Applied Scientist II

Garner Health; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 158,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible PTO

Medical/Dental/Vision

401(k) match

FSAs

Teladoc Health and more

Job summary

Garner Health in New York City seeks an Applied Scientist II to design and ship the algorithmic systems at the core of our product. You will own production systems end-to-end—from framing the problem and defining objectives to shipping and improving solutions against real‑world outcomes.

This role sits in a mission‑driven team using ML, optimization, and heuristics to answer hard healthcare questions. You’ll work in the office three days a week and contribute to models, metrics, and robust,

Qualifications

• 2+ years of industry experience as an Applied Scientist, ML Engineer, Research Scientist, or equivalent
• Ability to translate ideas into prototypes quickly
• Strong problem-solving with measurable metrics
• Solid command of methods and data used by models
• Good judgment between statistical models, heuristics, optimization, and simple algorithms
• Strong communication to senior stakeholders
• Desire to work in a high-performing, mission-driven team

Responsibilities

• Ship production algorithmic systems end-to-end, from framing to launch to iteration
• Frame healthcare and business constraints into clear objectives and tradeoffs
• Define metrics to judge solutions and validate before shipping
• Choose the right approach per problem: ML, optimization, heuristics, or simple rules
• Experiment with new ideas to improve results
• Produce rigorously validated work and review peers’ code/analyses
• Build deep understanding of the healthcare economy and Garner’s role

Skills

Problem solving

Communication

Bias toward action

Data interpretation

Tools

Python

SQL

AWS

Snowflake

pandas

XGBoost

PyTorch

HuggingFace

LLM tooling

Job description

What you’ll be part of

Garner is on a mission to transform the U.S. healthcare system — and we’re the only proven player doing exactly that. We partner with employers to redesign how healthcare works: applying 550+ proprietary clinical metrics across 80+ specialties to a dataset of 320M+ patients to identify the best‑performing doctors, then using compelling incentives to steer members to the care that helps them get healthier, faster.

The result is a rare "win win" — better care and lower costs for both members and employers. In just five years, our work has helped over 2.5 million people access higher-quality care and saved $1B in healthcare costs. We recently raised our Series E and have doubled five years running. If you’ve ever wanted your work to solve a problem that touches every person in this country, this is the opportunity to do exactly that. You’d be joining a team fundamentally reimagining healthcare in the U.S. — and using AI to scale that impact further and faster than anyone else can.

About the role:

We are seeking an exceptional Applied Scientist II to join our Applied Science team. Garner is hiring Applied Scientists to design and ship the algorithmic systems at the core of our product. Our members rely on us to answer hard questions — Which doctor should I see? What will it cost? When should we reach out, and how? — and the quality of those answers is determined by the algorithms behind them. This is not a dashboards or descriptive‑analytics role. You will own production systems end‑to‑end: framing the problem, defining the objective function, choosing the right approach (ML, optimization, heuristics, expert systems, or a hybrid), shipping it, and improving it against real‑world outcomes. The closest analog outside healthcare is a quantitative researcher at a top hedge fund.

Where you will work:

This role will be based in our New York City office (in the Financial District). You must be willing to work in the office 3 days per week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

What you will do:

• Ship production algorithmic systems end‑to‑end, from problem framing to launch to iteration
• Frame messy, real‑world healthcare and business constraints into clear objectives, tradeoffs, and decision frameworks
• Define the set of metrics needed to judge whether a solution is working, and validate solutions before they ship
• Choose the right approach for each problem, from machine learning to optimization to heuristics to simple rules, based on what the problem actually calls for
• Bring new ideas to your work, experimenting with approaches beyond the obvious to get better results
• Produce rigorous, well‑validated work others can rely on, and review your peers’ code and analyses
• Build a deep understanding of the healthcare economy and Garner’s place in it

To make the role concrete, here are three problems on our near‑term roadmap:

• Provider tiering optimization. Build a tiering algorithm that jointly optimizes geographic access and total‑cost‑of‑care savings across our doctor network. The objective function, constraints, and tradeoff surface are all open design questions.
• AI primary care doctor. Fine‑tune and productionize an LLM‑based primary care experience on our website, including the evaluation harness, guardrails, and ongoing quality monitoring needed to ship a medical‑adjacent product safely.
• Member engagement model. Build an ML system that ingests claims data and in‑app behavior to choose the right channel and moment for each touchpoint — SMS, push, phone, or email — to influence member behavior toward better‑quality, lower‑cost care.

The ideal candidate has:

• 2+ years of industry experience as an Applied Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, Research Scientist, or equivalent advanced degree
• A bias toward action, quickly translating ideas into working prototypes to test approaches
• Strong applied problem‑solving skills, with the ability to define good metrics and then deliver solutions that improve them
• A solid command of the methods your work calls for and the data your models depend on
• Strong judgment in choosing between statistical models, heuristics, optimization approaches, and simpler algorithmic methods depending on the problem
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to present your work clearly to senior stakeholders
• A desire to be a part of a high‑performing, mission‑driven team that operates with urgency, a strong sense of individual accountability, and a commitment to authentic feedback

Technologies we use:

• Python, SQL, AWS, Snowflake, pandas, XGBoost, PyTorch, HuggingFace, modern LLM tooling and eval frameworks. We pick tools based on the problem, not the resume — bring your judgment.

Compensation Transparency:

The target base comp range for this position is $158,000 – $190,000.

• flexible PTO
• Medical/Dental/Vision plan options
• 401(k) with company match
• flexible spending accounts
• Teladoc Health and more

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Garner Health is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and values diversity in the workplace. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

Garner Health is committed to providing accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [e-mail].