Health-Tech Software Fellow - (Gap Year / Pre-Med) (New York)

Job Title: Health-Tech Software Fellow – (Gap Year / Pre-Med)

Location: New York, NY (On-site)

Employment Type: Full-time, Hourly (40 hrs/week, non-exempt)

Compensation: $20.00/hour (with overtime for hours exceeding 40/week)

About Sigmund Healthcare

Sigmund Healthcare is an intelligent clinical assistant platform designed by clinicians to streamline psychiatric care—from intake and longitudinal tracking to session documentation. Originating from the Sultan Lab for Mental Health Informatics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Sigmund collaborates with leading institutions including NewYork-Presbyterian, Harvard, Mount Sinai, and Weill Cornell. We bridge cutting-edge clinical machine learning with real-world psychiatric workflows across pediatric, adolescent, and adult care.

Role Overview

We are seeking a motivated, mission-driven recent college graduate to join our team on-site in New York City as a Junior Software Developer / Health-Tech Software Fellow . This role is specifically tailored for individuals passionate about the intersection of software engineering, mental health, and clinical medicine—making it an ideal 1–2 year launchpad for candidates planning to apply to medical school (MD/DO), graduate programs in biomedical informatics or computational neuroscience, or health-tech careers.

In this role, you will gain hands-on experience building, testing, and scaling clinical services that directly support psychiatric clinicians and patients. Working alongside clinical researchers, faculty, and engineers, you will translate complex psychiatric workflows into robust software while receiving direct mentorship in clinical informatics, modern full-stack architectures, and health-tech compliance.

Who Should Apply

• Pre-Med & Gap-Year Candidates: Recent graduates seeking substantive, clinically integrated technical experience and faculty mentorship before entering medical school.
• Interdisciplinary Thinkers: Individuals with backgrounds bridging Computer Science, Computational Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Biomedical Engineering, or Informatics who want to apply software skills to mental healthcare.
• Mission-Driven Problem Solvers: Candidates committed to improving psychiatric care delivery and workflows through thoughtfully engineered technology.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain backend services, RESTful APIs, and database schemas supporting clinical workflows.
• Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code using modern software design principles.
• Collaborate directly with clinicians and researchers to prototype, test, and iterate on new platform features.
• Assist in integrating third-party clinical APIs, data pipelines, and internal tooling.
• Participate in code reviews, technical discussions, and system reliability/security optimizations (including HIPAA best practices).

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Biomedical Informatics (exposure to life sciences/mental health a strong bonus).
• Core Fundamentals: Solid foundation in data structures, algorithms, object-oriented programming (OOP), and database fundamentals.
• Technical Skills: Familiarity with modern backend languages/frameworks (e.g., Python, Node.js, TypeScript), REST APIs, SQL/NoSQL databases, and Git version control.
• Mindset: Eagerness to take ownership of features, learn rapidly under direct mentorship, and solve ambiguous technical problems.
• Collaboration: Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfortable interfacing with both technical teammates and clinical partners.
• Bonus: Prior exposure to healthcare data, HIPAA compliance concepts, full-stack development, or academic research projects.

What We Offer

• Direct Clinical Impact: Build software actively utilized in an outpatient psychiatric clinic.
• Mentorship & Pedigree: Work alongside clinical informatics faculty, machine learning researchers, and experienced engineers at the intersection of medicine and technology.
• Career Launchpad: Exceptional preparation and mentorship for future careers in high-growth health-tech, software engineering, or top-tier medical/graduate school programs.