Data Scientist (ITS)

University of Southern California • Los Angeles, CA

7d • $120,214 - $155,526 • Onsite

About The Position

The USC Institute of Urology is seeking a Data Scientist to support the design, development, testing, and deployment of agentic AI workflows in a healthcare environment. Based in the USC Urology AI Center, the role works with clinicians, researchers, and engineers to translate clinical and operational needs into practical AI solutions. The work includes developing multi-step, API-driven workflows, integrating multimodal data, and ensuring reliability and traceability. The goal is to build scalable, production-ready systems that enhance clinical operations, support research, and improve patient outcomes.

The successful candidate is motivated, proactive, resourceful, and detail-oriented, with strong organizational and communication skills and the ability to be decisive and adaptable. The role requires experience with agentic AI workflows and a strong understanding of governance and security protocols for deploying AI solutions.

The position is on-site at the USC Health Science Campus in Los Angeles, California, when scheduled. Work hours and on-site days may change according to business needs. The annual budgeted salary range is $120,213.99–$155,525.71. USC considers factors including responsibilities, experience, education, skills, internal equity, applicable laws, funding, and market and organizational considerations when making an offer.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience; combined experience and education may substitute for the minimum education requirement.
• At least 2 years of minimum experience.
• Strong Python and SQL programming skills, GitHub experience, and experience with machine-learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Full-stack software development experience, including JavaScript, Node.js, QT, or similar technologies.
• Demonstrated experience building and deploying LLM applications beyond prototypes, including tool/function calling, workflow orchestration, structured outputs, and validation.
• Experience implementing grounding/retrieval and reliability evaluation, including test cases, regression checks, and monitoring.
• Familiarity with security and privacy best practices for sensitive data.
• Experience using statistical programming languages such as R, Python, or SQL to manipulate data and derive insights from large datasets.
• Experience creating data models and data architecture, using data visualization tools, and applying machine-learning techniques and algorithms.
• Experience with query languages and relational and non-relational databases.
• Knowledge of applied statistical concepts and techniques, such as distributions, statistical testing, and regression.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to provide detailed information and summaries to management-level audiences.
• Experience developing customer relationships and delivering customer-focused service.
• Problem-solving and decision-making skills, including root-cause analysis and evaluating solution options.

Nice To Haves

• Experience integrating structured and unstructured data for workflow automation and incorporating multimodal inputs where applicable.
• Experience designing multi-step workflows with escalation and human-in-the-loop safeguards.
• Experience implementing agentic AI workflows and designing AI agents using n8n, LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI, or similar tools.
• Cloud deployment and secure operations experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP, and experience with APIs.
• Knowledge of multi-agent systems, planning, or reinforcement-learning fundamentals.
• Experience with lightweight fine-tuning or model adaptation.
• Preferred bachelor's degree in applied mathematics, data science, computer science, statistics, or a related field.
• Preferred 4 years of experience in data science, analytics, IT, cognitive engineering, or related fields.
• Demonstrated interest in data science and artificial intelligence, including experience in open domains such as GitHub.
• Published writing on artificial intelligence or data science.
• Ability to write high-quality Python code.
• Familiarity with unit testing, source control, and code review.

Responsibilities

• Build AI workflows that execute multi-step tasks through APIs and internal databases.
• Integrate and normalize multiple data modalities to support workflow execution.
• Implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and grounding controls to support traceability and reduce unsupported outputs.
• Design, troubleshoot, and refine agentic AI workflows and AI agents to augment existing healthcare applications.
• Collaborate with clinicians, researchers, and operational stakeholders to translate needs into safe, testable, and measurable deliverables.
• Follow USC and department policies, procedures, objectives, performance-improvement, attendance, safety, environmental, and infection-control guidelines, including the workplace Code of Conduct and Compliance Plan.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level