Principal Research Data Scientist

About Healthleap HealthLeap builds AI that helps clinicians prioritize patients, surfaces the right data, and gets patients the care they need earlier, so they can leave the hospital sooner. We integrate with hospital electronic health record systems, screen 100% of patients daily, and risk-rank them in real time. Clinicians at Cedars-Sinai and Penn Medicine start every morning with HealthLeap — with Houston Methodist, Emory, and Intermountain Health deploying now. Real results: 39% more diagnoses. 4 days earlier detection. $11M/year ROI for our first site at Cedars Sinai. 7× revenue growth in 7 months. We started with malnutrition. We're expanding to every major condition to ensure no patient falls through the cracks. Sequoia and First Round are backing us to build the platform that screens every patient for everything and drives tangible outcomes. We're ~15 people. >$7M raised. SF-based, hybrid-friendly. Early enough to shape the product. Late enough to know it works. Results that are changing lives. About the role At HealthLeap, you'll ask the hard questions about hospital care. Who gets missed, and for which conditions? What actually changes outcomes? Where does screening help, and where doesn't it? You'll run the statistical analyses that test whether screening every patient really changes their trajectory, look hard at the results, and figure out where we can do better. That work supports our partners and our go-to-market efforts, and it can shape a product that clinicians use every day. You'll be early enough to build the research agenda from scratch, but late enough to know the product already works. You'll also have a lot to work with: EHR data from 40+ hospitals, hundreds of thousands of patients, real deployments, and your pick of health system partners. You’ll get support from, and work closely with, our data science and engineering teams, who know the data inside and out. You might be a good fit if you're curious, care about impact, and want to do applied data science. It helps if you like turning messy observational hospital data into results people actually cite, and if you're excited by the speed of startups! Where this goes You'll be our first dedicated research hire, which means you get to help set research priorities for HealthLeap and own your research portfolio. Year one will focus on running outcomes studies and driving two studies to publication, but you will have the opportunity to shape the research team and grow with the function. What you'll do Own research projects end-to-end, from study design through analysis, interpretation, and publication. Design and run observational and quasi-experimental studies on real-world hospital data. Analyze complex clinical and operational datasets and stand behind the methods. Collaborate with frontline clinicians, health system execs, our customer success team, our go-to-market teams, and our data science team to come up with new research questions, weigh in on product decisions, and lead the outcomes and impact studies tied to our health system partnerships. What you'll need PhD in statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, or a related field. At least 2 years of (non-PhD) experience conducting observational health research using large healthcare databases. Background in epidemiology or outcomes research. Deep expertise in causal inference on observational data: difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, interrupted time series, propensity methods. Fluency in Python, including the ability to wrangle large, observational clinical datasets. A track record of owning analyses or full research projects independently. Bonus Hands-on experience with EHR, claims, and billing data. Familiarity with healthcare quality metrics and health system benchmarking. Experience presenting research at conferences or to external audiences. Exposure to claims or billing data. Industry experience, though strong academic candidates are welcome. Compensation and benefits Salary: $170,000 to $215,000. Equity: meaningful ownership in an early-stage company. Healthcare: 100% of premiums covered. PTO: unlimited, with a recommended minimum of 20 days. 401(k): 4% match. Equipment: laptop plus a home office budget. Interview process Intro call: get to know each other. Technical: one or two interviews on your methods and past work. Onsite: technical assessment, case study presentation, behavioral interview, meet the team. Decision: same week as onsite. We respect your time. If there's a fit, you'll know fast! If you're passionate about applying frontier AI to real-world impact, join us in building healthcare's future.