Description:
We are seeking a Senior Data Quality Specialist to join Norstella’s Real-World Data (RWD) organization. This role is a senior individual contributor position responsible fordriving data quality excellence across RWD assets, pipelines, and client deliverables.
The Senior RWD Data Quality Specialist will serve as a subject-matter expert in healthcare data quality, leading complex investigations, defining scalable quality controls, and partnering closely with engineering, product, delivery, and client-facing teams. This role plays a critical part in ensuring theaccuracy, consistency, and reliability ofNorstella’sRWD products, while also helping to evolve the broader data quality framework that supports the ecosystem.
Responsibilities
Data Quality Leadership & Execution
- Lead comprehensive data quality assessments across RWD pipelines, source data, harmonized datasets, and client deliverables
- Serve as an escalation point for complex or high-impact data quality issues affecting clients or downstream teams
- Perform in-depth investigations of data anomalies using SQL, dashboards, and pipeline logs to identify root cause
- Translate findings into clear remediation plans and prevention strategies
Proactive Quality Design & Improvement
- Design, implement, and refine proactive data quality checks that improve detection of issues at ingestion, harmonization, and delivery stages
- Partner with engineering and data science to embed quality controls into automated workflows
- Contribute to the definition of data quality measures, thresholds, and KPIs that improve the resilience of the broader RWD system
- Identify systemic quality risks and recommend process or architectural improvements
Cross-Functional & Vendor Collaboration
- Collaborate closely with data engineers, analysts, product, and delivery teams to resolve quality issues efficiently
- Work directly with external data vendors to validate source data, logic, and refreshes when issues are identified
- Work with internal teams on data changes and enhancements
- Provide guidance to client-facing teams on data questions, limitations, and interpretations
Communication & Documentation
- Clearly communicate data quality findings, risks, and impacts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Maintain thorough documentation of investigations, root-cause analyses, and resolutions
- Contribute to SOPs, data dictionaries, and internal knowledge bases related to data quality practices
- Draft internal data release documentation as it relates to data product changes
Thought Leadership & Continuous Improvement
- Stay current on industry best practices, emerging technologies, and regulatory considerations related to healthcare data quality
- Mentor junior data quality team members and promote consistent quality standards across the organization
- Ad hoc duties as assigned
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Technology, Public Health, Biostatistics, or a related field
- 5+ years of experience in data quality, analytics, or data engineering roles, ideally within healthcare or life sciences
- Strong hands-on experience working with large, complex healthcare datasets
- Deep understanding of real-world data sources, including claims, EMR/EHR, and lab data
- Advanced SQL skills and experience navigating modern data pipelines and warehouses
- Proven ability to independently drive investigations from intake through resolution
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and documentation skills with high attention to detail
Preferred Qualifications
- Knowledge of healthcare data standards, privacy, and compliance requirements (e.g., HIPAA)
- Experience with data analysis and pipeline tools such as Python, R, Airflow, or similar
- Experience working with Amazon Redshift, DBM, or comparable cloud data warehouse environments
- Prior experience influencing or designing data quality frameworks, metrics, or controls at scale