Job Details

Lead Data Scientist, Research & Development

Highmark Health is seeking a groundbreaking Lead Data Scientist, Research & Development, specializing in Graph Intelligence, who will not just work with graph data, but will define the future of how we harness relational insights in healthcare. This is a premier R&D position where you will lead the charge in inventing and proving out transformative graph-native analytical solutions. Your core mission is to push the boundaries of what's possible in advanced analytics by pioneering novel methodologies that leverage network science, knowledge graphs, and Graph Machine Learning (GML) to solve critical problems across the healthcare continuum.

From personalizing patient care pathways to detecting complex fraud rings and understanding population health dynamics, your work will directly impact millions of lives. As our Lead Graph Intelligence specialist, you will be the spearhead of cutting-edge research projects. This means deeply engaging with graph theory, building and enriching large-scale knowledge graphs, and developing next-generation Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), graph convolutional networks (GCNs), graph attention networks (GATs), and other advanced network algorithms.

You'll architect unique graph embeddings, perform sophisticated link prediction, community detection, and anomaly detection on complex healthcare data. Your responsibilities will include designing rigorous experiments, building robust proof-of-concept models, and meticulously evaluating the performance and interpretability of these novel graph algorithms to ensure their real-world applicability. You are not merely a data scientist; you are a relational data innovator with a strategic mindset. You inherently understand that the explicit modeling of entities and their relationships unlocks a deeper layer of intelligence that traditional tabular or sequential data models cannot.

You will proactively identify opportunities to construct and leverage comprehensive healthcare knowledge graphs, integrating diverse patient, provider, claims, and clinical data to uncover hidden patterns, propagate insights through networks, and develop groundbreaking analytical solutions that exploit the rich, multi-modal structures within healthcare.

Leveraging your profound expertise in graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, ArangoDB, Amazon Neptune, Ontotext GraphDB), distributed graph processing frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark GraphX, Dask-Graph), and leading GML libraries (e.g., PyTorch Geometric, DGL, Spektral), you will conduct in-depth research, construct sophisticated predictive, prescriptive, and diagnostic models directly on graph structures. You will drive initiatives from theoretical concept to validated, scalable prototypes. You are a vigilant scout of the graph AI landscape, continuously scanning, rigorously evaluating, and championing the adoption of emerging graph platforms, algorithms, and tools.

Furthermore, you will actively foster collaborations with leading academic institutions, healthcare research experts, and the broader graph community. Your contributions will extend to publishing seminal research findings in top-tier conferences and leading the dialogue on the transformative power of graph intelligence in healthcare.

Essential Responsibilities

• Work directly with the business to understand their business processes and aims, then identify how analytical solutions could help deliver value for them.
• Outline complex new use cases and create high-level impact estimates.
• Identify data elements needed and where to get them (including proxies).
• Assemble data sets independently using knowledge of Highmark operational and analytic data structures.
• Deliver the analytical solution to several complex business problems simultaneously.
• Document objectives, assumptions, and processes and enrich/expand our standards as needed.
• Select and apply the appropriate advanced modeling/machine learning techniques to deliver business insight.
• Consult with the business to contextualize and translate the results of our analysis in a form which the business can understand and act upon.
• Plan, prepare and deliver/coordinate all elements of several analyses largely independently.
• Be the face of major projects within ED&A, external presence/earned credibility.
• Mentoring/teaching others.

Education

Required: Master's degree in Analytics, Mathematics, Physics, Computer and Information Science, Engineering Technology or related field OR Bachelor's Degree + 3 years of relevant work experience in lieu of a Master's Degree.

Preferred: Doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in Analytics, Mathematics, Physics, Computer and Information Science, Engineering Technology, or a related field.

Experience

Required: 5 years of Data Science + 3 years Data Science (if PhD Education).

Preferred: Deep Expertise in Graph Theory & Network Science, Advanced Graph Machine Learning (GML), Knowledge Graph Engineering, Graph Database & Platform Experience, GML Libraries & Frameworks, Cloud Platform & MLOps, Research & Publication Acumen, Healthcare Data Familiarity, Experimental Design & Rigor.

Skills

Analysis of business problems/needs, Analytical and Logical Reasoning/Thinking, Collaborative Problem Solving, Data Analysis with SQL, BigQuery, Statistical Analysis with Python, R, Written & Oral Presentation Skills, Basic proto-typing/front end skills.

Physical, Mental Demands and Working Conditions

Position Type: Office-Based Teaches / trains others regularly Occasionally Travel regularly from the office to various work sites or from site-to-site Never Works primarily out-of-the office selling products/services (sales employees) Never Physical work site required No Lifting: up to 10 pounds Frequently Lifting: 10 to 25 pounds Occasionally Lifting: 25 to 50 pounds Rarely.

Disclaimer: The job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and essential duties and responsibilities of work performed by employees within this job title. It may not contain a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees to do this job.

Compliance Requirement: This position adheres to the ethical and legal standards and behavioral expectations as set forth in the code of business conduct and company policies.

Pay Range Minimum: $108,000.00

Pay Range Maximum: $201,800.00