[Hiring] Lead Data Scientist @Humana

Role Description

Become a part of our caring community. 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 building advanced agentic systems capable of autonomously managing and decomposing complex goals. We are seeking an expert in agent design, planning, and control to develop and evaluate agents that can set, adapt, and execute goals in dynamic, real-world environments. You’ll contribute to the scientific and engineering foundations that make AI agents reliable, interpretable, and robust across long-horizon tasks.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect goal setting and goal decomposition mechanisms for autonomous agents operating in uncertain or open-ended environments
• Design and implement dynamic planning systems (e.g., hierarchical planning, curriculum learning, scratchpad/self-refinement loops)
• Collaborate on memory, tool-use, and feedback-loop designs enabling multi-step, self-directed agent behavior
• Develop evaluation frameworks for alignment with human intent, consistency, progress against long-horizon objectives
• Prototype agents that interface with APIs, MCP servers, search engines, databases, or real-world actuators to pursue goals safely and efficiently
• Explore mechanisms to detect and mitigate goal misalignment, looping behavior, or undesirable emergent strategies
• Work across teams to integrate goal alignment with safety, alignment, and operational reliability mechanisms

Technical Skills

• Proficiency in SQL, Python, and data analysis/data mining tools
• Experience with machine learning frameworks like Pytorch, Jax, LangChain, LangGraph or AutoGen
• Experience with high performance, large-scale ML systems
• Experience with language modeling with transformers
• Experience with symbolic planning, causal reasoning, and model-based RL
• Experience with large-scale ETL

Required Qualifications

• Master's Degree and 4+ 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

Preferred Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, or a related field
• Demonstrated experience shipping autonomous, or semi-autonomous agents in production or simulation
• Experience with LLM-based agents with scratchpad/self-reflection or hierarchical task decomposition
• Understanding of autonomy risk mitigation strategies, including off-switch protocols, or bounded rationality

Location/Work Style

• Remote US
• Work from a dedicated space lacking ongoing interruptions to protect member PHI / HIPAA information

Travel

• While this is a remote position, occasional travel to Humana's offices for training or meetings may be required

Scheduled Weekly Hours

• 40

Pay 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 based upon company and/or individual performance

Description of Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision benefits
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Time off (including paid time off, company and personal holidays, paid parental and caregiver leave)
• Short-term and long-term disability
• Life insurance
• Many other opportunities

Application Deadline

11-19-2026

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.