Austin Health is one of Victoria’s largest health care providers. Comprising of the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, Royal Talbot Rehabilitation, Hospital in the Home and community based health services; Austin Health is an internationally recognised leader in clinical teaching, training and research, with numerous university and research institute affiliations.

An exciting opportunity currently exists for an enthusiastic and highly experienced Data Scientist to join our Performance Reporting and Decision Support Department. The Data Scientist is responsible for helping drive the advancement and use of data science approaches and techniques for generating data-driven analytics at Austin Health. The role will work closely with both clinical and administrative stakeholders to develop methods of delivering analytical solutions and insights though data science techniques in line with best practice standards.

The Performance Reporting and Decision Support (PRDS) department is responsible for five key areas:

• Clinical Analytics and Reporting


• Corporate Reporting


• Health Information Services (HIS)


• Data Services

Clinical Analytics and Reporting covers all analytical and reporting services for Austin Health in relation to clinical operations and assists with research analytics. Corporate reporting oversees clinical costing, funding analytics and corporate reporting. The PRDS team are also responsible for the Austin data warehouses and provision of data to the organisation.

HIS consists of medical record scanning, casemix/coding services, submissions of external mandatory activity reporting, corporate records management, morbidity data collection and release of patient information including Freedom of Information.

The PRDS team has a staffing of approximately 70 EFT located over three sites.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Use data mining techniques to build supervised, semi-supervised and unsupervised learning models to develop insights and enable relevant predictions for both research and operational purposes.


• Design, code, test, debug, validate and productionalise machine learning models.


• Analyse data into meaningful, actionable insights to allow improved decision making for clinicians and researchers.


• Deploy models into production environments and update, build metrics, manage drift and track over time.


• Consistently review the relevance, quality and accuracy of data models and algorithms utilised.


• Creation of clear and concise documentation of models created.


• Serve as a subject matter expert on Data Science to Austin Health, communicating data science concepts to broad technical and non-technical audiences.


• Assist clinical researchers in identifying data requirements for research purposes and guiding the Data Services team to integrate those new data sources into the Austin data stores.


• Lead the development and application of new methodologies and analytic techniques and providing training and mentorship to clinicians and researchers, promoting best practice.


• Document design decisions, establish standard processes for maintenance and work closely with the Data Services team and IT to ensure sustainability and scalability of any long term projects. 


• Work collaboratively with the Data Services team to build well-managed data solutions, tools and capabilities to enable self-service frameworks for the organisation.


• Co-ordinate with the PRDS teams to provide reporting functionality of designed prediction outcomes.

To be successful in this role you must demonstrate:

• Degree or higher qualification in mathematics, statistics, data science, information technology or machine learning


• Advanced data extraction and processing skills using SQL or Spark


• Demonstrable experience designing ML programs with health datasets with the ability to interpret model accuracy and effectiveness


• Experience within NLP / NLU desirable


• Experience in Python and R and/or software for predictive and descriptive analytics


• Experience with Microsoft Power BI is preferred but not essential 


• Previous demonstrable experience in working in a Microsoft Azure Environment – e.g., Azure Data Factory, Azure DevOps and Azure DataBricks


• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to liaise at all levels of the organisation.  


• Demonstrable experience in translating, visualising and communicating technical information to different stakeholder groups.


• Analytical and inquisitive mindset to continuously improve the level of insights surfaced with good attention to detail


• Experience in working with health data sets essential


• Ability to work independently and within a team environment


• Good organisational, time management, written and verbal skills

Work with us! Your reward is to work in a collaborative environment which will provide you with opportunities for ongoing training and development. Your benefits will include salary packaging, and employee assistance program.

All appointments are made subject to a satisfactory National Police Check conducted by Austin Health and if required, a Working With Children Check.

Austin Health is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse workforce that reflects the community we serve. Applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are encouraged.