Director, Data Science

Posting Date 10/02/20262000 16th Street, Denver, Colorado, 80202, United States of America

1. Strategic Leadership & Vision (30%)

• Develop and execute a strategic roadmap for AI/ML development that aligns with DaVita's clinical and business objectives.
• Expand the enterprise-wide data science capabilities by focusing on complex deep learning techniques, Generative AI (GenAI), and natural language processing (NLP).
• Champion the ROI of predictive modeling and identify marquee opportunities, presenting findings and strategic recommendations to senior Technology and Business leaders.

2. Team Leadership & Development (25%)

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing data science team (directing multiple direct and indirect reports).
• Instill uncompromising methodological rigor; ensure models undergo rigorous feature engineering, calibration, and threshold selection before transitioning from POC to production.
• Foster a culture of quality, innovation, and agile delivery rooted in the "DaVita Way" and Core Values (CaSP).

3. Model Development & Delivery (25%)

• Oversee the end-to-end delivery of major modeling initiatives (e.g., Hospital Discharge Summary solutions, 90-day PCT retention models, CMS Survey predictions, and LLM fine-tuning).
• Direct the operationalization of models via centralized ML Pipelines and the Vertex AI Feature Store (VFS) to accelerate data science velocity and reduce deployment friction.
• Drive the scaling of custom-built model monitoring services (e.g., VigiLens, Arize) to ensure sustained performance, fairness, and accuracy of enterprise AI products.

4. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Governance (20%)

• Partner seamlessly with AI Engineering, IT Architecture, Medical Informatics, and Clinical/Business stakeholders to weave AI/ML into integrated delivery roadmaps.
• Spearhead the adoption of Responsible AI (RAI) and Explainable AI (xAI) frameworks, ensuring all models adhere to fairness, privacy, security, and healthcare compliance standards.
• Collaborate with the broader Technology People Services and Data Intelligence organizations to cross-train talent and build DaVita’s internal AI bench.

Total Allocation of Time: 100%

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field is Required .

Experience:

• 7-10+ years of applied experience in data science, advanced analytics, or machine learning with proven results.
• 3-5+ years of leadership or management experience, successfully building and scaling data science teams.
• Experience within the healthcare industry (handling clinical data, EHR, or healthcare interoperability standards like HL7/FHIR) is highly Preferred .

Technical Skills:

• Deep expertise in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, and Generative AI (e.g., LLMs, transformers, GANs).
• Advanced proficiency in Python and relevant ML libraries (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn).
• Extensive hands-on experience with the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) software stack, including Vertex AI, BigQuery, AI Platform, and Dataflow.
• Strong understanding of MLOps best practices, centralized ML pipelines, and model monitoring/observability tools (e.g., Arize).

Soft Skills:

• Masterful ability to translate complex statistical blockers into actionable business decisions for non-technical leadership.
• Exceptional strategic scaling capabilities—balancing continuous model maturity with reusable tools and services.
• Refuses to shortcut the data science process, showing a track record of actively pushing back on aggressive timelines to ensure safety and rigor in production.

What We’ll Provide:

More than just pay, our DaVita Rewards package connects teammates to what matters most. Teammates are eligible to begin receiving benefits on the first day of the month following or coinciding with one month of continuous employment. Below are some of our benefit offerings.

• Comprehensive benefits: Medical, dental, vision, 401(k) match, paid time off, PTO cash out
• Support for you and your family: Family resources, EAP counseling sessions, access Headspace®, backup child and elder care, maternity/paternity leave and more
• Professional development programs: DaVita offers a variety of programs to help strong performers grow within their career and also offers on-demand virtual leadership and development courses through DaVita’s online training platform StarLearning.

At DaVita, we strive to be a community first and a company second. We want all teammates to experience DaVita as "a place where I belong." Our goal is to embed belonging into everything we do in our Village, so that it becomes part of who we are. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and comply with state and federal affirmative action requirements. Individuals are recruited, hired, assigned and promoted without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.

This position will be open for a minimum of three days.

The Salary Range for the role is $129,000.00 - $205,000.00 per year.

For location-specific minimum wage details, see the following link: DaVita.jobs/WageRates

Compensation for the role will depend on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience. DaVita offers a competitive total rewards package, which includes a 401k match, healthcare coverage and a broad range of other benefits. Learn more at

Colorado Residents: Please do not respond to any questions in this initial application that may seek age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You may also redact this information from any materials you submit during the application process. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.