Principal Scientist, Health Care - Scientific and Clinical Affairs

Medifast, Inc; Baltimore (MD); Remote; USD 113,000 - 156,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking health and wellness company as a Principal Scientist, where your expertise in obesity and data sciences will drive innovative research and enhance clinical care. This role offers the opportunity to contribute to real-world evidence-based programs that promote healthy lifestyles. Collaborate with key health professionals and lead initiatives that substantiate the company’s scientific credibility. If you are passionate about making a difference in health care and want to work in a dynamic environment, this position is perfect for you, allowing you to thrive in a culture that values integrity, innovation, and collaboration.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in scientific affairs with expertise in data science and clinical care.
• Advanced skills in R, Python, and SQL for data analytics.

Responsibilities

• Drive education and communication for medically supported weight loss programs.
• Develop and manage research partnerships to support health initiatives.

Skills

Data Analysis

Biostatistics

Machine Learning

Communication Skills

Problem Solving

Strategic Thinking

Education

PhD in Health Sciences

DNP

PharmD

Master's in Biological Sciences

Tools

R

Python

SQL

Microsoft Office

Job description

Principal Scientist, Health Care - Scientific and Clinical Affairs

Job Category: Individual Contributor

Requisition Number: PRINC002476

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• Posted: January 6, 2025
• Full-Time
• Remote
• Salary Range: $113,000 USD to $156,000 USD

Locations

Showing 1 location

Headquarters - Remote
100 International Dr
Baltimore, MD 21202, USA

Description

About The Opportunity

At Medifast, our team members are relentless in our mission of driving Lifelong Transformation, Making a Healthy Lifestyle Second Nature. When you join Medifast, you become part of a dynamic, fast-growing community of highly motivated, like-hearted people who share a passion for promoting health and wellness. Just as OPTAVIA Coaches inspire Clients to reach their personal wellness goals, at Medifast, we inspire each other to bring our best to work each day to further our shared mission. If you want to build a rewarding career that makes lives better on a daily basis, Medifast may be the perfect place for you.

Overview Of Position

The Principal Scientist, Health Care Data Sciences, will serve as subject matter expert in obesity and related co-morbidities clinical care, health outcomes research, data sciences, and health care policy. This role will help advance our medically supported weight loss programs by contributing to development of real-world evidence-based research programs, evidence-based clinical care protocols, programs, plans, and products. Responsibilities include driving education, training, communication, and benefit messaging to highlight the company’s medical heritage, scientifically validate the Medifast and OPTAVIA brands, and support both Coaches and Clients effectively. This role will help evaluate existing scientific evidence, internal data, and contribute to data-driven decisions to support innovation of our Program, Plans and Products, and health and wellbeing of our Coaches and Clients. The successful candidate will also help create and substantiate company claims through in-house and third-party research and will guide the development of scientific initiatives that advance innovation of programs, plans, and products, and contributes to externalization of our science. The research work produced by this position will help support the company’s marketing and public relations positioning, claims, product differentiation, and bolster the scientific credibility of OPTAVIA offerings. This will be a strategic role interfacing with key health care professionals, subject matter experts, and other external partners and will help define long-term focus areas for Medifast in the obesity and related co-morbidities clinical care and policy space. This role may also require the management of the Scientific Advisory Board, help develop research strategy and work cross-functionally to co-lead and deliver across the medically supported weight loss program and other future business initiatives.

II. Job Responsibilities

• Subject matter expert in the obesity and related co-morbidities clinical care processes, including medical, pharmaceutical, nutrition, behavior, and lifestyle modification.
• Maintain robust knowledge of pharmaceutical interventions in obesity clinical care and identify opportunities for OPTAVIA.
• Subject matter expertise in data science, including scientific methods, biostatistics, machine learning, data systems, processing, and visualization with proficiency in R, Python, and SQL to enable the extraction of actionable insights from data.
• Develop relevant real-world evidence-based, health economics and clinical research programs and related data analytics to demonstrate efficacy of OPTAVIA programs, plans, and products in conjunction with medically supported weight loss programs. This includes contributing to the dissemination of findings through scientific publications, ensuring the research aligns with rigorous academic and industry standards to enhance credibility and support evidence-based practices.
• Contributes to the development of clinical care protocols, health care policy strategy for nutrition and lifestyle programs as part of medically supported weight loss programs.
• Develops and manages research partnerships with academia, thought leaders, health care, and other external partners to support medically supported weight loss. Provides input and support for Medifast’s research, including the development of study design and protocol(s).
• Identifies and manages Key Opinion Leaders within academia, health care, and other external partners to support medically supported weight loss initiatives.
• Provides evidence-based recommendations for OPTAVIA programs, plans, and product innovation to support medically supported weight loss. This may entail reviewing new ingredients, technologies, developing and substantiating benefit messaging, identifying gaps in the evidence and opportunities to conduct research, communicating the science and benefits, while working cross-functionally with marketing, PR, R&D, legal, field operations, and other internal and external partners.
• Collaborates with nutrition support, nutrition and wellness, medical safety and surveillance, R&D (product development, regulatory, quality assurance), marketing, PR, legal, and other internal and/or external stakeholders to provide scientifically based reviews/recommendations for plans, products and/or programs and help ensure the messaging of these is evidence-based and consistent across Medifast OPTAVIA brands.
• Stays abreast of current medical advancements, scientific literature, nutrition, and wellness findings by investing a minimum of 10% of time on continuing education, attending related symposia, reviewing research publications and data reports; presentations on topic findings should be provided quarterly, as may be applicable. Obtain a minimum of 15 CEU’s to maintain current health professional registration/licensure.
• Collaborate with the Vice President of Scientific and Clinical Affairs, Product Development, and Marketing to develop the company’s strategic vision for products, programs, and research.

III. Scope

This is an individual contributor role supporting Scientific & Clinical Affairs projects across the organization. This position may also help manage the budget related to Medifast Sponsored Research, Investigator Initiated Studies, and Scientific Advisory Board.

IV. Knowledge, Education, Skills & Abilities

• Required: Advanced Terminal Degree (PhD, DNP, PharmD, PA, other) in Health Sciences, Allied Healthcare or other biological or life science-related field (Nutrition Science, Exercise Science, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physician Associate, other).
• 5+ years scientific affairs and research experience, including biostatistics, data analytics, and machine learning, with programming skills in R, Python, and SQL for advanced data analysis and modeling.
• Maintain current professional credentials (RPh, RN, RDN, etc.), as applicable.
• 5+ years of experience in health care (clinical care, health care management, and related) or Pharmaceutical Industry.
• Experience of cross-functional evidence-based reviews, ingredient and technical reviews, clinical care processes, including data management, biostatistics, medical writing, and regulatory affairs.
• Strong interpersonal, verbal and written communication and presentation skills.
• Problem solving and decision-making skills; strategic thinking and leadership.
• Performs responsibilities with minimal supervision.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office, statistical, data collection, and analytical packages.

At Medifast, Relationships Are At The Center Of What We Do!

We thrive by elevating our connections with one another as well as with our Coaches & Clients. We believe that everyone has the potential to be OUTSTANDING. The Medifast culture is built on seven core values: integrity, courage, teaming, accountability, empowerment, partnership, and diversity. These values aren’t just words on a page – they are celebrated as a core part of the company’s philosophy.

Mastering Relationships: We build trust, promote collaboration, and we are reliable.

Being innovative: We strive to improve things in our areas of influence; test, refine and expand within the business strategy; and reach beyond real and perceived boundaries.

Simplifying: We are committed to making things measurable, repeatable, and scalable; focusing on outcomes not activities; and eliminating complexity to increase focus.

Anticipating: We predict long-term business and organizational needs; challenge assumptions; and expect and prepare for the unexpected.

About Medifast

Medifast (NYSE: MED) is the 40+ year old health and wellness company known for its habit-based and coach-guided lifestyle solution OPTAVIA, which provides people with a simple, yet comprehensive approach to address obesity and support a healthy life. OPTAVIA provides unparalleled coaching support along with community, tailored nutrition, and healthy habits, and empowers people to master their weight loss journey through each stage of life. Through the company’s collaboration with national virtual primary care provider LifeMD (Nasdaq: LFMD) and its affiliated medical group, customers now have access to GLP-1 medications where clinically appropriate. Medifast remains committed to its mission of offering Lifelong Transformation, Making a Healthy Lifestyle Second Nature. Visit MedifastInc.com and OPTAVIA.com for more information and follow @Medifast on X and LinkedIn.