Principal Research Scientist, Clinical Research

Principal Research Scientist, Clinical Research

Headway is building a new mental healthcare system that makes therapy accessible and affordable by solving the biggest barrier to care: insurance. Over 75,000 providers across all 50 states run their practice on Headway's software, serving over 1 million patients.

As the first dedicated clinical researcher, you will build and scale the Clinical Research function at Headway. You will own the end-to-end planning of the research roadmap, drive evidence generation, and produce peer-reviewed publications to build the company's credibility among payers, providers, and patients. You will collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Data, Engineering, Operations, and Marketing to influence corporate strategy and growth.

Responsibilities:

• Scale the clinical research function and develop quarterly roadmaps.
• Lead projects from conceptualization to execution, utilizing strategic analysis, causal inference, and experimentation.
• Develop the vision for clinical research, including standards for analysis.
• Translate complex data-driven insights into clear business recommendations for senior leadership.
• Manage the clinical research budget and resource allocation.
• Navigate ambiguity as the foundational hire for this role.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of health services research, clinical epidemiology, or health economics research, including a demonstrated publication record in high-impact journals.
• Advanced degree in a research-related field.
• Experience leading research teams, overseeing staff, and obtaining grant funding.
• Significant experience with real-world health care data (claims/EHR) and working within the health insurance landscape.
• Technical fluency in SQL and Python/R; familiarity with modern data stacks (Snowflake, dbt, Looker).
• Strong background in experimentation and stakeholder management.

Compensation: $169,600 - $265,000 + Equity.