Lead Data Scientist - Healthcare Transformation

About Blue Water Thinking

Guided by our principles of value generation, continuous innovation, customer-centricity, and vested collaboration, Blue Water Thinking proudly supports our Federal clients in achieving their Agency goals.

Founded by a decorated twenty-eight year Veteran of the United States Army, Blue Water Thinking understands and supports the mission of our Nation's war fighters, Veterans, their families and caretakers.

Leveraging our executive team's military experience and private and public sector consulting expertise, Blue Water Thinking takes an integrated "one-team" approach and brings to bear best-fit solutions, thought leadership, and grit to meet our client's transformational needs.

Fueled by our values of integrity, respect, professionalism, stewardship and customer service, the Blue Water Thinking team understands the power of the human connection, collaboration, humility and loyalty to one another, our clients and industry partners.

Lastly, our formula for success is simple: Build something good, take care of our people, keep our clients satisfied, nurture our work ethic and reputation, build long-lasting partnerships, enjoy what we do and give back as much as possible.

Job Description

Blue Water Thinking is seeking an experienced and dedicated Lead Data Scientist to join our team, supporting the Integrated Healthcare Transformation (IHT) initiative at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The primary responsibility of this role to provide the necessary capabilities and industry expertise in advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and machine learning initiatives supporting clinical decision-making and operational optimization.

Responsibilities

• Serves as technical lead for advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and machine learning initiatives supporting clinical decision-making and operational optimization.
• Designs and validates algorithms for interoperability workflows, clinical informatics systems, and Agile integration reporting.
• Ensures compliance with VA data governance, security, and privacy standards.
• Present analytical outcomes to managers and stakeholders to guide business model adjustments and future planning.
• Translate data into meaningful reports that support healthcare transformation goals.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align data strategies with program objectives.
• Support predictive modeling and trend analysis to improve veteran healthcare delivery.
• Responsible for tasks such as predictive analytics, data migration fidelity, and clinical decision supports.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master's degree in data science, computer science, health informatics, statistics, or a related quantitative field.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in data analysis or advanced analytics.
• Minimum of 5 years applying machine learning and predictive modeling in healthcare or federal health IT environments.
• Demonstrated expertise in supporting PI Planning, backlog analysis, velocity metrics and other Agile processes.
• Demonstrated experience in interoperability standards (e.g. HL7, FHIR) and clinical terminology (SNOMED, LOINC).
• Demonstrated experience in data visualization tools, including PowerBI and Tablueau.
• Demonstrated expertise in ETL processes.
• Demonstrated expertise in integrating clinical informatics systems (Oracle Health, VISTA, CPRS) and validating data migration fidelity.
• Demonstrated experience in programing languages (SQL, Python, R) and and frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch).
• Demonstrated ability to interpret complex datasets and communicate findings to non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Health Data Analyst (CHDA), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) or SAFe Practitioner, Healthcare Data Science or AI certifications are highly desirable
• Ph.D. in health informatics, data science, machine learning, or related discipline.
• Experience supporting federal healthcare programs, especially within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Eligibility

• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future
• Must be able to obtain and maintain the required federal public trust clearance for this role

Compensation

Salary for this position is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, location, the candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, competencies and experience, as well as contract specific affordability and organizational requirements. The proposed salary range for this position is outlined below.

Salary range: $145,000 - $200,000

Benefits

Blue Water Thinking offers a comprehensive benefits package including health insurance (medical, dental and vision), paid time off, federal holidays, and matching 401K plan.

This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of an impactful communications team, supporting the VA in its efforts to transform healthcare for veterans. If you’re passionate about communications and want to contribute to a meaningful cause, we encourage you to apply!

Our Commitment to Equal Employment Opportunity.

Blue Water Thinking, LLC (BWT) is committed to equal employment opportunity. We recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Applying for this Job

• Resume must be submitted in word document format and must include dates in each section (experience, education, certifications...)
• Candidates must fill out the below form to the best of their knowledge