Associate Data Scientist

About the Role

The USC Institute of Urology is seeking an Associate Data Scientist to support the design, development, testing, and deployment of agentic AI workflows within a healthcare environment. Based in the AI Center at the USC Institute of Urology, the successful candidate will collaborate with a cross-disciplinary team of clinicians, researchers, and engineers to translate clinical and operational needs into practical, AI-driven solutions.

Responsibilities

• Build AI workflows that execute multi-step tasks through APIs and internal databases.
• Integrate and normalize multiple data modalities to support workflow execution.
• Implement RAG and grounding controls to support traceability and reduce unsupported outputs.
• Design, troubleshoot, and refine Agentic AI workflows and AI Agents to augment current healthcare applications.
• Collaborate with clinicians, researchers, and operational stakeholders to translate needs into safe, testable, and measurable deliverables.

Requirements

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong Python, SQL programming skills, GitHub, and experience with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, etc.).
• Full stack software development, experience with JavaScript, Node.js, QT, or similar.
• Demonstrated experience building and deploying LLM applications beyond prototypes, including tool/function calling, workflow orchestration, structured outputs, and validation.
• Experience implementing grounding/retrieval and reliability evaluation (test cases, regression checks, monitoring) and familiarity with security and privacy best practices for sensitive data.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years of experience with statistical computer languages (e.g., R, Python, SQL) to manipulate data and draw insights from large data sets.
• Experience working with and creating data models and data architecture, and using data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, ArcGIS, D3.js).
• Knowledge of current data modeling tools and various machine-learning techniques and algorithms (e.g., clustering, decision-tree learning, artificial neural networks).
• Proficient use of query languages (e.g., SQL, MDX) and experience working with relational and non-relational databases.
• Knowledge of applied statistical concepts and techniques (e.g., distributions, statistical testing, regression).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience integrating structured and unstructured data to support workflow automation and incorporating multimodal inputs.
• Multi-step workflow design with escalation and human-in-the-loop safeguards.
• Agentic AI workflow implementation and design of AI Agents (n8n, LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI, or similar).
• Cloud deployment, secure operations (AWS/Azure/GCP), APIs.
• Multi-agent systems / planning / Reinforcement Learning fundamentals.
• Lightweight fine-tuning or adaptation experience.
• 4 years of experience in data science, analytics, IT, cognitive engineering, or related fields.
• Published writing on artificial intelligence and/or data science.

Pay

The annual budgeted salary range for this position is $99,823.75 - $113,589.23.

Location

This position is on-site at the USC Health Science Campus in Los Angeles, CA.