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Senior Director of Data Science

San Francisco

About Knit Health

Knit Health is building a novel clinical foundation model to improve the way healthcare is delivered. We combine expertise in AI with deep clinical knowledge to develop safe, trustworthy systems that improve care, expand access, and reduce waste. Knit is led by a founding team from the University of California Berkeley who have developed a novel AI architecture which learns to reason like physicians. We’re now closing the loop and using our novel foundation model, together with frontier clinical LLMs, to build a next generation clinical intelligence platform for providers. We are venture backed and have partnered with multiple US-based health systems and data providers.

Why this role

Reporting to the Chief Scientific Officer and working closely with the Head of AI, the Senior Director of Data Science plays a central role in the development and deployment of Knit Health’s clinical foundation models. This role owns the transformation of raw, multi-source healthcare data into analysis- and training-ready datasets, ensuring data is clinically meaningful, rigorously structured, and appropriately governed for downstream modeling. The Senior Director of Data Science will set standards for data quality and methodology while enabling close collaboration across data science, AI engineering, and product teams.

This role is well suited for a senior data scientist with demonstrated people-management experience in healthcare or health technology, who thrives as a player–coach. You are comfortable balancing hands-on technical contribution with team leadership, including leading sprints and stand-ups, mentoring team members, and providing thoughtful oversight of day-to-day work. You bring strong judgment around healthcare data modeling and governance, with a clear understanding of how upstream data decisions shape downstream AI system behavior and impact.

What you’ll do 

  • Own end-to-end data pipelines, transforming raw EHR and administrative data into feature-ready representations for model training
  • Lead, mentor, and grow the data science team; co-manage data engineering resources with engineering leadership, including prioritization, technical direction, and performance feedback
  • Scope and execute data science analyses supporting model development, pilot studies, and client-facing use cases
  • Contribute to the design of model evaluation and data-driven validation frameworks as the platform matures
  • Define and maintain the clinical data model and vocabulary strategy that structures healthcare concepts for foundation model development
  • Apply deep expertise in EHR systems and healthcare data generation, including limitations, bias, and data quality considerations
  • Establish and oversee data governance standards for data use, documentation, and reproducibility
  • Partner closely with AI, engineering, and scientific leadership as the company transitions from pilots to active client deployments

Minimum qualifications

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a quantitative field (e.g., mathematics, computer science, data science, statistics, or related discipline).
  • 6–8+ years of experience in data science, analytics, or machine learning.
  • Proven track record of managing multiple junior team members.
  • Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex analyses into actionable insights for diverse audiences.
  • Demonstrated experience working with claims and EHR data from multiple health systems and healthcare claims data.
  • Proficiency in Python, SQL, and R.
  • Strong understanding of distributed database management systems and data warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery).
  • Experience with machine learning methods, including deep learning, and associated pipelines (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch).

Nice-to-haves

  • Experience developing evaluation frameworks for AI/ML models in healthcare.
  • Hands-on experience with batch processing (e.g., Spark) and distributed data processing frameworks.
  • Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and their data engineering services.
  • Knowledge of natural language processing (NLP) for medical text corpuses.
  • Prior work in a startup or high-growth environment.

Salary Range

Knit Health offers a competitive compensation package that includes base salary, equity, and opportunities for advancement. The starting salary range for the Senior Director of Data Science is approximately $180,000 - $200,000 per year.

Benefits

Generous benefits for full-time employees include: medical, dental, and vision coverage with 100% of premiums paid for employees and dependents (full coverage for dental, vision, and our Gold medical plan; employees may choose to buy up to Platinum); coverage begins on the first day of employment. Additional benefits include a 401(k) plan and 24 days of PTO annually.

Final Notes

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Knit Health is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to a diverse workplace. People from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and persons with disabilities are highly encouraged to apply. 

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