AI/Data Scientist

Premera Blue Cross

5d•Remote

About The Position

Our purpose, to improve customers’ lives by making healthcare work better, is far from ordinary. And so are our employees. Working at Premera means you have the opportunity to drive real change by transforming healthcare. Premera is committed to being a workplace where people feel empowered to grow, innovate, and lead with purpose. By investing in our employees and fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous development, we’re able to better serve our customers. It’s this commitment that has earned us recognition as one of the best companies to work for. Learn more about our recent awards and recognitions as a greatest workplace. Learn how Premera supports our members, customers and the communities that we serve through our Healthsource blog: https://healthsource.premera.com/. As an AI/Data Scientist, you will apply advanced AI, machine learning, and analytical skills to the design, development, and deployment of AI solutions with measurable impact on the most challenging problems within healthcare. As a scientist, you understand business challenges, research and conceptualize AI enabled solutions, and are tenacious, practical, thorough, and successful in working collaboratively throughout the organization to bring them to life. Additionally, you will measure and convey business value and results to stakeholders throughout the organization. This role can be hired into as a Level III or IV, depending upon experience. This is a telecommuter position, working from home.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics, Computer Science, Programming, Data Science, or similar quantitative field. (Required for both Level III and Level IV)
(5) years of experience in quantitative analytics, programming, and/or data engineering or data science. (Required for Level III)
(8) years of experience in quantitative analytics, programming, and/or data engineering or data science. (Required for Level IV)

Nice To Haves

Master’s/PhD Degree in Statistics, Computer Science, Data Science or similar quantitative field.
2+ years of experience developing solutions using language and reasoning models.
Familiarity with agentic frameworks and protocols and knowledge graphs.
5+ years of experience in developing and optimizing ML solutions using Python’s core data science scientific stack (NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib and scikit-learn); familiarity with advanced model interpretability libraries (e.g., SHAP, LIME).
Experience with open-source environments.
3+ years of experience with ML lifecycles in production contexts including metrics definition, drift monitoring and alerting, automated retraining etc.
Strong track record of using quantitative approaches including statistics and machine learning to solve analytical problems.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Deep expertise in one or more of the following areas with working knowledge and interest in others: Familiarity with best practices in code quality, version control, and system architecture.
Experience working with open-source frameworks such as Transformers, Langchain/Langraph or similar, REST API’s, and optimization using asynchronous frameworks.
Advanced in SQL for feature engineering, with an ability to handle structured and unstructured data in various research contexts.
Comfortable working with evolving data formats and tools, leveraging data management best practices to support experimentation and prototyping.
Skilled in a wide variety of statistical analyses (e.g., hypothesis testing, experimental design, A/B testing, regression analysis, clustering, time series analysis, anomaly detection and sequence analysis) using best practices tools such as Statsmodels, PyMC, Darts, Prophet etc. to champion data-driven decision making.
Experienced at establishing experiment tracking to manage the iterative process of developing AI solutions.
Familiar with measuring and monitoring traditional telemetry and gen AI observability metrics to ensure the behavior and outputs of AI solutions in production.
Proficient at ethical AI practices including explainable AI, fairness, and mitigation of bias/hallucinations.
Familiarity with distributed computing and/or distributed databases (Hadoop, NoSQL, etc.).
Demonstrated experience in data extraction, manipulation, data management, predictive and descriptive data modeling, forecasting, trending, interpreting, displaying, and communicating results/recommendations.
Fluency with data visualization tools such as Matplotlib, Seaborn, Bokeh, Plotly, etc., for data exploration and presentation.
Strong written communication skills and ability to communicate complex quantitative analysis in a clear, precise, and actionable manner.
Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work both independently and as a member of a team.
Strong knowledge of mathematics, statistics, and probability.
Able to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions as well as find relationships among seemingly unrelated business or healthcare events.
Able to anticipate business customer’s analytics needs and proactively conceptualize and champion high-value data product solutions.

Responsibilities

Develop and tune generative/agentic AI solutions aimed to solve highly complex problems within the delivery of healthcare or health plan services.
Establish comprehensive tracking of experiments to manage the iterative process of building and testing models ensuring that AI solutions fulfill business requirements.
Provide statistical rigor to these evaluations via the design of controlled tests to measure the impact of changes to the solution.
Form and leverage strong collaborations with AI engineers to scale solutions for production grade performance.
Develop and implement complex agentic workflows that utilize AI agents for autonomous task execution, enhancing operational efficiency and decision-making capabilities.
Solve new business problems by reaching, designing, building, and validating complex or novel machine learning models.
Conduct feature engineering and model optimization.
Manage the complete lifecycle of machine learning models from conception to deployment while following SDLC and responsible AI practices.
Consult with senior and executive level business leaders to scope, model, and recommend AI/ML, technical, or analytic solutions to highly complex problems within healthcare.
Build and ensure consensus with stakeholders regarding the feasibility, tradeoffs, and delivery of recommended solutions.
Research, recommend, and apply causal techniques (RCT, DiD, PSM, causal graph models, counterfactual reasoning, etc.) to estimate treatment effects to quantify or validate business benefit of complex health plan activities.
Explain business impact to program owners and leadership using approaches that are meaningful to those audiences.
Partner with program owner in the promotion or publications of results when applicable.
Participate in code peer reviews and quality assurance testing.
Troubleshoot issues as they arise to solve problems independently and collaboratively.
Serve as the technical subject matter expert to establish best practices for the team and help coach the team via formal and informal initiatives.
Maintain regular contact with customers through development cycle to ensure each step of implementation tracks customer’s needs.
Lead analytics projects applying a working knowledge of Agile and SCRUM project methodologies.

Benefits

Medical, vision, and dental coverage with low employee premiums.
Voluntary benefit offerings, including pet insurance for paw parents.
Life and disability insurance.
Retirement programs, including a 401K employer match and, believe it or not, a pension plan that is vested after 3 years of service.
Wellness incentives with a wide range of mental well-being resources for you and your dependents, including counseling services, stress management programs, and mindfulness programs, just to name a few.
Generous paid time off to reenergize.
Looking for continuing education? We have tuition assistance for both undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Employee recognition program to celebrate anniversaries, team accomplishments, and more.
For our hybrid employees, our on-campus model provides flexibility to create your own routine with access to on-site resources, networking opportunities, and team engagement.
Commuter perks make your trip to work less impactful on the environment and your wallet.
Free convenient on-site parking.
Subsidized on-campus cafes make lunchtime connections with colleagues fun and affordable.
Participate in engaging on-site activities such as health and wellness events, coffee connects, disaster preparedness fairs and more.
Our complementary fitness & well-being center offers both in-person and virtual workouts and nutritional counseling.
Need a brain break? Challenge someone to a game of shuffleboard or ping pong while on campus.