Senior Research Scientist

Surgo Health • Washington, DC

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

Surgo Health is building the Behavioral Intelligence layer for healthcare — revealing why people behave as they do, predicting what they will do next, and helping organizations make the decisions that change outcomes. A Public Benefit Corporation grounded in two decades of global health experience, Surgo generates foundational behavioral data that reveals the unseen why and builds the AI products that powers decision-grade insights at population scale — equipping healthcare organizations, funders, and public agencies to act on what actually shapes health outcomes: people's beliefs, motivations, and barriers. From predicting who will enroll and remain in a clinical trial, to understanding what drives treatment decisions, to designing more effective health programs, Surgo brings the missing human layer into decisions traditionally made with clinical data alone. Backed by 40+ peer-reviewed publications and trusted by partners including the Gates Foundation, J&J, Takeda, Pivotal Ventures, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Surgo is building a future where healthcare organizations don't just understand human behavior, but anticipate it — making healthcare more personal, precise, and effective for everyone. We are looking for a technically strong Senior Research Scientist to serve as the analytical backbone of the high-profile, multi-year US Youth Mental Health Tracker (YMHT). This is a hugely ambitious and impactful project alongside major partners (Pivotal Ventures, MTV) that will change how mental health is monitored and tracked in the US. This role is for someone who wants to go deep on the science and the build, designing methods, writing rigorous analysis, and engineering the systems behind it. You will work alongside our research leadership and domain experts, who own the subject-matter side, so you can focus on getting the data, the measurement, and the tooling right. This is the right role for you if you are passionate about using advanced analytics and healthcare-related data to deliver impactful insights.

Requirements

• A PhD or equivalent with 5+ years hands-on, end-to-end quantitative research experience
• Strong command of statistical methods
• Advanced proficiency in R and/or Python for analysis and data work
• Solid data science skills: you'll be working in lockstep with our product and engineering teams on Databricks and Azure
• Experience in applying LLMs/GenAI to research and analytics workflows
• Clear scientific and technical communication in English, both written and verbal (for documenting methods and collaborating with the team, rather than public-facing spokesperson work)

Nice To Haves

• Experience building composite indices or measurement frameworks and/or geospatial analysis is a strong plus
• Desire to work in a fast-paced startup environment amidst uncertainty where you can have an outsized impact on our success
• Desire to learn new skills and a new domain beyond your area of expertise and a ‘let’s try it’ attitude

Responsibilities

• Drive the development of one of the most valuable youth thriving datasets in the US: help build and refine a national resource spanning 4 surveys and thousands of young people, and turn it into insight the field relies on
• Make youth thriving data explorable for anyone: help transform the YMHT platform from static dashboards into an interactive interface where stakeholders can query the data
• Pioneer AI-driven tools that put behavioral data directly in stakeholders' hands: work with our Engineering team to build the prototypes that let partners interrogate YMHT independently, opening an entirely new way to access youth thriving insight
• Establish YMHT as a scientific authority in youth mental health: lead peer-reviewed manuscripts and validation papers that cement the platform's credibility with the research community

Benefits

• Fantastic, fun and collaborative colleagues; opportunity to solve tough challenges in healthcare
• Ability to be entrepreneurial and tremendous opportunities for growth
• Public Benefit Corporation with an impact and equity mission
• Competitive compensation
• We pay 100% of premiums for a Platinum healthcare plan, for employees and dependents
• 3 months paid parental leave
• Generous PTO, 20+ holidays
• Highly competitive 401K
• Professional Development opportunities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree