Data Quality Engineer - Center for Health Care Data

What we do here changes the world. UTHealth Houston is Texas’ resource for healthcare education, innovation, scientific discovery, and excellence in patient care. That’s where you come in.

We are seeking a Full-Time Data Quality Engineer to join the Center for Health Care Data as part of the UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston, TX. The Data Quality Engineer is a skillful team player with a clear track record of transforming big data into actionable insights that improve data quality and associated standards and processes. This individual is a deliberate and systematic scientist who can clearly articulate the goals of the data quality program, practice with rigor and precision, and maintain a balanced/independent point of view to achieve targeted data quality standards. Applies the principles of data quality across a range of data sets and their intersection, including but not limited to administrative claims, electronic health records, social determinants of health data sets, and others. It is essential for this person to be a very effective communicator who can evangelize data quality standards throughout the organization.

Once you join us you won't want to leave. It’s because we reward our team for the excellent service they provide. Our total rewards package includes the benefits you’d expect from a top healthcare organization (benefits, insurance, etc.), plus:  

• 100% paid medical premiums for our full-time employees  
• Generous time off (holidays, preventative leave day, both vacation and sick time – all of which equates to around 37-38 days per year) 
• The longer you stay, the more vacation you’ll accrue! 
• Longevity Pay (Monthly payments after two years of service) 
• Build your future with our awesome retirement/pension plan! 

We take care of our employees! As a world-renowned institution, our employees’ well-being is important to us. We offer work/life services such as... 

• Free financial and legal counseling 
• Free mental health counseling services 
• Gym membership discounts and access to wellness programs 
• Other employee discounts including entertainment, car rentals, cell phones, etc. 
• Resources for child and elder care 
• Plus many more! 

Position Key Accountabilities:

• Uses a variety of tools and techniques to develop a suite of data quality metrics which provide benchmarks for assessing data quality both at points in time and across periods of time leveraging key elements of the Patient Demographic Data Quality (PDDQ) Framework developed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).
• Plans, implements and is responsible for maintaining a metadata management program using the Common Data Layout (CDL) based on CDL specifications published by the APCD Council/NAHDO including standardized definitions of data attributes and associated documentation designed for broad consumption.
• Builds quality measurement and scoring models and monitoring frameworks which allow for the proactive and automated assessment of quality across diverse data sets including administrative, clinical, and social determinants of health data when applicable.  Conducts periodic assessments and drives processes for continuous improvement.
• Applies a variety of methods based on standards and metrics to review and improve data acquisition and data management processes such as statistical analysis, machine learning, data mining, predictive analytics, time series analysis, multivariate regression analysis, statistical process control and optimization solutions.
• Collaborates with the Data Linkage Scientist and other team members to improve Master Person Index (MPI), Master Provider Registry (MPR), and other link index match rates.
• Performs as a results-oriented problem solver to quickly synthesize complex scenarios, conduct root cause investigations, apply appropriate methods, and plan/implement practical and timely solutions.
• Serves as a champion for data quality throughout the organization using a collaborative approach to fully realize the talents of colleagues such as data stewards, IT staff, business analysts, business stakeholders and industry experts.
• Interfaces and collaborates with all other functions within the organization and with data submitters on quality-related issues.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Certification/Skills:

• Mastery of data discovery and data profiling techniques and tools.
• Familiarity with health care claims data and associated X12 knowledge
• Ability to influence and collaborate broadly within the organization as a data quality champion
• Proficiency with statistical packages, databases and programming languages for data preparation, storage, transformation, analysis or visualization. Examples include R, SAS, STATA,  SQL, Python, PySpark, Tableau, Excel and other big data frameworks.
• Ability to work with a wide variety of large dataset formats/sources such as relational databases, Parquet, ORC, XML, JSON, CSV, streams and geolocation
• Effective communication skills including written, oral, listening and interpersonal.

Minimum Education:

• Master's degree in mathematics, engineering, informatics, or a related field.
   

Minimum Experience:

• Three (3) years of enterprise experience as a data scientist, informaticist, statistician, senior analyst, or related role.
   

Physical Requirements:

Exerts up to 50 pounds of force occasionally and/or up to 20 pounds frequently and/or up to 10 pounds constantly to move objects.

Security Sensitive:

This job class may contain positions that are security sensitive and thereby subject to the provisions of Texas Education Code § 51.215

Residency Requirement:

Employees must permanently reside and work in the State of Texas.