About this role
<p><b>Salary Range: </b> $135,136.00 (Min.) - $175,676.00 (Mid.) - $216,218.00 (Max.)</p> <p> </p> <p>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.<br> <br> 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.<br> </p> <div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Job Summary</H2> </div><div><p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">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.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">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.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif"> 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. </span></span></p> </div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Duties</H2> </div><div><p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">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.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Lead all phases of the AI solution lifecycle – from problem framing and data engineering through model design, validation, and operational integration.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Implement production-grade ML pipelines using modern MLOps practices, ensuring scalability, reproducibility, and continuous model performance monitoring.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Serve as a subject matter expert in responsible and explainable AI, ensuring model fairness, transparency, and compliance with regulatory and ethical standards.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Partner with business and technology leaders to identify and prioritize new AI use cases that align with the organization’s transformation strategy.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Translate business challenges into well-structured analytical problems and lead cross-functional teams through data discovery, feature engineering, and algorithm development.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">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.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Mentor and coach staff, providing technical guidance, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Document all model design assumptions, data sources, evaluation metrics, and deployment protocols for transparency and reproducibility.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Communicate complex technical results in accessible, actionable ways for both executive and operational stakeholders.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Contribute to the development of reusable AI assets, libraries, and standardized templates to accelerate future model development.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif"><span>Remain current on emerging AI/ML technologies, frameworks, and healthcare analytics applications, and advise leadership on adoption opportunities.</span></span></span></h2> <h2> </h2> <h2><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif"><span>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.</span></span></span></h2> <h2> </h2> <h2><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif"><span>Perform other duties as assigned.</span></span></span></h2> </div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Duties Continued</H2> </div><div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Education Required</H2> </div><div><div>Master's Degree</div><div>In lieu of degree, equivalent education and/or experience may be considered.</div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Education Preferred</H2> </div><div><div>Doctorate Degree</div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Experience</H2> </div><div><p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif"><b>Required:</b></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">At least 6 years of professional experience developing and deploying machine learning and AI solutions in enterprise or healthcare environments.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Demonstrated experience leading full AI solution lifecycles – from problem definition to deployment and monitoring.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Proven successful experience developing predictive models using structured and unstructured healthcare data (e.g., claims, encounters, eligibility, provider, quality metrics).</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Experience with Python (Pandas, Scikit-learn, PySpark), distributed data frameworks (Spark), and MLOps concepts.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Strong collaboration and mentorship experience, including guiding junior data scientists and analysts.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Experience integrating AI solutions into production environments in collaboration with IT or Data Engineering.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Experience with version control (Git) and model documentation best practices.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Experience building and deploying models in production using MLOps frameworks and cloud platforms.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif"><b>Preferred:</b></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Experience within a Managed Care Organization (MCO) or health plan environment (Medi-Cal, Medicare, or ACA Exchange).</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Experience developing and operationalizing Large Language Models (LLM)-based solutions, including prompt engineering or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Experience in risk adjustment, payment integrity, or quality measurement modeling.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Experience with healthcare data analytics and modeling in Managed Care settings.</span></span></p> </div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Skills</H2> </div><div><p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif"><b>Required:</b></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Advanced programming skills in Python, including libraries for data processing, modeling, and analytics (e.g., Pandas, Scikit-learn, PySpark).</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Deep understanding of machine learning and AI techniques, including supervised and unsupervised learning, feature engineering, model optimization, and explainability.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Strong analytical problem-solving skills with the ability to structure complex problems into actionable modeling tasks.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including documentation and presentation of technical material to non-technical audiences.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Excellent collaboration skills and ability to lead cross-functional projects involving IT, business stakeholders, and analytics peers.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:'Calibri', sans-serif">Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder engagement skills.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif"><b>Preferred:</b></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Knowledge of generative AI tools and frameworks (e.g., LangChain, OpenAI APIs, Azure OpenAI).</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Knowledge and understanding of responsible AI principles, including bias detection, fairness, and explainability.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Knowledge of R or SQL for complementary analytics tasks.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p style="margin-bottom:2.0px;margin-top:2.0px"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri, sans-serif">Knowledge of Snowpark for scalable model deployment.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:'Calibri', sans-serif">Knowledge of Shiny or Streamlit for AI-driven application delivery.</span></span></p> </div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Licenses/Certifications Required</H2> </div><div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Licenses/Certifications Preferred</H2> </div><div><div>Snowflake SnowPro Core Certification</div><div>SnowPro® Specialty: Snowpark Certification</div><div>Python Institute PCEP™ or PCAP™ (Python Programming)</div><div>HarvardX or Johns Hopkins Data Science Certificate (R)</div><div>Microsoft Certified: Data Scientist Associate (DP-100)</div><div>Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)</div><div>Certified Health Data Analyst (CHDA)</div><div>Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)</div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Required Training</H2> </div><div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Physical Requirements</H2> </div><div><div>Light</div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px">Additional Information</H2> </div><div></div></div></div><p><b>Salary Range Disclaimer:</b> The expected pay range is based on many factors such as geography, experience, education, and the market. The range is subject to change.</p> <p> </p> <p><b>L.A. Care offers a wide range of benefits including</b></p> <ul> <li>Paid Time Off (PTO)</li> <li>Tuition Reimbursement</li> <li>Retirement Plans</li> <li>Medical, Dental and Vision</li> <li>Wellness Program</li> <li>Volunteer Time Off (VTO)</li> </ul> <p> </p>