Senior Director, Data Development

Verana Health, a digital health company that delivers quality drug lifecycle and medical practice insights from an exclusive real-world data network, recently secured a $150 million Series E led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC) and Novo Growth, the growth-stage investment arm of Novo Holdings.

Existing Verana Health investors GV (formerly Google Ventures), Casdin Capital, and Brook Byers also joined the round, as well as notable new investors, including the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, THVC, and Breyer Capital.

We are driven to create quality real-world data in ophthalmology, neurology, urology, and oncology to accelerate quality insights across the drug lifecycle and within medical practices. Additionally, we are driven to advance the quality of care and quality of life for patients. DRIVE defines our internal purpose and is the galvanizing force that helps ground us in a shared corporate culture. DRIVE is: Diversity, Responsibility, Integrity, Voice-of-Customer and End-Results. Click here to read more about our culture and values.

Our headquarters are located in San Francisco and we have additional offices in Knoxville, TN and New York City with employees working remotely in AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, LA, MA, MN, NC, NJ, NV, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA. All employees are required to have permanent residency in one of these states. Candidates who are willing to relocate are also encouraged to apply.

Candidates based in the Bay Area, New York City, and Knoxville, Tennessee will be give priority consideration. For these locations, the position will follow a hybrid work model, with 3 days per week in office and the remaining days working from home.

Why Join Us?

Verana Health is revolutionizing patient care and clinical research by utilizing physician expertise and artificial intelligence to unlock the true potential of real-world data. With exclusive access to the world's largest patient data sources in oncology, ophthalmology, neurology, and urology Verana is powering real-world evidence generation. Clinicians utilize these insights to improve the quality of care and quality of life for patients, and life sciences companies rely on the insights to accelerate the development of new therapies. Verana is backed by industry leaders like Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Novo Growth, GV, Casdin Capital, and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund. Join us to bring innovation at scale and improve patient outcomes!

We offer comprehensive benefits that include:

Market-leading medical, dental, and vision insurance plans

401(k) match

Flexible time off programs

Paid parental leave

Annual learning and wellness stipend

More About Verana

We believe that diverse teams build better products and experiences. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where every employee feels valued, respected, and empowered to do their best work. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences.

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. We are unable to provide visa sponsorship (e.g., H-1B) or OPT/STEM extension support for this position at this time.

While we are remote friendly, we have a preference for candidates within close commuting proximity to our Bay Area or NYC office hubs.

To learn more about Verana Health, please visit veranahealth.com or watch our introduction video .

*Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.*

Job Title: Senior Director, Data Development

Lead the Application of Machine Learning to Transform Clinical Data into Scalable Healthcare Data Products

You will report directly to the Chief Data & Science Officer and solve complex real-world problems across multiple therapeutic areas, including urology, ophthalmology, and oncology. The team develops machine learning systems using structured and unstructured electronic health record (EHR) data, including clinical text and imaging data, to support Verana Qdata® products and real-world insight generation. Day-to-day activities for this team include algorithm development, data pre- and post-processing, code implementation, modeling, inference, and interpretation.

Why This Role Matters:

As a Senior Director working cross-functionally with Product Management, Engineering, and Medical, you will ensure our data products are generated with fit-for-purpose approaches and meet the necessary quality requirements. You will oversee a team that works with highly heterogeneous clinical datasets derived from EHR systems and imaging workflows, requiring rigorous approaches to validation, explainability, and scientific quality.

Built on the values of cross-functional collaboration, scientific rigor, and continuous learning, the Data & Science team strives to improve patient care by advancing the use of real-world clinical data, machine learning, and clinical expertise to generate meaningful healthcare insights.

This role is ideal for a leader who enjoys translating advances in machine learning and foundation models into reliable, clinically meaningful systems deployed in real-world healthcare environments.

What You Get to Do:

This role combines technical leadership, organizational development, and cross-functional partnership to drive the delivery of clinically meaningful machine learning systems at scale. These systems support the generation of real-world evidence and clinical insights used across research, commercial, and healthcare applications. The role requires a balance of strategic leadership and hands-on technical engagement across model development and deployment workflows.

Lead a team developing and operationalizing machine learning solutions for structured and unstructured healthcare data, including clinical text and imaging workflows

Guide the evaluation, fine-tuning, deployment, and monitoring of pretrained language models for healthcare applications

Help define technical strategy and development priorities for machine learning capabilities supporting Verana’s data products

Establish best practices for model lifecycle management, validation, reproducibility, explainability, and documentation

Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Medical, and Commercial teams to align technical solutions with scientific and business objectives

Drive high standards for data quality, model governance, and clinical relevance in production data products

Mentor and develop machine learning scientists and technical leaders across the organization

Skills and Experience that Will Help You Succeed:

Master’s or doctorate in a quantitative discipline (e.g., data science, computer science, machine learning, biostatistics, biomedical informatics, etc.)

10+ years of experience applying machine learning to clinical or healthcare datasets, including recent experience deploying, fine-tuning, evaluating, or operationalizing foundation models and applied machine learning systems

5+ years managing technical teams

Strong programming experience using Python, SQL, PySpark, R, or similar tools

Experience working within modern cloud-based machine learning ecosystems and deployment environments (e.g., Databricks, SageMaker, MLflow, distributed compute platforms, or similar tooling)

Experience moving machine learning systems from experimentation into production environments, including model evaluation, monitoring, performance optimization, and cross-functional operationalization

Familiarity with machine learning approaches for clinical imaging data

Experience working with clinical datasets derived from EHR systems and related healthcare data sources

Clear communication skills and able to deliver internal/external presentations, particularly to executive teams

Ability to work effectively with cross-func