After a monthslong search, New York City officially has a rat czar.

Kathleen Corradi, who has a background in biology and urban sustainability, will spearhead the city’s efforts to curb its rat population, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday morning at a news conference in Harlem’s St. Nicholas Park. Her official title will be “director of rodent mitigation.”

Adams said the city fielded more than 900 applicants for the gig. And while the search went national, the best choice for the job was someone they found in the city’s “own backyard,” with extensive experience keeping the five boroughs clean, the mayor said.

“We needed someone that was going to put all the pieces together, and all of the players together, to coordinate this entire symphony of fighters,” he said. “We needed a maestro. We needed someone that understood, that had the track record, was focused on it.”

Corradi previously worked for the city Department of Education’s Office of Sustainability, where she developed the largest zero waste program in the country and coordinated the agency's rodent reduction efforts, which spanned nearly 120 public schools, the mayor said in a news release. Her most recent role was as the DOE’s Queens director of space planning, according to the release.

When Corradi saw the listing for the “rat czar” position, she “wasn’t sure if it was real,” she said at Wednesday’s news conference.

“’Bloodthirsty’ is not a word you usually see in a job description, and it’s certainly not a word I usually [use to] describe myself, but I have to say, the rat czar ad got my attention,” she said. “Rat mitigation is more than a quality of life issue. Rats are the symptom of systemic issues, including sanitation, health, housing and economic justice.”

“As New York City’s first director of rodent mitigation, I will bring a science- and systems-based approach to reducing New York City’s rat population, with a strong focus on cutting off the food, water and shelter rats need to survive, and ensure every New Yorker is prepared to take up this mantle in this fight,” she added.

Corradi will make $155,000 a year as the city’s rat czar, the mayor noted.  

Adams on Wednesday also announced that four city agencies — the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Parks and Recreation, NYCHA and the DOE — will invest $3.5 million to launch a plan aimed at expanding and speeding up rat reduction work across three Manhattan community boards, including Community Board 10 in Central Harlem.

The initiative, dubbed the “Harlem Rat Mitigation Zone,” will employ 19 full-time staff members and 14 seasonal staff members to “inspect, exterminate, and maintain or clean public spaces to prevent mischiefs of rats,” the release said.

A portion of that funding will go toward purchasing new equipment to “better contain and manage waste and extermination supplies,” the release added.  

“It is expensive enough to live in the city with our families and children,” Adams said Wednesday. “We don’t need outside tenants like rats in our homes terrorizing us every day.”