Principal Research Scientist, Clinical Research

1 in 4 people in the US have a treatable mental health condition, but most providers don't accept insurance, making therapy too expensive for most people. Headway’s mission is to fix this by building a new mental healthcare system everyone can access. We started by solving the biggest barrier to care: insurance. The admin work - credentialing, claims, payment reconciliation - is a nightmare. We've automated that.

But we're going further. Over 75,000 providers across all 50 states run their practice on our software, serving over 1 million patients. We are building the best tools for therapists to run their entire practice, reimagining the experience of finding a therapist, and investing in the platform foundations to enable this at scale. We aren't just a billing layer; we are becoming the platform where care actually happens.

We're a Series D company with $325M+ in funding (a16z, Accel, Spark Capital, etc.), looking for exceptional people to help us achieve this mission. 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 Role

We’re looking for a Principal Research Scientist to build and scale Clinical Research at Headway. In this role you will establish, drive and execute on the research and publication strategy for Headway’s Clinical Research team.

The Clinical Research team at Headway was founded in mid 2025 and has already generated meaningful results and produced rigorous manuscripts that are under peer-review. You would join as the first dedicated clinical researcher to formalize and scale this function for Headway by expanding its scope and vision.

You will own end-to-end planning of the research roadmap in conjunction with Clinical Leadership at Headway. You will help execute this roadmap through project development, evidence generation and data analysis, and collaboration on peer-reviewed publications and presentations to build Headway's credibility among payers, providers, and patients. Your work will focus on demonstrating the tangible results and impact of Headway's network through rigorous, public-facing research. You will efficiently manage the budget for clinical research and, as needed, make the case for additional investments in analytics, outside experts, conference attendance, or other research resources.

This role requires strong collaboration, leadership skills, clear communication, and the ability to execute both independently and within cross-functional teams. You will build relationships with many stakeholders internally from Product, Data, Engineering, Operations, and Marketing. You’ll have high visibility with senior leadership and a chance to directly influence corporate strategy and growth.

This is a unique opportunity to bring analytical strategy, scientific rigor, and human-centered insight to a mission that truly matters — expanding access to effective, personalized mental health care.

You will:

• Scale the clinical research function at Headway, developing quarterly roadmaps for the research team, aligning clinical research resources, and overseeing execution of clinical research in collaboration with leadership

• Lead projects from conceptualization to execution, driving deep analytical insight through strategic analysis, causal inference, and experimentation

• Develop and drive the vision for clinical research including our standards for analysis and experimentation

• Tackle projects yourself, including strategic analysis to strengthen our vision and resolve for key initiatives. Translate complex insights into clear, data-driven recommendations

• As the foundational hire for this role at Headway, you will need to navigate ambiguity in defining responsibilities and success criteria

• Influence senior leadership and have a chance to directly influence strategy and growth

You would be a great fit if you have:

• 10+ years of health services research, clinical epidemiology, or health economics research, including leading projects and experience in the end-to-end peer review publication process with demonstrated publication record in studies of mental health.

• You will have led research teams, overseen research staff, and successfully obtained grant funding. Your CV will reflect this experience with publications in high-impact journals. This likely means you have an advanced degree in a research-related field.

• Experience working on patient health outcomes, health economic outcomes, patient and provider satisfaction outcomes, enhancing care delivery for providers, and/or working within a health insurance landscape

• Experience partnering with cross-functional partners across product, marketing, engineering, operations

• Significant experience with real-world health care data, including health insurance claims and EHR data

• Strong background in experimentation; able to both set strategy and coach others

• Significant experience with data and analytics, including working with large datasets. This likely means hands-on technical fluency in SQL and Python/R, with experience working with modern data stacks (e.g., Snowflake, dbt, Looker)

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills — able to “translate” technical insights into business impact

Compensation and Benefits:

The expected base pay range for this position is $170,000- $265,000 based on a variety of factors including qualifications, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for 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.

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A notice to Headway applicants: To protect yourself against phishing and recruitment fraud, please note that Headway only accepts applications through our official careers page at https://headway.co/careers. Headway will never refer you to external websites, ask for payment or personal information, or conduct interviews via messaging apps. All official communication will come from a @findheadway.com email address. If you are contacted by someone claiming to be from Headway via an unofficial channel, please do not share any information and report it as spam.