Data Scientist IV, Biostatistics

Description:

Embedded within Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Division of Research, the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center (KPVSC) is a leader in evaluating vaccines with a long history of collaboration with multiple federal agencies, particularly the CDC's Immunization Safety Office. The KPVSC has also been engaged in Phase II, III, and IV vaccine trials, collaborating with the pharmaceutical industry and FDA to help bring new vaccines into licensure and then to evaluate and ensure their safety. Most recently, the KPVSC has been heavily involved in performing clinical trials to bring COVID-19 vaccines to market and after they were in use, monitoring their safety and effectiveness through national collaborative research projects. Currently, KPVSC has a team of over 40 individuals, including programmer analysts, project managers, research assistants, nurses, and physicians. We are currently seeking an experienced Data Scientist to provide high-level analytic and statistical support for a portfolio of studies focused on vaccine research. More information about the KPVSC can be found at: https://vaccines.kaiser.org

This position would assume a senior data role within our research group with responsibilities including independent analytic database development, data analysis and reporting, statistical consultation, interpretation of results, development or implementation of study tracking systems, development of standards, procedures and policies for data maintenance and quality control. They will provide a strong supporting role to Principal Investigators and project managers as needed to develop grant proposals, protocols, presentations, and publications.

The ideal candidate will possess expert proficiency in SAS, and/or R, the ability to perform data transformation and extraction from multiple administrative and clinical records databases, experience with creation, analytical manipulation, and interpretation of large databases, a strong understanding and experience with epidemiologic and statistical principles, including experience performing advanced statistical analyses experience with or a strong interest in working in vaccine research, and experience with UNIX or Linux (desirable but not required).

Job Summary:

In addition to the responsibilities listed below, this senior individual contributor biostatistician is also responsible for contributing to the research process by actively leading sections of grant proposals and scientific publications; developing documentation to capture the processes and project workflows as they relate to data management and statistical methods; setting metrics to ensure data quality; and translating statistical and algorithmic models to aid in the drawing of conclusions about study populations.

Essential Responsibilities:

Promotes learning in others by proactively providing and/or developing information, resources, advice, and expertise with coworkers and members; builds relationships with cross-functional/external stakeholders and customers. Listens to, seeks, and addresses performance feedback; proactively provides actionable feedback to others and to managers. Pursues self-development; creates and executes plans to capitalize on strengths and develop weaknesses; leads by influencing others through technical explanations and examples and provides options and recommendations. Adopts new responsibilities; adapts to and learns from change, challenges, and feedback; demonstrates flexibility in approaches to work; champions change and helps others adapt to new tasks and processes. Facilitates team collaboration to support a business outcome.

Completes work assignments autonomously and supports business-specific projects by applying expertise in subject area and business knowledge to generate creative solutions; encourages team members to adapt to and follow all procedures and policies. Collaborates cross-functionally and/or externally to achieve effective business decisions; provides recommendations and solves complex problems; escalates high-priority issues or risks, as appropriate; monitors progress and results. Supports the development of work plans to meet business priorities and deadlines; identifies resources to accomplish priorities and deadlines. Identifies, speaks up, and capitalizes on improvement opportunities across teams; uses influence to guide others and engages stakeholders to achieve appropriate solutions.

Develops detailed problem statements outlining hypotheses and their effect on target clients/customers by defining scope, objectives, outcome statements and metrics.

Designs and develops data pipelines and automation for data acquisition and ingestion of raw data from multiple data sources and data formats by transforming, cleansing, and storing data for consumption by downstream processes; writing and optimizing diverse SQL queries; and demonstrating advanced knowledge of database fundamentals.

Analyzes and investigates complex data sets and summarizes key characteristics by employing data visualization methods; and determining how best to manipulate data sources to discover patterns, spot anomalies, test hypotheses, and/or check assumptions.

Selects, manipulates, and transforms data into features used in machine learning algorithms by leveraging techniques to conduct dimensionality reduction, feature importance, and feature selection.

Trains statistical models by using algorithms and data mining techniques; testing models with various algorithms to assess the input dataset and related features; and applying techniques to prevent overfitting such as cross-validation.

Deploys and maintains reliable and efficient models through production.

Verifies model performance by demonstrating expertise in the practice of a variety of model validation techniques to assess and discriminate the goodness of model fit; and leveraging feedback and output to manage and strengthen model performance.

Collaborates with internal and external stakeholders across domains to develop and deliver statistical driven outcomes by delivering insights and values from heterogeneous data to investigate complex problems for multiple use cases; driving informed decision-making; and presenting findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum three (3) years medical or health analytics experience.
• Minimum three (3) years statistical modeling experience using SAS, R, or another advanced statistical package.
• Masters degree in Biostatistics, Statistics, Public Health, Data Science, or related field OR Minimum five (5) years medical or health analytics experience.
• Minimum three (3) years experience working with Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and visualization methods.
• Minimum three (3) years machine learning and/or algorithmic experience.
• Minimum three (3) years statistical analysis and modeling experience.
• Minimum three (3) years programming experience.
• Minimum one (1) year experience in a leadership role with or without direct reports.
• Bachelors degree in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Economics, Public Health, or related field AND Minimum five (5) years experience in data science or a directly related field. Additional equivalent work experience in a directly related field may be substituted for the degree requirement. Advanced degrees may be substituted for the work experience requirements.

Preferred Qualifications:

• One (1) or more publications as an author in a medical or scientific journal.
• One (1) year healthcare experience.
• Two (2) years experience delivering presentations to management.
• Two (2) years project management experience.
• Two (2) years experience working in a matrixed organization.
• Three (3) years experience working with SQL.
• Three (3) years experience working with SAS.
• Three (3) years experience working with Excel.
• Three (3) years experience working with Tableau.
• Master's degree in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Economics, Public Health, or related field.
• One (1) year experience working in big data or data engineering.
• Three (3) years study design experience.
• Two (2) years years experience working with search and information retrieval.

Pay Range: $158900 - $205590 / year

The ranges posted above reflect the location in the job posting. The salary range may vary if you reside in a different location or state than the location posted.

At Kaiser Permanente, equity, inclusion and diversity are inextricably linked to our mission, and we aim to make it a part of everything we do. We know that having a diverse and inclusive workforce makes Kaiser Permanente a better place to receive health care, a more supportive partner in our communities we serve, and a more fulfilling place to work. Working at Kaiser Permanente means that you agree to and abide by our commitment to equity and our expectation that we all work together to create an inclusive work environment focused on a sense of belonging and wellbeing.

Kaiser Permanente is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, parental status, ancestry, disability, gender identity, veteran status, genetic information, other distinguishing characteristics of diversity and inclusion, or any other protected status.