Staff Scientist, Data Science & AI - Helix

You + Helix

Helix is a place where innovators and doers gather in order to drive significant progress in population genomics. We have come together to work at the intersection of clinical care, research, and genomics.  

If you’re excited by the idea of making a meaningful impact and joining a team where we pride ourselves on driving innovation through fostering an environment with an emphasis on empowering one another to grow, Helix might be the place for you!

Helix + The World

Helix is the leading population genomics and viral surveillance company. Helix enables health systems, public health organizations and life science companies to accelerate the integration of genomic data into patient care and public health decision making.

We are continuing to scale our world-class team to support our dedication to empowering every person to improve their life through DNA. 

Helix + Transparency

At Helix, we value transparency. You will find the expected compensation, interview process, what to anticipate during onboarding, and your first 90 days listed in the job description for all Helix roles.

What is special about this role?

Join Helix's Data Science AI/ML team at the forefront of healthcare innovation, where we're developing solutions to understand and improve patient care pathways. You'll work with rich, multi-modal healthcare datasets, including electronic health records (EHRs), clinical notes, and genomic data to build models that drive meaningful insights and improve patient outcomes. Our team is currently working on exciting projects including:

• Developing methods, processes, and models to understand patient trajectories and predict clinical outcomes by identifying patterns in longitudinal patient data
• Creating custom LLM agent solutions for processing and analyzing unstructured medical text data
• Building novel ML approaches that integrate genomic and clinical data for personalized medicine and creating insights and features used by our research team.

As  AI/ML Scientist, you will:

• Drive the evaluation and adoption of emerging ML technologies in healthcare
• Lead research initiatives in healthcare AI/ML for clinical and genomic data analysis
• Contribute to our ML infrastructure and experimentation frameworks
• Research and evaluate emerging AI/ML and GenAI technologies as applied to life sciences and healthcare
• Design and implement solutions that combine multiple data modalities
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate AI solutions into product pipelines
• Act as a technical adviser across the organization and contribute to the team's technical direction
• Author technical papers and present findings both internally and externally

About you:

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Bioinformatics, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 8+ years of experience in applied machine learning research and development
• Strong foundation in statistics, experimental design, and causal inference
• Proficiency in data analysis, feature engineering, and statistical modeling
• Expert-level knowledge of modern relevant frameworks (for example PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, LangChain, and Scikit-learn) with emphasis on the Python ecosystem 
• Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with ML deployment practices
• Experience with large-scale data processing and distributed computing
• Excellent communication skills and ability to explain complex concepts clearly

Pluses:

• Experience working with healthcare data, EHRs, or genomic data
• Background in biomedical NLP or clinical text processing
• Knowledge of healthcare data standards (OMOP/CDM, FHIR, HL7) and regulations (HIPAA)
• Experience with LLM development, fine-tuning, and deployment
• Contributions to open-source ML projects
• Experience with MLOps and production ML systems
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and their ML offerings
• Background in statistical modeling and Bayesian methods
• Experience managing complex ML projects in a regulated healthcare settings

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. For more information or to make an accommodation request reach out to HR@helix.com. 

Expected Interview Process:

1) Recruiter Screen 2) Manager Screen/Tech Screen 3) Onsite  4) Offer 

Expected Pay For This Role:

There are 3 distinct parts to your Helix offer: 1) Base Salary  2) Annual Bonus 3) Equity 

Expected Helix Base: $145,000- $193,000 

Expected Helix Discretionary Annual Bonus: 15% of your annual salary 

Equity: We offer generous equity at Helix. If you receive a Helix offer your recruiter will book dedicated time with you to educate you on our equity model.

The salary range above is our reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role across US locations. Actual starting pay will be based on non-discriminatory job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about your specific work location salary range during the hiring process. 

Aside from working alongside brilliant, dedicated, passionate, down-to-earth, curious, warm, and thoughtful people, we also provide great benefits:

• Comprehensive Health Insurance with Date of Hire eligibility 
• Above average employer paid premium coverage 
• 12 weeks Helix Paid Parental Leave option 
• 401(k) with employer matching of up to 3% and 100% Vesting on the Date of Hire
• Comprehensive Well-Being Benefits 
• 18 well-being programs covering financial, legal and wellness solutions
• Flexible PTO
• Remote options for many roles and a home office stipend 

What To Expect During Your Onboarding Week:

We want to make sure your first week is spent learning the foundations. You will be invited to live orientation sessions and spend time with your hiring manager developing your individual roadmap to success. This experience will include sessions that cover your benefits, security & privacy training, an introduction to the OKR framework used at Helix and our communication tools and norms. 

What To Expect During Your First 90 days:

First 30 days:  you’ll spend time learning the Helix way, completing training and onboarding for your roles, and getting introduced to your team and relevant stakeholders. You’ll also gain a deeper understanding of our customers, our products, the impact we make in the lives of our communities, and how to thrive at Helix through participation in Helix U.  

Day 30 - 60: you’ll spend time contributing to projects, deeply familiarizing yourself with team and company processes, and developing a deeper understanding of Helix’s products, services and capabilities.

Day 60 - 90: you’ll build your OKRs with your manager, start to take ownership of projects and initiatives on your team, and begin to demonstrate your impact on the Helix mission. 

Helix is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.