We are seeking a Staff Data Scientist to join our Payment Modeling team and lead the development of our research capabilities within the Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC). This role is critical for advancing our understanding of provider and practice performance, which directly informs the pricing of our value-based care contracts. You will be a key technical leader within our collaborative Payment Modeling team, reporting to a Senior Manager of Data Science and working alongside other data scientists, software engineers, and financial analysts.

As a hands-on builder, you will implement the analytics backbone we use to perform research inside the VRDC and use that infrastructure to deliver advanced financial and utilization metrics. You will partner closely with Finance and fellow Data Scientists to understand how practices manage their panels and convert those insights into scalable metrics. With Product and Engineering, you will synthesize your findings into decision tools that power our risk‑management products.

Initially, you will be responsible for building the foundational infrastructure, standard operating procedures, and best practices to enable pricing/underwriting based on Medicare data. As a key technical leader, you will design greenfield systems, architect experimentation pipelines, and ultimately help improve the performance of the 500+ models that predict the financial viability of practices in value-based care. This role demands deep skill developing in Python, strong research taste, and a strong vision for systems and software architecture to support an enterprise-quality underwriting stack.

Who We Are

Pearl Health is dedicated to empowering primary care providers, health systems, and physician-led networks to succeed in the shift to value-based care. Our platform delivers the technology, financial tools, and expert services that enable practices to provide more proactive, effective care to their Medicare patients, ultimately lowering costs and improving health outcomes.

Founded in 2020, we are a team of healthcare and technology innovators backed by premier investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Viking Global Investors, and AlleyCorp. We partner with thousands of providers across 44 states to build a more sustainable future for American healthcare.

What a Staff Data Scientist Means To Us...

Development and Deployment of a Stable, Tested, Extendable, and Compliant Research Infrastructure: You will build and maintain an enterprise-grade infrastructure in Python, SQL, and PySpark that will allow us to conduct cutting-edge research in the Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC) and internal systems. This work will involve architecting the system in partnership with data scientists, finance, and other technical leaders at Pearl.
Conduct Cutting Edge ML Research at the Intersection of Healthcare and Finance: Value-based care only works if the patterns of influence among care management, healthcare outcomes, and financial payments are well understood. Pearl is engaged in research to uncover industry-leading understanding of these patterns so that we can leverage that understanding to orient our company strategy and go to market motion.
Mentorship & Talent Path: You will be a technical leader from day one by setting the bar for technical excellence and through mentorship of your peers.

Why You'll Love This Role:

Unparalleled Impact: Your work will directly shape the financial core of our business and influence how thousands of providers are paid, ultimately improving patient care.
Greenfield Opportunity: You won't just be maintaining systems; you'll be the chief architect of our VRDC research environment, building critical infrastructure from the ground up.
Unique Data Access: You'll work within the CMS Virtual Research Data Center, one of the richest healthcare datasets available, to solve problems at the intersection of healthcare and finance.
Technical Autonomy: As a technical leader, you will have the freedom to define research trajectories and make key architectural decisions, with your work directly influencing company strategy.

Who You Are…

A Ph.D. or Master's degree in a quantitative field such as statistics, applied mathematics, computer science, engineering, economics, or a related discipline, and 8+ years of experience in performing results-driven quantitative analysis.
Exceptional system architecture vision and software engineering skills, with proven experience designing and building scalable data science systems.
Strong programming skills in Python and SQL, with deep experience in data manipulation, statistical modeling, and machine learning.
Experience conducting research and building data pipelines in a distributed computing environment, particularly with Databricks and PySpark.
Healthcare data fluency, ideally with Medicare FFS claims and MA encounters, provider/ACO concepts, and value‑based care mechanics; you have the ability to translate clinical/financial pain points into measurable signals.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with a track record of partnering with Finance, Product, Engineering, and other Data Scientists to turn ambiguous problems into scoped work that ships, is documented, and is adopted.
A proven ability to propose research trajectories and lead complex projects with minimal guidance, managing multiple stakeholders while balancing deep insight with timely delivery.
Familiarity with the application of quantitative techniques to financial risk management, including Monte Carlo simulations, is a plus.
Experience mentoring data scientists and engineers and providing feedback on technical methods and approaches.

Our Values

🤝 Collaborate to Innovate: We believe the best solutions arise from intelligent teamwork. We trust the expertise of our teammates and pursue opportunities to learn and grow from each other. By embracing diverse perspectives and encouraging authenticity, we create and evangelize groundbreaking health solutions.

🗣️ Trust Through Transparency: We prioritize transparency in all our interactions, ensuring that employees, patients, clinicians and partners have access to the information they need to make informed decisions. Integrity is at the core of how we operate, from building products to fostering relationships, and is crucial to our ability to communicate openly and gain trust.

❤️ Serious Impact, Big Heart: We go above and beyond with our efforts to empower proactive, patient-centered care — and we celebrate every step forward. Humor and positivity fuel our creativity, strengthen relationships, and remind us to acknowledge the journey as much as the destination.

_We are an Equal Opportunity Employer on a mission to improve lives. Our strength comes from the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of our team. We welcome all candidates and are committed to a fair, inclusive hiring process free from discrimination.

_What we offer

The expected offer for this role includes the following components:

Base Salary Range: $160,000 - $200,000 per year.
Additional Compensation: This role is eligible for a discretionary performance bonus and equity options.
Benefits: We offer a competitive benefits package. You can learn more on our benefits page.

_Final compensation for this role will be determined by a variety of factors, including a candidate's relevant skills, experience, labor market conditions, and location.

_Agency Submissions

We are not currently working with contingency search firms. If a resume is submitted to any Pearl Health employee by a third party without a valid written and signed search agreement, it will become the property of Pearl Health and no fee will be paid, irrespective of whether the candidate is hired.

The Interview Process

While steps may vary by role, you can typically expect:

Recruiter Screen: An intro call to discuss your background and motivations
Hiring Manager Interview: A deeper-dive conversation with your potential manager
Technical Assessment: Technical take-home via Codility
Panel Interview: A round of meetings with teammates and cross-functional partners
Executive Interview: Final conversation(s) with 1-2 of our leaders