Senior Data Scientist

Job summary

The senior data scientist / econometrician provides vital data and insights to inform decisions, driving improvements in healthcare and impacting millions of people. You will work on and lead the delivery of a range of projects, focusing on data and analytical aspects. You will provide specialist advice and guidance on the use of data and analytics to the HEU, informing how we deliver projects and achieve clients’ aims. You will work on various research projects as commissioned by our clients under a consultancy model, which will take up to 80% of your time (this may change as the work of the unit evolves).

Main duties of the job

Plan, organise, and lead data and analytics aspects of projects. Responsibilities include:

1. Building predictive models for admissions/discharges to optimise resources and reduce bottlenecks in emergency departments.
2. Analysing health disparities across populations, identifying factors like socio-economic status or access to care.
3. Applying NLP to unstructured data (e.g., clinician notes, patient feedback) for insights into patient needs.
4. Using machine learning to predict outcomes such as readmission rates or disease progression, supporting proactive care.
5. Developing econometric models to evaluate healthcare policy effects on patient health, utilisation, and costs.
6. Analysing complex datasets, identifying trends, and selecting methods for data cleaning, processing, and analysis.
7. Addressing unique questions, developing innovative approaches to client needs.
8. Following and contributing to best practices in data analysis.
9. Managing software for statistical analysis, including procuring and implementing improvements.
10. Developing and implementing policies for HEU and CSU teams.
11. Quality-assuring team outputs.
12. Acting independently as a subject-matter expert within guidelines.
13. Supporting business development and contributing to data science proposals by scoping projects and estimating costs.

About us

The HEU is an NHS consultancy of 17 team members across three teams: Health Economics, Service Delivery and Data and Analytics.

You will sit within the data and analytics team, led by the chief analyst and reporting to the lead data scientist/econometrician.

During projects you will work closely across the HEU team, with data scientists, analysts, project managers, and health economists.

You will engage with our clients, partners and stakeholders throughout projects, understanding their needs and communicating your work.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key responsibilities

Data science function

1. Plan, organise and deliver the data and analytic aspects of projects, including in a project leadership role.
2. Building predictive models to forecast patient admissions and discharges, helping optimise hospital resources and reduce bottlenecks in areas like emergency departments.
3. Analysing disparities in health outcomes across different populations, identifying factors like socio-economic status, geography, or access to care that contribute to inequalities.
4. Applying NLP techniques to unstructured text data, such as clinician notes or patient feedback, to extract key information and improve understanding of patient needs and outcomes.
5. Using supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques to predict outcomes such as readmission rates, disease progression, or patient deterioration, aiding proactive care.
6. Developing econometric models to evaluate the effects of healthcare policies or interventions on key outcomes, such as patient health, hospital utilisation, or treatment costs.
7. Analyse complex datasets to identify trends and patterns, and apply statistical models to solve business problems.
8. Work on novel issues and questions which may not have precedent about how they have been tackled before.
9. Follow data analysis and econometrics best practices and contribute to the ongoing development and improvement of these.
10. Manage systems and software used to deliver statistical analysis and other functions as required for projects.
11. Propose and develop policies and procedures relating to data and analytics.
12. Appraise and quality assure the analytical outputs from the team.
13. Act as a specialist in own area and achieve own objectives.
14. Undertake business development meetings, supported by colleagues.

Team-working

1. Provide guidance and mentorship to junior team members.
2. Support the lead data scientist / econometrician to line manage other members of the team.
3. Supervise the completion of tasks by others.
4. Proactively provide training and share knowledge on areas of expertise to the wider unit.
5. Deliver training to clients on own area of expertise.

Communication and networking

1. Communicate and present complex information and insights to non-technical stakeholders.
2. Write high-quality reports which effectively communicate our findings.
3. Synthesize multiple sources to communicate on complex issues.
4. Understand client needs and objectives.
5. Make judgements where there are conflicting views.

Project and financial management

1. Lead on small to medium sized projects and work with others to deliver projects to time, scope, budget and quality.
2. Plan and organise complex data analysis tasks.
3. Manage project budgets.
4. Horizon-scan and identify potential issues before they occur.

Person Specification
Experience
Essential

1. Masters degree in a related STEM subject or equivalent level of experience.
2. Varied experience of extracting data, manipulating, understanding, transforming, wrangling, cleaning, and storing health data.
3. Ability to write well-designed code (e.g. SQL or Python).
4. Possess foundational knowledge in data science, statistical analysis, and machine learning techniques.
5. Varied experience working in data and analytics functions in the NHS.

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