Staff Data Scientist, Ranking

Headway’s mission is a big one – to build a new mental health care system everyone can access. We’ve built technology that helps people find great therapists with the first software-enabled national network of providers accepting insurance.

1 in 4 people in the US have a treatable mental health condition, but the majority of providers don’t accept insurance, making therapy too expensive for most people. Headway is building a new mental healthcare system that everyone can access by making it easy for therapists to accept insurance and scale their practice.

Headway was founded in 2019. Since then, we’ve grown into a diverse, national network of over 60,000 mental healthcare providers across all 50 states who run their practice on our software and have served over 1 million patients. We’re a Series D company with over $325m in funding from a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Accel, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Spark Capital, Thrive Capital, Forerunner Ventures and Health Care Service Corporation.

We want your time here to be the most meaningful experience of your career. Join us, and help change mental healthcare for the better.

About the Team

Our Ranking team’s mission is to help every patient find the right provider for their needs. We are building the matching system that powers this connection, from search and discovery to ranking and personalization. Our goal is to combine cutting-edge machine learning with a deep understanding of patient and provider experience.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Staff Data Scientist to advance how we connect patients with the right therapist. You will evaluate the product experience and underlying ML systems that help patients find their best-fit clinician. Your research will power our understanding of the matching performance and help us prioritize experiments to drive improvements. You will work closely with the engineering teams to turn your findings into concrete changes to the patient experience. This is an opportunity to bring both scientific rigor and empathy to a problem that truly matters — helping people access effective, personalized mental healthcare.

What You’ll Do

• Analyze and evaluate the performance of our search and ranking systems using offline and online metrics


• Develop frameworks to measure relevance, conversion signals, and long-term patient outcomes


• Conduct exploratory research to identify new search and ranking signals, along with opportunities for personalization


• Partner with ML engineers to translate research findings into production-ready models and features


• Collaborate with product, clinical, and engineering teams to define success metrics and guide experimentation.


• Clearly communicate findings, recommendations, and business implications to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

What We’re Looking For

• PhD or Master’s degree in Statistics or a related quantitative field.


• 3–6 years of experience in data science, applied machine learning, or a related field.


• Strong proficiency in Python, SQL, and experimentation/causal inference techniques.


• Familiarity with ranking, search, or recommendation systems (e.g., relevance modeling, click modeling, LTR methods).


• Comfort with ambiguous, open-ended research questions and the ability to translate findings into actionable insights.


• Excellent communication skills — able to explain complex ideas simply and build trust across teams.


• Passion for improving access to mental health care and advancing outcomes for patients.

Nice to Have

• Experience with large-scale search or recommendation evaluation frameworks (e.g., NDCG, MAP, offline/online A/B testing).


• Familiarity with fairness or bias evaluation in ML systems.

Compensation & Benefits:

The expected base pay range for this position is $215,900 - $254,000, based on a variety of factors including qualifications, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for performance-based variable compensation and 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

We believe a team's strength is in its people, and we cannot achieve this mission without a team that reflects the diversity of this problem – across race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, national origin, religion, family status, disability, military status, and experience.

Headway is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Headway will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided with reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please inform the recruiter when they contact you to schedule your interview.

Headway employees work remotely across the US, with the option to work from offices in New York City, San Francisco and Seattle. Headway participates in E-Verify. To learn more, click here.