Lead NLP & Data Engineer

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 81,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to improving healthcare through innovative AI solutions. This role focuses on leading the development of NLP pipelines that enhance clinical text processing, ensuring accuracy and efficiency in patient care. You will collaborate with clinical teams, manage a talented group of engineers, and pioneer advanced language models to transform healthcare delivery. Your expertise will directly impact patient outcomes, making this an exciting opportunity for those passionate about technology and health. Embrace the chance to shape the future of clinical AI in a supportive and dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in relevant field required.
• Proficiency in Python and NLP essential.
• Experience in health data engineering preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead NLP pipeline optimization for clinical text processing.
• Manage a team of NLP engineers and data scientists.
• Collaborate with clinical teams to solve healthcare challenges.

Skills

Python

NLP

Data Science

Machine Learning

Clinical Experience

Analytical Skills

Problem-solving

Communication

Education

Advanced degree in Computer Science or related field

Medical degree or clinical experience

Tools

OMOP Common Data Model

CI/CD practices

Job description

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Lead the optimization of our NLP pipelines for clinical text processing, balancing performance, cost, and accuracy in a healthcare setting

Integrating NLP pipelines with structured databases like OMOP and other SQL databases

Pioneer the future of clinical AI by developing and implementing novel LLM-based solutions for clinical applications, from automated documentation to decision support

Design and build robust, scalable architectures for deploying LLM systems across our hospital network, ensuring they meet NHS security and privacy standards

Develop strategies for effective knowledge retrieval from diverse clinical sources, including EMRs, clinical guidelines, and medical literature

Collaborate with clinical teams to identify and solve complex healthcare challenges using state-of-the-art language models

Guide the evaluation and implementation of both commercial (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) and open-source LLMs (e.g., Llama, Mistral) for specific clinical use cases

Main duties of the job

Leading the strategic development and implementation of NLP pipelines to extract structured information from unstructured clinical notes, radiology reports, pathology reports, and other text-based medical documentation.

Managing and coordinating a team of NLP engineers and data scientists to develop standardized approaches for clinical text processing across the trust.

Designing and implementing advanced NLP solutions using state-of-the-art language models while ensuring patient privacy and data security.

Leading the integration of extracted insights from clinical text into existing data workflows and clinical decision support systems.

Regularly meetings with the Head of Data Science and Clinical Director for AI, Data and Innovation Lead to report on team progress, negotiate with, review and prioritise the scope of the applications/infrastructure in accordance with the Trusts wider strategic plans.

Supervising and mentoring junior NLP engineers and data scientists, fostering knowledge sharing and technical excellence within the team.

Developing and maintaining documentation standards for NLP models, including model cards, data specifications, and validation metrics.

Working closely with clinical teams to validate NLP outputs and ensure clinical accuracy and relevance.

Establishing best practices for text preprocessing, annotation, and quality assurance in healthcare NLP applications.

About us

This role sits within the AI, Data & Digital Innovation function of the Chief Medical Officer's Office (CMO). It is made up of data science, technology and digital transformation experts, operating as part of the wider King Health partner's (KHP) group. This role sits with the NLP & Analytics team, based in GSTT but working closely with teams at KCH and KCL.

The teams work on some externally funded programmes - that develop and implement Data platforms and AI with the aim to achieve better outcomes for patients' diagnosis and treatment, improve clinical and operational workflows and drive innovative healthcare research. This includes the London Artificial Intelligence Centre for Value-Based Healthcare - a consortium of NHS, academic and industry partners led by Guy's & St Thomas', King's College London and KCH in partnership with 10 NHS Trusts and 4 universities.

Job responsibilities

Mentor and grow a team of NLP engineers while fostering a culture of innovation and clinical impact

Leading the development of evaluation frameworks to assess NLP model performance in clinical settings.

Presenting complex NLP solutions and their impact on clinical care to various stakeholders, from technical teams to hospital leadership.

Working within a team, act as an expert individual contributor for architecting and developing software solutions that are currently in an early research stage. For example Machine Learning Decision Support tools for clinical decision support and population health, software for Clinical Trial Recruitment, and software for Agentic Clinical Decision Support.

This may include de novo development, or refactoring prototype code for production deployment, following software engineering best practices.

Work with KHP Stakeholders in refactoring front-end of software used by Trust data and analytics teams (e.g. AI Centre, Trust EDW/SDE, CogStack)

Working within a team, act as an expert individual contributor to the software codebase of this federated analytics and machine learning platform, following software engineering best practices.

Working with both clinical data science, clinical safety, and ML engineering teams, as well as clinical end-users, to ensure that solutions are impactful and safe.

Communications:

Communicate with engineering and infrastructure staff on a regular basis to agree design and implementation plans.

Collaborate regularly with clinical teams and infrastructure staff to align NLP system design with healthcare needs and technical constraints.

Lead engagement with clinical departments across GSTT to build consensus on NLP applications and drive adoption of AI-powered solutions.

Maintain productive relationships with clinical teams, data scientists, and infrastructure teams to ensure successful deployment of NLP products - including LLM systems, RAG pipelines, and autonomous clinical agents.

Provide detailed performance metrics and analysis of NLP systems, including model accuracy, latency, and clinical impact metrics to the Head of AI/ML on a weekly basis.

Manage relationships with LLM providers, clinical NLP tool vendors, and academic partners.

Department to review NLP system performance and validate clinical accuracy

Chair technical workshops and design reviews to align NLP development across multiple clinical specialties and use cases at GSTT.

Present complex NLP architectures and their clinical impact in an accessible format to various stakeholders, from clinicians to hospital leadership.

Communicate model results, limitations, and potential biases to clinical teams; guide implementation decisions; explain technical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences.

Analysis and Judgement

To be a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the designated area to be able to support peers and the post holders direct reports.

Ensure that NLP systems adhere to clinical safety standards, NHS data protection requirements, and emerging AI governance frameworks.

Make judgements on how to design and implement core configuration within the technology stack.

Trouble shoot, determine root cause and provide system solutions for assigned modules.

Utilise expert knowledge and experience of workflows and processes to develop pathways and new processes to support the configuration and implementation of the designated application which will impact on working practices across the Trust.

Analyse and document highly complex clinical and administrative workflows, information, data collection and/or reporting requirements.

Analyse and review test activity, progress and variances to define recommendations to maintain schedules and raise any risks or issues highlighted through testing to the appropriate level whilst ensuring thorough tracking of data.

Planning:

Work with the designated Programme/Project Manager/other members of the teams using PRINCE2 and/or Agile principles, to ensure your team meets the set deadlines to enable go-live.

Work with the Director of Data Science and other KHP stakeholders to formulate and document the core setup plans.

Work with clinical stakeholders and other end-users around London to design product lifecycles that end in impactful and measurable outcomes.

Review and amend allocated elements of the plans and provide updates to the Head of Data Science.

Management responsibility

Responsible for leadership and development of work-packages and plans associated with role;

Assign specific designs of the module set up in accordance with their complexity to appropriately skilled application analysts;

Technical management and leadership of a geographically wide team in the design and build of NLP platforms and related products. This will include contributing to recruitment, performance management, managing grievance and disciplinary procedures, mentoring and coaching where appropriate;

Ensure that the work of the team conforms to the design integrity for the designated application.

Person Specification

Qualifications/ Education

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering or a related field (or equivalent coursework/projects).
• Proficiency in Python
• Medical degree or clinical experience
• Proficiency in advanced data visualisation, presentation, frontend tools
• Formal qualification and/or practical experience related to AI and Machine Learning

Knowledge & experience

• Experience in technical roles in health data engineering and health data analytics
• Experience in participation and/or implementation of data products and platforms
• Experience of implementing or working with the OMOP Common Data Model
• Experience in applying specialist technical knowledge across a range of software applications
• Successful strategic management in a complex Organization across internal and external stakeholders
• Experience of delivering projects and/or service
• Experience of dealing with staff performance and project performance issues
• Previous experience of working in, or collaborating with, commercial organisations, including in health-tech or life sciences.

Skills & ability

• Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and judgement skills.
• Understanding of reproducible code and CI/CD practices
• Advanced understanding and application of data science and statistical techniques to healthcare data.
• Strong leadership skills, with ability to manage and develop diverse teams
• Ability to manage a technical product lifecycle, including through end-user feedback and testing
• Applies excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, including advanced formal presentation skills, to audiences that may be highly specialist professionals, or non-technical, or may be hostile.
• In line with above, is able to demonstrate the ability to communicate the most complex information, or sensitive / contentious information, clearly, confidently, and concisely.
• Credibility to get others on board with the proposed approach, to engage different staff groups so that they are motivated and clear on what they need to do, and to maintain confidence through delivery challenges
• Extensive expert knowledge of clinical and/or operational workflows across ICBs, primary care, and secondary care.
• Expert knowledge of the uses of and requirements for patient data and information derived from clinical and administrative hospital systems, both internally and by external organisations.
• Understanding of the development of patient-based clinical and administrative applications.
• Knowledge of strategic digital developments in the NHS
• Advanced IT skills including MS Office applications
• Excellent organisational skills
• Ability to prioritise tasks to achieve deadlines whilst working under significant pressure and with frequent interruptions
• Ability to concentrate for long periods of time on complex data and process analysis
• Ability to resolve problems and make decisions based on complex facts using appropriate analysis, interpretation or comparisons
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal and proven ability to interact with personnel at all levels, both clinical and non-clinical, managerial and senior/board level executives as well as external suppliers including the ability to explain complex issues to stakeholders in a clear and concise and understandable way
• Ability to plan, organise and present workshops to Trust staff
• Must be able to demonstrate, in relation to patients, visitors, colleagues and other individuals connected with the Trust and NHS
• Knowledge & awareness of diversity and human rights as appropriate to your role
• Able to communicate effectively to ensure high standards of care, treatment, service or support as appropriate to your role
• Ability to plan and organise own workload without direct supervision but to seek guidance as appropriate
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and work effectively with a wider range of staff from different backgrounds and levels of seniority
• Able to demonstrate problem solving ability
• Ability to assimilate new information quickly and adapt to a flexible and rapidly changing work environment
• Ability to work under pressure and to specified deadlines
• Ability to manage people and lead a number of work streams within the team
• Demonstrate a structured and logical approach to problem solving and working practices
• Knowledge of clinical or laboratory information systems
• Detailed understanding of the implications of data quality on clinical safety and governance

Personal style and behaviour

• Able to prioritise tasks, work on own initiative and manage own workload
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
• Proven experience in the ability to interact with colleagues at all levels both clinical and non-clinical within healthcare
• Enthusiastic, responsive to new demands, willing to learn new skills and welcome change
• Demonstrate the ability to plan and organise effectively
• Excellent interpersonal skills and professional presentation
• Ability to produce and deliver, or receive and process, detailed complex and highly sensitive information.
• Self-motivated and able to take responsibility for decisions
• Has good insight and the ability to respond well to constructive criticism Team player
• Logical and pragmatic approach to problem solving Proven ability to work under significant pressure with competing priorities Personal credibility, with ability to quickly gain the confidence of others.
• Honesty, openness and integrity

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Address

London Institute for Healthcare Engineering

£70,387 to £80,465 a yearPer Annum inc HCA

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

2 years

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

196-RD285

Job locations

London Institute for Healthcare Engineering