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About This Role
Become a part of our caring community
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The Enterprise AI organization at Humana is a pioneering force, driving AI innovation across our Insurance and CenterWell business segments. By collaborating with world\-leading experts, we are at the forefront of delivering cutting\-edge AI technologies for improving care quality and experience of millions of consumers. We are actively seeking top talent to develop robust and reusable AI modules and pipelines, ensuring adherence to best practices in accountable AI for effective risk management and measurement. Join us in shaping the future of healthcare through AI excellence.
We are seeking a Lead Data Scientist to guide the strategic decisions and the development of reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. Our goal is to create safe AI solutions that will revolutionize and improve healthcare experience and outcomes for our customers. Join our rapidly expanding team of dedicated data scientists, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders as we work together to build impactful and beneficial AI systems.Key Responsibilities
- AI Innovation \& Responsible Generative AI Design AI solutions using Python, computer vision, and generative models like LLMs and diffusion models. Ensure responsible development aligned with Humana’s ethical standards, focusing on transparency, safety, and real\-world impact.
- Agentic AI System Design Build autonomous AI agents using frameworks (i.e. LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI) to support reasoning and decision\-making in healthcare.
- Enterprise Integration \& Business Collaboration Embed AI into Humana’s systems and workflows. Partner with business teams to understand challenges, co\-create solutions, and communicate AI capabilities clearly—especially around generative AI. Design for scalability, reliability, and compliance.
- MLOps \& DevOps Collaboration Work with engineering and product teams to implement best practices for deploying and maintaining AI models in production.
- Manage the execution of data science strategies and initiatives, including the design, development and implementation.
- Guide and execute the strategic decision in collaboration with data scientists, software engineers, and stakeholders to deliver high impact AI use case solutions.
- Lead the development and maintenance of complex machine learning models and algorithms.
- Lead and oversee the development of advanced machine learning models, ensuring their seamless integration into our production systems.
- Design and implement robust monitoring capabilities to maintain optimal performance and reliability.
- Experience in creating reports, projections, models, and presentations to executives.
Use your skills to make an impact
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Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree and 7\+ years of experience OR Master's Degree and 5\+ years of experience in research/ML engineering or an applied research scientist position preferably with a focus on developing production\-ready AI solutions
- 2\+ years of experience leading development of AI/ML systems.
- Experience with Agentic AI System Design
- Experience collaborating with MLOps and DevOps teams
- Proficiency in SQL, Python, and data analysis/data mining tools
- Experience with machine learning frameworks like Scikit\-Learn, Tensorflow, or Pytorch
- Experience with high performance, large\-scale ML systems
- Experience with language modeling with transformers
- Experience with reinforcement learning
- Experience with large\-scale ETL
Preferred Qualifications
- Ph.D. in Computer, Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
Additional Information
Work Style: This position will have a hybrid work style, with 3 days per week in office and 2 days per week remote/home.
Office Location Options:
- Louisville, KY
- Boston, MA
- New York, NY
- Dallas, TX
- Tampa, FL
- Washington, DC (Arlington, VA)
Why Humana?
At Humana, we know your well\-being is important to you, and it’s important to us too. That’s why we’re committed to making resources available to you that will enable you to become happier, healthier, and more productive in all areas of your life. Just to name a few:
- Work\-Life Balance
- Generous PTO package
- Health benefits effective day 1
- Annual Incentive Plan
- 401K \- Excellent company match
- Well\-being program
- Paid Volunteer Time Off
If you share our passion for helping people, we likely have the right place for you at Humana.
Work at Home Guidance
To ensure Home or Hybrid Home/Office associates’ ability to work effectively, the self\-provided internet service of Home or Hybrid Home/Office associates must meet the following criteria:
- At minimum, a download speed of 25 Mbps and an upload speed of 10 Mbps is recommended; wireless, wired cable or DSL connection is suggested
- Satellite, cellular and microwave connection can be used only if approved by leadership
- Associates who live and work from Home in the state of California, Illinois, Montana, or South Dakota will be provided a bi\-weekly payment for their internet expense.
- Humana will provide Home or Hybrid Home/Office associates with telephone equipment appropriate to meet the business requirements for their position/job.
- Work from a dedicated space lacking ongoing interruptions to protect member PHI / HIPAA information
SSN Alert Statement
Humana values personal identity protection. Please be aware that applicants may be asked to provide their Social Security Number, if it is not already on file. When required, an email will be sent from [email protected] with instructions on how to add the information into your official application on Humana’s secure website.
Scheduled Weekly Hours
40Pay Range
The compensation range below reflects a good faith estimate of starting base pay for full time (40 hours per week) employment at the time of posting. The pay range may be higher or lower based on geographic location and individual pay will vary based on demonstrated job related skills, knowledge, experience, education, certifications, etc.
$142,300 \- $195,700 per year
This job is eligible for a bonus incentive plan. This incentive opportunity is based upon company and/or individual performance.Description of Benefits
Humana, Inc. and its affiliated subsidiaries (collectively, “Humana”) offers competitive benefits that support whole\-person well\-being. Associate benefits are designed to encourage personal wellness and smart healthcare decisions for you and your family while also knowing your life extends outside of work. Among our benefits, Humana provides medical, dental and vision benefits, 401(k) retirement savings plan, time off (including paid time off, company and personal holidays, volunteer time off, paid parental and caregiver leave), short\-term and long\-term disability, life insurance and many other opportunities.About Us
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About Humana: Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is a leading U.S. healthcare company. Through our Humana insurance services and our CenterWell healthcare services, we make it easier for the millions of people we serve to achieve their best health – delivering the care and service they need, when they need it. These efforts are leading to a better quality of life for people with Medicare and Medicaid, families, individuals, military service personnel, and communities at large. Learn more about what we offer at Humana.com and at CenterWell.com.
Equal Opportunity Employer
It is the policy of Humana not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status. It is also the policy of Humana to take affirmative action, in compliance with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and VEVRAA, to employ and to advance in employment individuals with disability or protected veteran status, and to base all employment decisions only on valid job requirements. This policy shall apply to all employment actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, upgrading, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, recall, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation and selection for training, including apprenticeship, at all levels of employment.
Salary Context
This $142K-$195K range is above the median for Data Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $157K across 236 roles with salary data).
View full Data Scientist salary data →Role Details
About This Role
Data Scientists extract insights and build predictive models from data. In the AI era, many roles now include LLM-powered analytics, automated reporting, and integration with generative AI tools. The role has evolved from 'the person who runs SQL queries' to 'the person who builds AI-powered data products.'
Modern data science roles fall into two camps: analytics-focused (insights, dashboards, experimentation) and ML-focused (building predictive models, recommendation systems, NLP features). The best data scientists can operate in both modes. The AI shift means that even analytics-focused roles now involve building automated insight pipelines using LLMs, going well beyond one-off reports.
Across the 3,823 AI roles we're tracking, Data Scientist positions make up 8% of the market. At Humana, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Data Scientist roles remain in high demand, though the definition keeps shifting. Companies increasingly want candidates who can bridge traditional statistics with modern ML and LLM capabilities. The 'pure insights' data scientist role is consolidating into analytics engineering, while the 'build models' data scientist role is merging with ML engineering.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: analyzing experiment results for a product feature launch, building a predictive model for customer churn, creating an automated reporting pipeline using LLM-powered summarization, presenting insights to stakeholders, and cleaning data (always cleaning data). The ratio of analysis to engineering varies by company, but expect both.
Data Scientist roles remain in high demand, though the definition keeps shifting. Companies increasingly want candidates who can bridge traditional statistics with modern ML and LLM capabilities. The 'pure insights' data scientist role is consolidating into analytics engineering, while the 'build models' data scientist role is merging with ML engineering.
Skills Required
Python, SQL, and statistical modeling are the foundation. Increasingly, roles want experience with LLMs for data analysis, automated insight generation, and building AI-powered data products. Familiarity with cloud data platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks) and ML frameworks (scikit-learn, PyTorch) covers most job requirements.
Experimentation design and causal inference are underrated skills that separate strong candidates. Companies care about whether their product changes cause improvements, and can distinguish causation from correlation. A/B testing methodology, Bayesian statistics, and the ability to communicate uncertainty to non-technical stakeholders are high-value skills.
Good postings specify the data stack, the types of problems you'll work on, and the team structure. Look for companies that differentiate between analytics and ML data science. Vague 'data scientist' postings that list every skill under the sun usually mean the company doesn't know what they need.
Compensation Benchmarks
Data Scientist roles pay a median of $198,000 based on 808 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($169K) sits 15% below the category median. Disclosed range: $142K to $195K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($275,000) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,880; Mid: $165,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $247,800; VP: $250,000.
Humana AI Hiring
Humana has 7 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Data Scientist, AI/ML Engineer, AI Software Engineer, AI Product Manager. Positions span Remote, US, New York, NY, US, Fort Lauderdale, FL, US. Compensation range: $173K - $284K.
Location Context
AI roles in New York pay a median of $211,000 across 2,643 tracked positions. That's 5% above the national median.
Career Path
Common paths into Data Scientist roles include Data Analyst, Statistician, Quantitative Researcher.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Data Scientist, ML Engineer, AI Product Manager.
Start with statistics and SQL. Build a real analysis project on public data that demonstrates insight generation alongside model building. The market values data scientists who can communicate findings clearly to business stakeholders. If you want to move toward ML engineering, invest in software engineering fundamentals and production deployment skills.
What to Expect in Interviews
Interviews combine statistics, coding, and business acumen. SQL is almost always tested, often with complex joins and window functions. Expect a case study round where you're given a business problem and asked to design an analysis plan. Coding rounds focus on pandas, statistical modeling, and visualization. The strongest differentiator is how well you communicate insights to non-technical stakeholders during presentation rounds.
When evaluating opportunities: Good postings specify the data stack, the types of problems you'll work on, and the team structure. Look for companies that differentiate between analytics and ML data science. Vague 'data scientist' postings that list every skill under the sun usually mean the company doesn't know what they need.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,823 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 112 entry-level, 1,798 mid-level, 1,516 senior, and 397 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (590 positions). The remaining 3,217 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($275,000 median, 41 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 55 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 434 roles).
Data Scientist roles remain in high demand, though the definition keeps shifting. Companies increasingly want candidates who can bridge traditional statistics with modern ML and LLM capabilities. The 'pure insights' data scientist role is consolidating into analytics engineering, while the 'build models' data scientist role is merging with ML engineering.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,823 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,629), Data Scientist (322), AI Software Engineer (279). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (112) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,798) and senior (1,516) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 397 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (590 positions), with 3,217 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $200,100. Top-quartile roles start at $253,500, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Engineering Manager roles lead at $275,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,979 postings), Aws (1,190 postings), Azure (899 postings), Rag (839 postings), Gcp (726 postings), Pytorch (595 postings), Prompt Engineering (595 postings), Claude (540 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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