Senior Manager, Data Science - Insurance Platform

About the Role

As Senior Data Science Manager for Insurance Platform, you will define and lead the data strategy for Headway's insurance ecosystem. The team's mission is to ensure every patient gets accurate benefits, seamless claims processing, and a reliable path to care through an insurance platform they can trust.

You will report into Headway's Platform Group, a mission-critical pillar that ensures the systems behind our insurance platform reliably power patient, provider, and payer experiences. Accurate insurance operations sit at the core of Headway's ability to scale, and data is essential to identifying, measuring, and resolving the gaps that drive patient loss and operational cost.

You will partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Operations across our Benefits, Eligibility, Corrections, Claims, and Paneling pods to deeply understand and improve how our insurance platform performs. You will define the right questions, proactively uncover opportunities, and use data to guide decisions from early concept through launch and iteration. You will set the standards for how we define accuracy, loss, and operational effectiveness, ensuring your team delivers work that leads to real, measurable improvements in patient and provider outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and grow a high-performing team of Data Scientists, fostering a culture of technical excellence and strategic thinking.
• Develop quarterly roadmaps with cross-functional partners, align Data Science resources, and oversee execution of timely and high-quality work.
• Drive insights and decisions through strategic analysis, reporting, predictive modeling, and experimentation.
• Architect a measurement framework that gives the organization a unified, trusted view of insurance accuracy across eligibility determination, benefits pricing, claims adjudication, and payer reconciliation, so we know exactly where patients are falling through the cracks and why.
• Partner cross-functionally to build proactive monitoring and alerting systems that shift the team from reactive firefighting to systematic loss prevention.
• Stay close to the data by tackling strategic projects yourself, surfacing gaps in our data and understanding of the insurance systems we depend on.
• Translate complex technical findings into clear, actionable recommendations for executive stakeholders.

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years of experience in data science or analytics roles.
• 3+ years of experience managing and developing teams.
• Prior experience in healthcare, specifically insurance, is a plus.
• Proven ability to drive cross-functional planning processes, including developing quarterly roadmaps, aligning resources across teams, and holding a high bar for execution quality and timeliness.
• Proven success partnering cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Operations.
• Deep expertise in measurement science and causal inference, especially Bayesian A/B testing, with the ability to coach others through complex experimental design.
• Proficiency in forecasting and predictive modeling techniques.
• Hands-on technical fluency in SQL and Python or R.
• Experience with data modeling, ideally using dbt, including event-driven modeling patterns and structuring datasets for both analytical use and AI-readiness.
• Experience adopting and championing AI-assisted tools to accelerate and automate data workflows.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Why This Role is Exciting

• Shape analytics for one of Headway's most complex and consequential domains, directly influencing the accuracy and reliability of the insurance platform that powers every patient's path to care.
• Work at the intersection of data, ML, and insurance operations, with real opportunities to apply predictive modeling to problems like benefits interpretation, payer identification, and claims routing that have meaningful financial and clinical impact.
• Partner closely with senior leadership and directly influence company strategy and growth.

Compensation and Benefits:

The expected base pay range for this position is $212,000 - $265,000, based on a variety of factors including qualifications, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for an equity grant, depending on the position and level.

We are committed to offering a comprehensive and competitive total rewards package, including robust health and wellness benefits, retirement savings, and meaningful ownership opportunities through equity. Compensation decisions are made holistically, ensuring fairness and alignment with market benchmarks while recognizing individual contributions and potential.

• Benefits offered include:
• Equity compensation
• Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage
• HSA / FSA
• 401K
• Work-from-Home Stipend
• Therapy Reimbursement
• 16-week parental leave for eligible employees
• Carrot Fertility annual reimbursement and membership
• 13 paid holidays each year as well as a Holiday Break during the week between December 25th and December 31st
• Flexible PTO
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Training and professional development

[To be included if role is bonus eligible][Other compensation includes: discretionary bonuses and/or commission. Commission payments are monthly.]