Principal Consulting Epidemiologist
J.S. Held is seeking a Principal Epidemiologist to join our Health Sciences practice. This role is ideally suited for a senior consulting professional who combines deep technical expertise in epidemiology with a strong seller–doer mindset, experience supporting litigation and regulatory matters, and the ability to contribute meaningful revenue growth through an established client base.
The successful candidate will play a key role in delivering expert-driven analyses and testimony across complex disputes, regulatory investigations, and high-impact advisory engagements. While preference will be given to candidates with expertise in occupational or environmental epidemiology, we are open to adjacent disciplines (e.g., pharmacoepidemiology, injury epidemiology) where there is a demonstrated track record in litigation, risk assessment, or regulatory support.
Job Responsibilities
Client Development & Revenue Growth (Seller–Doer)
- Originate, develop, and expand client relationships across legal, corporate, and regulatory sectors
- Maintain and grow a portable book of business, contributing to practice revenue targets
- Lead business development efforts, including opportunity identification, scoping, pricing, and proposal development
- Collaborate with cross-functional experts (toxicology, industrial hygiene, environmental science, economics) to deliver integrated client solutions
Expert Services & Testimony
- Serve as a consulting and testifying expert in litigation, arbitration, and regulatory matters
- Prepare and deliver expert reports, depositions, and oral testimony
- Translate complex epidemiologic findings into clear, defensible, and persuasive insights for legal counsel, regulators, and executive stakeholders
- Support high-profile and sensitive matters, including mass torts, environmental exposure cases, and occupational health disputes
Project Leadership & Delivery
- Lead and manage complex, multi-disciplinary epidemiological engagements
- Design and oversee study protocols, including exposure assessment, outcome definition, and causal inference strategies
- Ensure rigorous QA/QC processes across all analyses and deliverables
- Manage project teams, timelines, budgets, and client expectations in a consulting environment
Methods & Analytics
- Apply advanced epidemiologic methodologies, including:
- Cohort and case–control studies
- Time-series and longitudinal analyses
- Meta-analyses and systematic reviews
- Survival and sensitivity analyses
- Causal inference techniques
- Utilize statistical and analytical tools such as R, Python, SAS, or Stata to generate defensible, litigation-ready outputs
- Critically evaluate external studies and literature to support expert opinions and rebuttals
Practice Building & Thought Leadership
- Mentor and develop junior consultants and analysts within the Health Sciences team
- Contribute to thought leadership, including publications, conference presentations, and client briefings
- Support go-to-market initiatives and enhance J.S. Held ’s visibility in expert services and advisory markets
- Help shape and expand the firm’s epidemiology and health risk capabilities globally
Required
- Doctoral degree (PhD, ScD, or DrPH) in Epidemiology from a regionally accredited, research-intensive (non-profit) university
- Approximately 15+ years of post-graduate, client-facing consulting experience, delivering epidemiological analyses within litigation, regulatory, or risk management environments
- Demonstrated seller–doer track record, including a portable book of business and consistent delivery against annual revenue and origination targets
- Proven experience serving as an expert witness, including authorship of expert reports and participation in depositions and/or courtroom testimony, with the ability to perform effectively under cross-examination
- Advanced expertise in epidemiologic methods and strong command of statistical tools (e.g., R, Python, SAS,