Head of Science Operations & Strategy

Datavant; Frankfort (KY); On-site; USD 160,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Datavant is seeking a Head of Science Operations to partner with the CSO and lead the Science Leadership Team. The role translates strategic priorities into actionable plans and coordinates with Product, Engineering, Commercial, Finance, and Operations to drive the Life Sciences business.

You will manage meetings, decisions, and progress tracking while shaping a data-driven roadmap, capacity plans, and performance metrics to deliver scientific excellence and organizational impact.

Qualifications

• At least 7 years of industry experience in life sciences, healthcare, or a related field.
• Experience in roles requiring scientific judgment, strategic problem-solving, and leadership of complex initiatives across scientific, technical, commercial, and operations functions.

Responsibilities

• Science Team strategy and priority setting.
• Partner with the CSO and Science Leadership Team to define annual and quarterly priorities.
• Translate strategic priorities into clear plans, milestones, ownership, and measures of success.
• Leadership Team effectiveness
• Serve as an active member of the Science Leadership Team
• Manage its operations, including meeting agendas, decisions, action tracking, and follow through
• Propose services delivery resourcing for Leadership Team confirmation
• Raise cross-functional risks, dependencies, and decisions requiring leadership attention
• Ensure decisions and priorities are communicated consistently across the Science organization
• Business and portfolio performance
• Develop an integrated view of services delivery performance, product science support, services pipeline, product roadmap, staffing, utilization, quality, and client outcomes
• Coordinate Science Team input for commercial strategy and product roadmap prioritization
• Identify group-level performance risks and work with Science leaders to develop options for addressing them
• Coordinate with Finance and Commercial leaders on pipeline forecasts, and lead capacity model build and maintenance
• Science Team effectiveness
• Support tracking of time, and manage tracking of studies and publications
• Lead selected change initiatives across the Science organization
• Support Science Team budget management, such as conference and client meeting attendance, software licensing, etc.
• Manage full team meetings, such as drafting agendas and slides, securing external speakers, etc.
• Executive support
• Prepare presentations (for leadership, conferences, client consulting engagements), business updates, and decision documents for the CSO
• Represent the CSO in selected internal meetings and ensure appropriate follow-through

Skills

Scientific judgment

Strategic problem-solving

Leadership of complex initiatives

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

MPH

MBA

Advanced degree in epidemiology/biostatistics

Job description

Datavant is seeking a Head of Science Operations to partner with the CSO and lead the Science Leadership Team. The role translates strategic priorities into actionable plans and coordinates with Product, Engineering, Commercial, Finance, and Operations to drive the Life Sciences business.

You will manage meetings, decisions, and progress tracking while shaping a data-driven roadmap, capacity plans, and performance metrics to deliver scientific excellence and organizational impact.