NLP Data Scientist

Position Overview 

SteerBridge is seeking an NLP Data Scientist to support the Modern Disability Claims program, applying natural language processing and machine learning to extract, structure, and analyze medical and claims data in support of VA disability claims adjudication. This role blends deep NLP/transformer expertise with hands-on experience in healthcare and claims data. 

Key Responsibilities

• Extract and analyze medical and claims-related data using natural language processing (NLP) techniques and tune models using VA datasets.

• Develop, maintain, and optimize NLP pipelines to support automation and analytics within claims adjudication processes.

• Collaborate with VA stakeholders to define data science requirements and translate operational needs into effective analytical solutions.

• Evaluate and improve model accuracy, performance, and quality through systematic testing, validation, and iteration.

• Document data processing workflows, model architecture, methodologies, and model-tuning procedures.

• Support the integration and deployment of NLP models within VA systems and existing technical infrastructure.

Required Qualifications 

• Eligibility requirements: U.S. citizenship is required for this position under applicable federal contract requirements. Candidate must also be able to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the role, including a Public Trust clearance.

• Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.

• 5+ years of relevant experience using Python and NLP technologies such as Amazon Comprehend Medical, Google Cloud Natural Language, and transformer-based models.

• Proficiency with SQL, Jupyter notebooks, and collaborative coding environments.

• Demonstrated ability to manage and deliver data science projects within government, healthcare, or similarly regulated environments.

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex data science concepts and findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience with modern NLP and generative AI technologies, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, vector databases, Hugging Face Transformers, BERT, BART, and large language models (LLMs).

• Strong understanding of healthcare data, including electronic medical records (EMRs), claims data, clinical coding systems such as ICD and CPT, and healthcare terminology.

• Experience working with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure.