Applied Artificial Intelligence Scientist

L.A. Care Health Plan

Los Angeles (CA)

On-site

USD 135,000 - 216,000

Full time

4 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Tuition Reimbursement

Retirement Plans

Medical, Dental and Vision

Wellness Program

Job summary

LA Care Health Plan in Los Angeles, CA seeks an Applied AI Scientist III to design, build, and deploy advanced AI/ML solutions that advance member outcomes and reduce waste. You’ll lead cross-functional teams across data, technology, and business units to deliver scalable, production-grade AI applications.

The role requires 6+ years of experience in enterprise healthcare AI, strong Python and ML tooling, and a track record of delivering end-to-end AI projects with governance and explainability.

Qualifications

At least 6 years of professional experience developing and deploying ML/AI solutions in enterprise or healthcare environments.
Experience leading full AI solution lifecycles from definition to deployment and monitoring.
Proven ability to develop predictive models using structured and unstructured healthcare data.

Responsibilities

Design, train, validate, and deploy complex AI/ML models for enterprise use cases across departments.
Lead all phases of the AI solution lifecycle from framing to deployment.
Build production-grade ML pipelines with MLOps practices for scalability and monitoring.
Mentor staff on model design, documentation, and reproducibility.

Education

Master's Degree

Doctorate Degree

Tools

Python

Pandas

Scikit-learn

PySpark

Spark

MLOps

Git

Snowflake Snowpark

Azure ML

Databricks

LangChain

Job description

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Applied Artificial Intelligence Scientist

Job Category: Information Technology

Department: Enterprise Analytics and Innovation

Location:

Los Angeles, CA, US, 90017

Position Type: Full Time

Requisition ID: 13404

Salary Range:$135,136.00(Min.) -$175,676.00(Mid.) -$216,218.00(Max.)

Established in 1997, L.A. Care Health Plan is an independent public agency created by the state of California to provide health coverage to low-income Los Angeles County residents. We are the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan. Serving more than 2 million members, we make sure our members get the right care at the right place at the right time.

Mission: L.A. Care’s mission is to provide access to quality health care for Los Angeles County's vulnerable and low-income communities and residents and to support the safety net required to achieve that purpose.

Job Summary

The Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scientist III is a subject matter expert, hands-on practitioner who designs, builds, and implements advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions that directly enable the organization to execute its strategic priorities. This role combines deep technical expertise with healthcare domain knowledge to deliver scalable, production-grade AI applications that improve quality, reduce administrative waste, and enhance member outcomes.

The Applied AI Scientist III independently leads complex projects from ideation through operational deployment, working across data, technology, and business teams to develop models and algorithms that power key functions such as claims accuracy, care coordination, quality improvement, and fraud detection. This position is highly collaborative, frequently partnering with leaders across departments to understand business needs and translate them into AI-driven capabilities that deliver measurable value.

The Applied AI Scientist III serves as a mentor and role model for staff promoting best practices in model design, documentation, version control, and interpretability. The position is central to advancing the organization’s AI maturity—driving both innovation and execution within an applied, results-oriented framework. Acts as a Subject Matter Expert (SME), serves as a resource and mentor for other staff.

Duties

Design, train, validate, and deploy complex AI and ML models to address enterprise use cases across departments such as Health Services, Payment Integrity, Quality Improvement, Finance, and Provider Network Management.

Lead all phases of the AI solution lifecycle – from problem framing and data engineering through model design, validation, and operational integration.

Implement production-grade ML pipelines using modern MLOps practices, ensuring scalability, reproducibility, and continuous model performance monitoring.

Serve as a subject matter expert in responsible and explainable AI, ensuring model fairness, transparency, and compliance with regulatory and ethical standards.

Partner with business and technology leaders to identify and prioritize new AI use cases that align with the organization’s transformation strategy.

Translate business challenges into well-structured analytical problems and lead cross-functional teams through data discovery, feature engineering, and algorithm development.

Work directly with cloud-based data and AI platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Azure ML, Databricks) to operationalize model delivery and integration with enterprise data assets.

Mentor and coach staff, providing technical guidance, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.

Document all model design assumptions, data sources, evaluation metrics, and deployment protocols for transparency and reproducibility.

Communicate complex technical results in accessible, actionable ways for both executive and operational stakeholders.

Contribute to the development of reusable AI assets, libraries, and standardized templates to accelerate future model development.

Remain current on emerging AI/ML technologies, frameworks, and healthcare analytics applications, and advise leadership on adoption opportunities.

Apply subject matter expertise in evaluating business operations and processes. Identify areas where technical solutions would improve business performance. Consult across business operations, provide mentorship, and contribute specialized knowledge. Ensure that the facts and details are correct so that the program's deliverable meets the needs of the department, organization and legislation's policies, standards, and best practices. Provide training, recommend process improvements, and mentor staff, department interns, etc. as needed.

Perform other duties as assigned.

Education Required

Master's Degree

In lieu of degree, equivalent education and/or experience may be considered.

Education Preferred

Doctorate Degree

Experience

Required:

At least 6 years of professional experience developing and deploying machine learning and AI solutions in enterprise or healthcare environments.

Demonstrated experience leading full AI solution lifecycles – from problem definition to deployment and monitoring.

Proven successful experience developing predictive models using structured and unstructured healthcare data (e.g., claims, encounters, eligibility, provider, quality metrics).

Experience with Python (Pandas, Scikit-learn, PySpark), distributed data frameworks (Spark), and MLOps concepts.

Strong collaboration and mentorship experience, including guiding junior data scientists and analysts.

Experience integrating AI solutions into production environments in collaboration with IT or Data Engineering.

Experience with version control (Git) and model documentation best practices.

Experience building and deploying models in production using MLOps frameworks and cloud platforms.

Preferred:

Experience within a Managed Care Organization (MCO) or health plan environment (Medi-Cal, Medicare, or ACA Exchange).

Experience developing and operationalizing Large Language Models (LLM)-based solutions, including prompt engineering or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Experience in risk adjustment, payment integrity, or quality measurement modeling.

Experience with healthcare data analytics and modeling in Managed Care settings.

Skills

Required:

Advanced programming skills in Python, including libraries for data processing, modeling, and analytics (e.g., Pandas, Scikit-learn, PySpark).

Deep understanding of machine learning and AI techniques, including supervised and unsupervised learning, feature engineering, model optimization, and explainability.

Strong analytical problem-solving skills with the ability to structure complex problems into actionable modeling tasks.

Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including documentation and presentation of technical material to non-technical audiences.

Excellent collaboration skills and ability to lead cross-functional projects involving IT, business stakeholders, and analytics peers.

Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Preferred:

Knowledge of generative AI tools and frameworks (e.g., LangChain, OpenAI APIs, Azure OpenAI).

Knowledge and understanding of responsible AI principles, including bias detection, fairness, and explainability.

Knowledge of R or SQL for complementary analytics tasks.

Knowledge of Snowpark for scalable model deployment.

Knowledge of Shiny or Streamlit for AI-driven application delivery.

Licenses/Certifications Required

Licenses/Certifications Preferred

Snowflake SnowPro Core Certification

HarvardX or Johns Hopkins Data Science Certificate (R)

Microsoft Certified: Data Scientist Associate (DP-100)

Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)

Certified Health Data Analyst (CHDA)

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)

Required Training

Physical Requirements

Light

Additional Information

Salary Range Disclaimer: The expected pay range is based on many factors such as geography, experience, education, and the market. The range is subject to change.

L.A. Care offersa wide range of benefits including