What is a Data Scientist at Novant Health?

As a Data Scientist at Novant Health, you are stepping into a role that directly impacts patient care, operational efficiency, and the future of healthcare delivery. Novant Health relies on data to drive critical decisions across its vast network of clinics, outpatient centers, and hospitals. In this position, you are not just crunching numbers; you are translating complex clinical and operational data into actionable insights that improve patient outcomes and streamline healthcare operations.

Your work will influence multiple facets of the organization, from predicting patient readmission rates and optimizing staffing models to enhancing the overall patient experience. Because healthcare data is inherently complex, fragmented, and highly sensitive, this role requires a unique blend of technical rigor and deep empathy for the end-user, whether that user is a physician, a clinic manager, or a patient.

Expect to operate in a highly collaborative, cross-functional environment. You will frequently partner with clinical leaders, business stakeholders, and IT teams to frame problems, design analytical solutions, and deploy models that make a tangible difference. This role is ideal for candidates who are motivated by mission-driven work and possess the communication skills necessary to make complex data accessible to non-technical audiences.

Common Interview Questions

The questions below reflect the conversational, scenario-driven nature of Novant Health interviews. They are designed to uncover how you think and collaborate, rather than to test rote memorization.

Behavioral and Experience Questions

These questions assess your past performance, your ability to communicate your value, and your cultural fit.

• Walk me through your resume and highlight the experiences most relevant to this role.
• Describe a project where you had to learn a new tool or technology on the fly.
• Tell me about a time you failed or made a significant mistake on a project. What did you learn?
• How do you handle working with a difficult or uncommunicative stakeholder?
• Describe a time you used data to influence a major business decision.

Hypothetical and Problem-Solving Scenarios

These questions test your judgment, adaptability, and critical thinking in realistic workplace situations.

• If you were tasked with reducing patient wait times in our clinics, what data would you ask for and how would you approach the problem?
• Imagine a scenario where two different departments are asking for conflicting data solutions. How do you prioritize?
• What would you do if you realized halfway through a project that the data you need is highly inaccurate?
• How would you explain a false positive in a predictive model to a physician who is skeptical of AI?

Technical Strategy and Application

These questions evaluate your understanding of data science methodologies and how you apply them to solve actual problems.

• Walk me through the steps you take to clean and prepare a messy dataset.
• Explain the trade-offs between using a simple linear regression versus a more complex ensemble model.
• How do you determine which features to include in your machine learning models?
• Describe how you would validate a model designed to predict patient readmissions.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation for Novant Health requires a balanced approach. While your technical baseline must be solid, recent interview trends indicate a massive emphasis on how you think, communicate, and collaborate.

Role-related knowledge – You must demonstrate a strong command of data science fundamentals, including statistical analysis, machine learning concepts, and data manipulation. Interviewers will evaluate your ability to apply these tools to real-world business and healthcare scenarios rather than just your ability to write syntax on a whiteboard.

Problem-solving ability – You will be tested on how you approach ambiguity. Interviewers want to see how you break down hypothetical workplace scenarios, identify the core issue, and logically structure a path to a solution. You can demonstrate strength here by thinking out loud and asking clarifying questions.

Communication and Soft Skills – This is arguably the most critical evaluation area at Novant Health. You will be assessed on your ability to articulate your past experiences, explain complex technical concepts simply, and engage in a genuine dialogue. Strong candidates treat the interview as a mutual exploration of ideas rather than a rigid Q&A.

Culture fit and Adaptability – Novant Health values teamwork, empathy, and resilience. Interviewers will look for evidence that you can navigate shifting priorities, handle disagreements constructively, and integrate smoothly into a highly collaborative healthcare environment.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Data Scientist at Novant Health is designed to be engaging, conversational, and surprisingly relaxed. Rather than subjecting candidates to high-pressure, rapid-fire technical interrogations, the hiring team prefers a two-step or multi-round conversational format. You will typically start with an initial recruiter or hiring manager screen focused on your background, skillset, and high-level alignment with the role.

Following the initial screen, you will progress to a panel or a series of one-on-one interviews. Candidates frequently report meeting with up to three interviewers, spending about an hour with each. These sessions are highly conversational. Interviewers are equipped to throw in both business and technical scenarios, but the atmosphere is designed to feel like a discussion with future colleagues.

Interestingly, some candidates report tracks with absolutely no formal technical component (like live coding). Instead, the entirety of the evaluation may rest on how you describe your past projects, your soft skills, and your responses to hypothetical workplace scenarios. You must be prepared for both technical strategy questions and deep behavioral explorations.

The visual timeline above outlines the typical progression from your initial application and screening through the core behavioral and scenario-based panel rounds. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you allocate as much time to practicing your personal narrative and behavioral responses as you do to reviewing technical concepts. The process may vary slightly depending on the specific team or clinic location, but the overarching emphasis on communication remains constant.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed at Novant Health, you must understand exactly what the interviewers are listening for. The evaluation leans heavily into your practical experience and your interpersonal capabilities.

Behavioral and Soft Skills

Novant Health places a premium on teamwork, adaptability, and communication. Because you will be interacting with non-technical healthcare professionals, your ability to build trust and convey ideas clearly is paramount. Strong performance here means providing structured, reflective answers that highlight your emotional intelligence and collaborative nature.

Be ready to go over:

• Past Projects and Impact – Detailed walkthroughs of projects you have owned, focusing on your specific role and the ultimate business value.
• Stakeholder Management – How you handle disagreements, manage expectations, and translate technical limitations to business leaders.
• Adaptability – Instances where you had to pivot due to changing requirements or unexpected data issues.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Leading cross-functional data initiatives without formal authority; mentoring junior analysts.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to explain a complex data model to a non-technical stakeholder."
• "Describe a situation where a project's requirements changed abruptly. How did you handle it?"
• "Walk me through your skillset and how it aligns with the needs of a healthcare organization."

Hypothetical Workplace Scenarios

Rather than testing you with abstract brainteasers, interviewers will present hypothetical situations that mimic the day-to-day realities of working at Novant Health. They are evaluating your critical thinking, your approach to problem-solving, and your professional judgment.

Be ready to go over:

• Prioritization – How you decide what to work on when presented with multiple urgent requests from different departments.
• Data Ambiguity – What you do when the data required to solve a problem is missing, dirty, or siloed.
• Team Dynamics – How you would approach a scenario where a colleague is unresponsive or disagrees with your analytical approach.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "If a clinical director asked you to build a predictive model but the underlying data was highly fragmented, what steps would you take?"
• "Imagine you discover a flaw in your model right before a major presentation. How would you handle the situation?"
• "How would you approach a scenario where your findings contradict a senior leader's assumptions?"

Business and Technical Strategy

While you may not face a live coding test, you must still prove your technical competence. Interviewers will assess your technical depth through discussions about how you apply data science to solve business problems. Strong candidates can discuss the architecture, the algorithms chosen, and the trade-offs made during past projects.

Be ready to go over:

• Model Selection and Validation – Why you chose a specific algorithm for a past project and how you validated its accuracy.
• Data Pipeline Understanding – High-level knowledge of how data is extracted, transformed, and loaded (ETL) before it reaches your models.
• Healthcare Domain Application – Connecting data science techniques to specific healthcare outcomes (e.g., predicting no-shows, optimizing bed capacity).
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Deploying models into production environments; navigating HIPAA compliance in data science workflows.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through the technical architecture of the most complex machine learning model you have built."
• "How do you ensure your models remain accurate over time once deployed?"
• "What business or clinical metrics would you track to measure the success of a patient-readmission model?"

Key Responsibilities

As a Data Scientist at Novant Health, your day-to-day work revolves around transforming raw healthcare data into strategic assets. You will be responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of analytical projects. This begins with consulting business and clinical leaders to understand their pain points, whether that involves reducing patient wait times, predicting disease outbreaks, or optimizing supply chain logistics.

Once a problem is defined, you will dive into the data. You will spend a significant portion of your time querying large databases, cleaning messy operational data, and performing exploratory data analysis. From there, you will design, build, and test statistical and machine learning models tailored to the specific use case.

Collaboration is a constant thread in this role. You will work closely with data engineers to ensure the necessary data pipelines are robust, and you will partner with IT to integrate your models into existing clinical workflows or dashboards. A major responsibility is presenting your findings back to the stakeholders, translating your technical outputs into clear, actionable recommendations that drive Novant Health's mission forward.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be a highly competitive candidate for the Data Scientist role at Novant Health, you need a blend of technical proficiency and exceptional interpersonal skills.

• Must-have skills – Fluency in Python or R for data analysis and modeling. Strong SQL skills for complex data extraction. Deep understanding of statistical analysis and core machine learning algorithms (regression, classification, clustering). Exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience level – Typically requires 3+ years of applied data science experience, preferably in an enterprise environment where you have taken projects from ideation to deployment. A strong portfolio of real-world problem-solving is essential.
• Soft skills – High emotional intelligence, adaptability, and a collaborative mindset. The ability to listen actively and tailor your communication style to your audience is non-negotiable.
• Nice-to-have skills – Prior experience in the healthcare sector, particularly working with Electronic Health Records (EHR) or claims data. Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) and data visualization tools (Tableau, PowerBI). Understanding of healthcare regulatory compliance (HIPAA).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will there be a live coding or whiteboard assessment? Based on recent candidate experiences, Novant Health often skips formal, high-pressure live coding tests for this role. Instead, expect deep conversational dives into your past technical work and how you would architect solutions to hypothetical problems. However, you should still be prepared to discuss technical concepts fluently.

Q: What is the culture like for Data Scientists at Novant Health? The culture is highly collaborative, mission-driven, and patient-focused. Interviewers are frequently described as polite, engaging, and eager to have a genuine conversation. The environment values practical, impactful solutions over overly complex, theoretical data science.

Q: How long does the interview process typically take? The process usually spans a few weeks. After an initial screen, you can expect an onsite or virtual panel consisting of roughly three 1-hour interviews. The timeline can vary based on the specific team's urgency and availability.

Q: How important is prior healthcare experience? While prior healthcare experience is a strong "nice-to-have" and will help you navigate domain-specific data faster, it is rarely a strict requirement. If you lack healthcare experience, focus on demonstrating your adaptability and your ability to quickly learn new, complex business domains.

Other General Tips

• Master the STAR Method: Because the interview process is heavily behavioral, structure your answers using the Situation, Task, Action, Result framework. Be sure to emphasize the "Result" and the specific business impact of your work.
• Focus on the "So What?": Novant Health cares about outcomes. When discussing your technical projects, always connect the data science work back to how it improved a process, saved money, or enhanced user experience.

• Prepare for Ambiguity: When given a hypothetical scenario, do not rush to an answer. Take a moment to ask clarifying questions about the data available, the business constraints, and the ultimate goal before outlining your approach.
• Know Your Resume Inside and Out: You will be asked to describe your skillset and past projects in detail. Be prepared to defend every tool, methodology, and outcome listed on your resume.

Summary & Next Steps

Interviewing for a Data Scientist position at Novant Health is a unique opportunity to join an organization where your analytical skills can directly improve human lives. The process is designed to be a mutual exploration, focusing heavily on your ability to communicate, collaborate, and apply data science to real-world, ambiguous challenges.

Your preparation should prioritize crafting a clear, compelling narrative about your past experiences. Practice walking through your projects from end to end, ensuring you can explain both the technical architecture and the business impact. Be ready to engage in thoughtful discussions about hypothetical workplace scenarios, demonstrating your adaptability and your problem-solving mindset.

The compensation data above provides a baseline for what you might expect in this role. Keep in mind that actual offers will vary based on your years of experience, your specific technical depth, and the exact location of the role (e.g., Winston-Salem vs. other hubs). Use this information to anchor your expectations and inform any future negotiation conversations.

You have the skills and the background to succeed in this process. Approach your interviews with confidence, treat your interviewers as future colleagues, and lean into the conversational nature of the evaluation. For more insights, practice questions, and community experiences, be sure to explore additional resources on Dataford. Good luck—you are ready for this!