Lead AI and Machine Learning Engineer - epocrates

Join us as we work to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

We are looking for a Lead Machine Learning Engineer who will lead the effort to apply Natural Language Understanding and Processing (NLUP) in Healthcare Technology space. You will lead the execution of research and enablement of NLUP initiatives e.g. Deep Learning, Transformers, Retrieval Augmented Generation, GPT, NER, Natural Query for the athenaHealth epocrates Platform used by 1 million+ users during moment of care.  You will contribute to the overall NLUP strategy in applying such technology to our current pipelines and capability e.g. Personalization, Recommendation, Search, Content Generation, Knowledge Graph, Summarization, Tagging, Topic and Intent Modeling. You will be part of the Data Science and Systems team consisting of Data Scientists and Machine Learning Ops Engineers. You will be the Subject Matter Expert in the NLUP space and will provide coaching/mentoring in the team. 

The Team: epocrates Data Science tackles a variety of complex challenges every day to ensure that our entire suite of products and tools are constantly evolving and improving to meet our users' needs. The primary mission of the team continuously ships pragmatic solutions utilizing applied Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning that deliver value for our Medical Professionals users. As we also service Medical Education Agencies and Pharmaceutical Companies bringing-in unique informative medical contents to enhance the healthcare knowledge of our users, the team also engineer AI solutions for these business clients.   

epocrates Engineering tech stack includes native iOS and Android apps, Java, AWS, Kafka, Knowledge Graph, SQL and non-SQL data store, React, TypeScript, Python, Vector Search DB, Docker and Kubernetes, a suite of in-house and third-party content publishing tools, A/B experiment design platform and a suite of commercial-advertising platform. Our multi-disciplinary team of SMEs -- front and backend engineers, product management veterans, medical doctors and PharmDs, visual designers, UX researchers, data experts, and more– all work together so that it's easy for Medical Professionals to make excellent clinical decisions for their patients with epocratesTM. 

As an epocratesTM engineering team member, you value collaborative environments where you can challenge ideas and learn from your colleagues. You approach your work with insatiable curiosity and have a profound discomfort with unresolved issues.  You speak up and take action when you see something that isn't quite right - even if it isn't in your job description or your area of expertise. And you can't wait for the Shout Outs section of our team meetings to give praise to your talented colleagues. 

Job Responsibilities 

• Lead the execution of research and enablement of NLUP initiatives e.g. Large Language Model, Transformers, Retrieval Augmented Generation, GPT, Named Entity Recognition and Vectoring. 

• Contribute to the overall NLUP strategy in applying such technology to our current pipelines and capability e.g. Personalization, Recommendation, Search, Content Generation, Knowledge Graph, Summarization, Tagging, Topic and Intent Modeling. 

• Lead the effort to collect data for training NLUP models, including working with developers for the Human-in-the-loop curator tool. 

• Lead the effort to continuously train and publish NLUP inference models for downstream pipelines and services. 

• Following through on commitments and owning the outcome. 

• Mentoring and coaching of team members. 

• Understand and follow coding conventions, architecture patterns, and best practices. 

• Participate in code reviews and perform peer code reviews to ensure quality standards. 

• Proactively identify, propose, and justify new tech that will benefit the software product. 

• Work collaboratively on a cross-functional team with a wide range of experience levels e.g. ML Ops, Search, Engagement, Medical Informatics, Content Publishing, Platform, Legal & Security. 

• Occasionally, lead Agile planning and Scrum ceremonies

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Data Science, Operations Research, Math, Statistics, or equivalent. 

• Ideally 5 years of professional experience in some or all aspects of designing, building, training, and evaluating Machine Learning Language Model. Hands-on data science/AI/ML engineering projects with proven results and outcome. 

• Demonstrated proficiency with Python (must) and Python ecosystem in data analysis and modeling tools. 

• Strong experience in PyTorch, TensorFlow, Transformer (BERT and/or GPT) Fine Tuning, Vector Indexing Search, Large Language Model (LLM) with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG).   

• Demonstrated experience with relational databases (e.g., SQL, Postgres). 

• Passionate about learning and disseminating new knowledge.    

• Experience with public cloud technologies, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is highly preferred. 

• Familiarity with Linux/Unix/Shell environments. 

• Exposure to Knowledge Graph (KG) in LLM is a plus. 

• Apache SPARK experience is a plus. 

• Apache Kafka experience is a plus. 

• Effectively communicating complex technical information to non-technical audiences is a plus

About athenahealth

Here’s our vision: To create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.  

What’s unique about our locations? 
From an historic, 19th century arsenal to a converted, landmark power plant, all of athenahealth’s offices were carefully chosen to represent our innovative spirit and promote the most positive and productive work environment for our teams. Our 10 offices across the United States and India — plus numerous remote employees — all work to modernize the healthcare experience, together. 
 
Our company culture might be our best feature. 
We don't take ourselves too seriously. But our work? That’s another story. athenahealth develops and implements products and services that support US healthcare: It’s our chance to create healthier futures for ourselves, for our family and friends, for everyone.  

Our vibrant and talented employees — or athenistas, as we call ourselves — spark the innovation and passion needed to accomplish our goal. We continue to expand our workforce with amazing people who bring diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives at every level, and foster an environment where every athenista feels comfortable bringing their best selves to work. 

Our size makes a difference, too: We are small enough that your individual contributions will stand out — but large enough to grow your career with our resources and established business stability. 
 
Giving back is integral to our culture. Our athenaGives platform strives to support food security, expand access to high-quality healthcare for all, and support STEM education to develop providers and technologists who will provide access to high-quality healthcare for all in the future. As part of the evolution of athenahealth’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, we’ve selected nonprofit partners that align with our purpose and let us foster long-term partnerships for charitable giving, employee volunteerism, insight sharing, collaboration, and cross-team engagement.   

What can we do for you? 
Along with health and financial benefits, athenistas enjoy perks specific to each location, including commuter support, employee assistance programs, tuition assistance, employee resource groups, and collaborative workspaces — some offices even welcome dogs.  

In addition to our traditional benefits and perks, we sponsor events throughout the year, including book clubs, external speakers, and hackathons. And we provide athenistas with a company culture based on learning, the support of an engaged team, and an inclusive environment where all employees are valued.  

We also encourage a better work-life balance for athenistas with our flexibility. While we know in-office collaboration is critical to our vision, we recognize that not all work needs to be done within an office environment, full-time. With consistent communication and digital collaboration tools, athenahealth enables employees to find a balance that feels fulfilling and productive for each individual situation. 

athenahealth is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity—that’s why we recruit and hire applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, or any other factor prohibited by law. We’re happy to provide a reasonable accommodation, for those with a disability, to complete any part of the application process. If you are unable to access or use this online application process and need an alternative method for applying, please contact us at taoperations@athenahealth.com for assistance.

https://www.athenahealth.com/careers/equal-opportunity