want you to bring it to our hang out spot and help make the place even better. So, we won’t be surprised to hear that when people talk about you they say you are clever, on top of it, able to think ahead, intuitive, passionate and someone people respect and enjoy working with because you make things happen.

The information contained herein is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of the duties and responsibilities of the job, nor are they intended to be an all-inclusive list of the skills and abilities required to do the job. Management may, at its discretion, assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.” The duties and responsibilities in this job description may be subject to change at any time due to reasonable accommodation or other reasons.