Clinical Economist

Mission

Neko is redefining what prevention means, from treating illness when it arrives, to sustaining health before it's ever at risk. Our mission: make data-driven, preventative care accessible to more people, before symptoms appear.

In a single, non-invasive visit under an hour, proprietary technology and direct clinical care combine to deliver personalised, actionable insights. It's a team that thinks in 10x, not 10%. Every role here plays a part in building a world where prevention is the norm, and where your work genuinely helps people live longer, healthier lives.

Role Purpose

Most health care systems measure quality in the physical world: whether staff washed their hands, whether the lab analyser was calibrated, whether each step of a protocol was followed. Neko can add a second layer. Each scan produces thousands of measurements on one person, and many members return the next year. With that data we can detect a lab value that is wrong, a device that has drifted, or two operators who measure the same organ and get different results. A physical audit does not see these problems.

We are hiring someone with a deep background in rigorous data work to lead Neko's data-driven approach to clinical quality. You will use methods from statistics and economics: fixed effects to separate the contribution of device, operator and site from that of the member; repeat visits to estimate how much of an observed change is real; and natural experiments. The work is painstaking, because an error we miss gives a member the wrong result.

Finding a problem is half the job. When a check flags something, you do not pass it down the line. You work across clinical operations, engineering, device and site teams to find the root cause, see the fix through, and confirm it held.

The next step is a system that runs checks like these on every measurement, connects each problem to the teams involved, and measures whether the fix worked. You will set the direction for that effort: which measurements to work on first, what the system should cover, how it fits into clinical operations, and what team is needed to build it. You will work with leadership of each vertical – clinical, laboratory, operations, etc. - to make sure your insights get translated into practice.

This role requires a highly specific combination of skills: someone who knows how to diligently comb through observational data for signal, while also being able to see the big picture implications of small details in the data. Because of this, you will have a unique view into Neko’s core operations and be well positioned to make major impacts within the company.

What you'll deliver in the first 6-12 months

• Decide which measurements to work on first, and make the case for that order to clinical and engineering leadership (Chase 10X, not 10%).

• Build the first quality checks on a priority set of measurements, separating device, operator and site effects from real member variation, and use repeat visits to show how much of an observed change is real (Optimistic truth seeking).

• Find and confirm real quality problems that a physical audit would miss, such as a drifted device, an inconsistent operator or a wrong lab value, then work with the teams involved to fix each one at source and confirm the fix held (Member-first, always).

• Define what the always-on quality system should cover, how it connects to clinical operations, engineering and sites, and how we measure whether each fix worked (Tech-enabled, human-centred).

Responsibilities

• Own the statistical and econometric approach to clinical quality across Neko's measurements, devices, operators and sites.

• Own each quality problem from detection to resolution: bring together the clinical, engineering, device and site teams involved, agree the fix, and verify it worked.

• Work with large, messy, observational health data: scan measurements, repeat visits, second readings and follow-up test results.

• Use fixed effects, repeat measurement and natural experiments to separate real member change from device, operator and site variation.

• Check every estimate against the outcomes we later observe, and say plainly how much confidence a result carries.

• Work and code alongside the engineers who run Neko's production systems, so that checks move from analysis into the live system.

• Communicate results to clinicians, engineers and the leadership team in terms each can act on.

• Set the direction and scope of the clinical quality system, including how it fits into clinical operations and what team it needs.

Requirements

• PhD in a quantitative field, such as economics, statistics or a related discipline.

• 3–5 years post-PhD finding signal in observational data, with a track record of asking where variation comes from.

• Deep experience with messy, real-world data, including cleaning and assembling datasets yourself.

• Strong applied methods: fixed effects, panel and repeated-measures data, and natural experiments, with a working sense of when each holds and when it does not.

• Comfortable writing production-quality analysis code and working directly with engineers who run production systems.

• Obsessive attention to detail, and the habit of distrusting your own estimates until they are checked.

• Able to explain a result clearly to a clinician, an engineer or the leadership team, and to bring them together around a fix.

Preferred

• Experience with health or clinical data.

• Experience of team leadership

• Experience with measurement error, calibration, inter-rater reliability or quality control in any setting.

• Experience turning analysis into a system that runs continuously.