Senior Data Scientist

Metas Solutions excels in providing strategic consulting, program management, and data-driven analytics to federal public health agencies. Our expertise enhances health systems and delivers measurable outcomes, helping agencies achieve their mission. We collaborate with federal partners to implement agile solutions for national public health initiatives, driving impactful changes through cutting-edge programs that strengthen communities and promote well-being. See www.metassolutions.com for further details about us and careers with Metas.
Job Description
Metas Solutions is seeking an experienced Senior Data Scientist to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology (OPHDST). The Senior Data Scientist will provide scientific, epidemiologic, statistical, and advanced analytic support to the Actionable Data Branch (ADB) and CDC Data Hub.
In this role, you will work with CDC scientists and program staff to develop study questions and analytic approaches, conduct and review analyses of large and complex healthcare and public health datasets, interpret findings, and translate data into actionable public health insights. You will serve as a subject matter expert on CDC Data Hub data assets and analytic platforms and support analyses across cloud-based environments, including Palantir Foundry/One CDC Data Platform (1CDP).
The Senior Data Scientist will also contribute to AI/ML and emerging analytic activities, including exploratory modeling, data mining, feature engineering, model validation, causal inference, and evaluation of emerging methods. The position requires a combination of public health expertise, strong quantitative and programming skills, and the ability to independently lead or support complex analytic activities from study design through analysis, validation, interpretation, and dissemination.
Responsibilities
Provide senior-level scientific, epidemiologic, statistical, and data analytic support for CDC Data Hub, ADB, and OPHDST priorities.
Serve as a subject matter expert for CDC Data Hub datasets, advising scientists and program staff on data structure, content, limitations, fitness for use, appropriate analytic methods, and interpretation.
Work independently under CDC guidance to develop study questions, study designs, analytic plans, and methodological approaches supporting public health surveillance, research, response, and other priority activities.
Conduct advanced analyses of large, complex healthcare and public health datasets, including electronic health records (EHR), administrative claims, laboratory, pharmacy, hospital, and other healthcare data.
Lead or support development and dissemination of analytic reports, methodological documentation, technical briefs, presentations, white papers, and other scientific products.
Collaborate with data scientists, epidemiologists, data managers, and engineers to ensure advanced analytic and AI/ML approaches appropriately account for data quality, transformations, lineage, dependencies, and platform capabilities.
Support exploratory and applied AI/ML analyses, including data preparation, feature engineering, model development, testing, validation, performance evaluation, and interpretation.
Conduct literature reviews and applied research to inform study designs, analytic methods, and interpretation of findings.
Conduct analyses and develop reusable analytic workflows within cloud-based and enterprise platforms, including Palantir Foundry/1CDP, Databricks, and other CDC-approved analytic environments.
Use Palantir Foundry capabilities, as applicable, to explore and analyze data, develop reusable analytic workflows and data products, perform data transformation and validation, and support visualization and interpretation of results.
Develop, maintain, and review analytic code using Python, R, SQL, SAS, Spark, or other CDC-approved tools and languages.
Review analyses, analytic code, methods, and supporting documentation for methodological rigor, scientific validity, reproducibility, and quality.
Collaborate with data management and engineering teams to understand data transformations, data quality considerations, and dependencies affecting scientific analyses.
Promote reusable and reproducible analytic practices through documented code, quality-control procedures, shared repositories, and knowledge transfer.
Qualifications
Experience providing senior-level scientific, epidemiologic, statistical, and data analytic support for public health, biomedical or epidemiologic research.
Experience developing and implementing study designs, analytic plans, and methodological approaches supporting public health surveillance, research, response, and other priority activities.
Experience collaborating with epidemiologists, data scientists, data managers, and engineers to address activities affecting scientific and advanced analytic activities.
Demonstrated experience analyzing large, complex healthcare or public health datasets, including EHR, administrative claims, laboratory, pharmacy, hospital, survey, or surveillance data.
Experience with machine learning/AI and advanced statistical modeling, including method development, implementation validation, and interpretation.
Experience developing, maintaining, and reviewing analytic code and reproducible workflows using Python, R, SQL, SAS, Spark, and other approved tools, including data preparation, quality control, validation, and documentation.
Has developed and disseminated analytic reports, methodological documentation, technical briefs, presentations, white papers, and scientific publications.
Experience with Git/GitHub or other version-controlled repositories and reproducible analytic workflows.
Familiarity with healthcare coding and terminology systems used in healthcare
Graduate degree in data science, epidemiology, biostatistics, public health or other quantitative fields.
Ability to obtain and maintain the required Federal Public Trust.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience supporting CDC, HHS, or another Federal public health organization.
Hands-on experience with Palantir Foundry and/or 1CDP, including data exploration, transformation, analytics, reusable workflows, and/or analytic product development.
Experience with Databricks, Microsoft Azure, Posit Workbench, Truveta Studio, or similar cloud-based analytic platforms.
Experience with advanced methods such as causal inference, Bayesian methods, machine learning, data mining, feature engineering, or natural language processing.
Experience developing, testing, validating, and evaluating ML/AI models or emerging analytic methods using large healthcare or public health datasets.
Experience serving as a dataset or data-asset SME, advising users on data structure, limitations, fitness for use, and appropriate interpretation.
Security Requirements
Must be US Citizen OR with the ability to obtain a US Government security clearance (Public Trust 5) within a reasonable period.
Market competitive salary, commensurate with experience and education.
Comprehensive benefits package available, Medical, Dental, Vision and Life Insurance, Paid Time Off (PTO), 401K with company match, growth, and promotion opportunities.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled

Work arrangement
Yes