Senior Applied AI Strategist & Developer at West Health – San Diego, California

Funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West, West Health is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that includes the Gary and Mary West Health Institute and Gary and Mary West Foundation in San Diego, and the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C. These organizations work together toward a shared mission: lowering the cost of healthcare to enable successful aging with access to high-quality, affordable health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life and independence. For more information, westhealth.org and follow @westhealth

West Health’s focus is lowering healthcare costs, improving health outcomes, and enabling the creation of a system that is more transparent, competitive, affordable, person-centered, quality-driven, and sustainable. Specific focus areas include lowering national and consumer healthcare spending, promoting value-based care models, advancing integrated brain health, catalyzing patient-centered innovations, increasing price transparency, and limiting consumer exposure to high out-of-pocket costs.West Health is seeking a Senior Applied AI Strategist & Developer to join our Data Science & Analytics team. This is a dual-capacity role for someone who can both build production-ready AI solutions and serve as a strategic advisor to senior leadership on the responsible, effective use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
On the strategic side, this person will help West Health leadership evaluate AI opportunities across our growing portfolio of initiatives—including our Accelerator partnerships with Mass General Brigham, Northwestern Medicine, and Duke-Margolis—and provide informed guidance on what is credible, practical, and impactful in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. As West Health deepens its collaborations with major health systems, this role will serve as a trusted internal resource who can assess emerging AI capabilities, advise on where and how AI can improve clinical workflows and care delivery, and help distinguish proven approaches from hype.
On the applied side, this person will partner closely with the Director of Data Science & Analytics to design, build, and deploy intelligent systems—including multi-agent architectures and automated workflows—that amplify the impact of our internal data science team. This role is focused on leveraging existing AI and LLM tools, understanding what each is best suited for, and combining them into well-designed, reliable solutions. The right candidate can take a business problem or loosely defined concept and independently develop it into a polished, well-documented tool with a thoughtful user experience.
The ideal candidate brings a rare combination of strategic thinking and hands-on technical ability—someone with experience in healthcare consulting, health system innovation, or technology strategy who also has demonstrated proficiency building applied AI solutions. We are looking for someone who is as comfortable advising C-Suite leadership on AI-enabled care models as they are standing up multi-agent workflows for internal operations.AI Strategy & Advisory

• Strategic AI Advisory: Serve as a knowledgeable internal resource for senior leadership on the application of AI in healthcare. Provide evidence-informed guidance on emerging AI capabilities, help evaluate the credibility and readiness of AI-driven approaches, and advise on where AI can meaningfully improve clinical workflows, care coordination, operational efficiency, and research.
• Accelerator & Partnership Support: Contribute AI domain expertise to West Health’s Accelerator initiatives and health system collaborations. Help partners understand the practical potential of AI within their specific contexts, identify high-value use cases, and assess vendor claims and emerging tools with a critical, informed perspective.
• Healthcare AI Landscape Monitoring: Maintain a current, working knowledge of the AI-in-healthcare landscape—including regulatory developments, clinical AI applications, ambient documentation tools, AI-supported care coordination, and the evolving policy environment. Synthesize this knowledge into clear, actionable guidance for leadership and cross-functional teams.

Applied AI Development & Analytics

• Applied AI Solution Development: Design, build, and deploy production-quality AI-powered tools and workflows using large language models, AI APIs, and orchestration platforms. Architect and implement multi-agent systems, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, and automated analytical workflows that address real organizational needs and are built for sustained, daily use.
• AI Workflow Orchestration & Integration: Build and maintain intelligent automation pipelines using platforms such as n8n, LangChain/LangGraph, Microsoft Copilot Studio, CrewAI, and similar orchestration tools. Leverage APIs and emerging integration standards such as Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect AI capabilities with existing data infrastructure (Snowflake, Python, internal systems) and create seamless, reliable workflows that operate with minimal manual intervention.
• Data Analysis & Strategic Insight: Conduct independent data analysis and contribute analytical thinking to team projects. Proactively identify opportunities where AI can unlock insights, surface patterns in large datasets, and recommend relevant analyses. Translate findings into clear, compelling data stories that inform leadership decisions.
• Solution Delivery & Follow-Through: Move effectively from concept to deployed solution. Take loosely defined ideas from leadership and independently scope, design, build, and deliver polished tools with intuitive interfaces, proper documentation, and sustainable architecture. Demonstrate consistent follow-through from ideation to completion.
• Prompt Engineering & LLM Optimization: Develop and refine sophisticated prompt architectures, system instructions, and evaluation frameworks that ensure consistent, high-quality outputs from LLMs. Stay current on model capabilities across providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, open-source models) and recommend the appropriate tool for each use case.
• Knowledge Management & Documentation: Build and maintain organizational knowledge bases, vector stores, and retrieval systems that enable AI tools to work effectively with proprietary data. Create clear technical documentation so that solutions are maintainable, transferable, and not dependent on any single individual.
• Collaboration & Communication: Work cross-functionally with data scientists, analysts, visualization developers, and organizational stakeholders. Communicate technical approaches and strategic recommendations in accessible language and contribute to conversations at both the operational and executive level.
• Commitment to West Health’s values and mission.
• This role requires a regular in-office presence from Tuesday through Thursday to support collaboration and business needs during core hours of 9 AM to 5 PM. Mondays and Fridays may be worked remotely, provided availability aligns with standard working hours. The primary focus is on fulfilling responsibilities, delivering results, and collaborating effectively with others.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Health Informatics, Information Systems, or a related field; a Master’s degree or MBA is a plus.
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience spanning technology, data science, healthcare, or management consulting, with at least 2 years of hands-on applied AI/LLM experience in a professional setting.
• Prior experience in healthcare consulting, health system innovation, digital health strategy, or a similar advisory capacity. Experience at a management consulting firm (e.g., McKinsey, Deloitte, Accenture) or a health system’s innovation or digital transformation team is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience building and deploying production-ready AI solutions used by real stakeholders. A portfolio or live demonstrations of past work is strongly preferred and will carry significant weight in the evaluation process.
• Working knowledge of the AI-in-healthcare landscape, including current clinical AI applications, regulatory considerations, and the practical opportunities and limitations of AI in care delivery settings.
• Proficiency with AI orchestration and agent frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, n8n, or similar tools for building multi-step, multi-agent AI workflows.
• Working knowledge of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns, vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, ChromaDB, Weaviate, pgvector), and embedding models.
• Experience with LLM APIs and platforms including OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, and/or open-source models via Hugging Face or Ollama.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL; familiarity with cloud data platforms such as Snowflake is a strong plus.
• Experience with low-code/no-code AI platforms such as Microsoft Copilot Studio, Power Automate, or similar enterprise AI tooling.
• Familiarity with emerging AI integration standards such as Model Context Protocol (MCP) and tool-use patterns for connecting LLMs with external systems is a plus.
• Solid foundation in data analysis, with the ability to independently explore datasets, identify patterns, and communicate findings through clear data narratives.
• Strong business acumen and strategic thinking, with the ability to connect technical capabilities to organizational goals, evaluate vendor claims and emerging tools, and communicate recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to distill complex AI concepts into accessible language for executive stakeholders.
• Self-directed, highly motivated, and able to manage projects from ideation through delivery with minimal supervision.
• Must believe in public health and science.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

• The estimated salary range for this position is $150,000 - $200,000
  We gladly offer:
• Up to 10% Annual Performance Bonus – rewarding your hard work and success.
• Hybrid Work Schedule (Must be located in San Diego) - offering flexibility to balance your work and personal life.
• Comprehensive Benefits Package – including Medical, Dental, Vision, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, Life Insurance, and a Flexible Spending Account to support your health and well-being.
  • 100% Premium Coverage for Employee Medical, Dental, Vision, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, and Life Insurance, plus 70% coverage for dependents for medical, dental and vision – ensuring both you and your family are well cared for.
• Generous 5% Retirement Plan Match – helping you build a secure financial future.
• Professional Development Reimbursements – investing in your growth and career advancement.
• 15 Days of Paid Time Off plus 16 Paid Holidays – promoting a healthy work-life balance and time to recharge

West Health Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against persons on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, marital status, age, disability, or veteran’s status.