Head of Clinician Science

Company: Abridge
Location: San Francisco
Posted on: April 2, 2026

Job Description:

About Abridge Abridge was founded in 2018 with the mission of powering deeper understanding in healthcare. Our AI-powered platform was purpose-built for medical conversations, improving clinical documentation efficiencies while enabling clinicians to focus on what matters most—their patients. Our enterprise-grade technology transforms patient-clinician conversations into structured clinical notes in real-time, with deep EMR integrations. Powered by Linked Evidence and our purpose-built, auditable AI, we are the only company that maps AI-generated summaries to ground truth, helping providers quickly trust and verify the output. As pioneers in generative AI for healthcare, we are setting the industry standards for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems. We are a growing team of practicing MDs, AI scientists, PhDs, creatives, technologists, and engineers working together to empower people and make care make more sense. We have offices located in the Mission District in San Francisco, the SoHo neighborhood of New York, and East Liberty in Pittsburgh. The Role Abridge's clinical credibility is built on ensuring our AI outputs are clinically meaningful, contextually appropriate, and trustworthy to physicians across specialties and workflows. The Clinician Science team sits at the heart of this mission, serving as the essential bridge between cutting-edge AI and the complex realities of medical practice. We are hiring a Head of Clinician Science to lead and grow our team of clinician scientists embedded across R&D product teams. You will ensure that clinical expertise shapes product direction from day one, that AI outputs reflect real-world clinical workflows and medical best practices, and that our quality standards are grounded in what actually matters to practicing physicians. This role reports to the VP of Product and works in close partnership with ML Science, Product Management, Design, and our Commercial clinical teams. What You’ll Do Lead and grow the Clinician Science team. Recruit, develop, and manage a team of clinician scientists with diverse specialty expertise. Foster a culture of clinical rigor, intellectual curiosity, and cross-functional collaboration. Ensure clinical excellence across product development. Partner with product teams to embed clinical expertise into feature discovery, design, and validation. Translate clinical workflows and best practices into actionable product requirements. Define and uphold clinical quality standards. Establish frameworks for what "clinically meaningful" means across specialties, note types, and workflows. Guide the team in evaluating note quality, prompt iterations, and model outputs through LFD sessions and systematic assessments. Build scalable clinical evaluation systems. Partner with ML Science to develop LLM judges, annotation frameworks, and evaluation pipelines that scale clinical expertise. Ensure evaluation methodologies reflect real-world clinical judgment, not just technical metrics. Bridge clinical and technical domains. Serve as a translator between clinical reality and ML/engineering capabilities. Help engineers and ML scientists understand clinical nuance; help clinicians understand technical constraints and opportunities. Close the feedback loop with Commercial. Partner with Clinical Success and Solutions Consulting to surface real-world usage insights, customer feedback, and quality issues. Ensure product development stays grounded in how clinicians actually use Abridge. Represent clinical perspective in Builder strategy. Participate in roadmap planning, feature prioritization, and cross-pod alignment discussions. Be the voice of clinical credibility in product decisions. What You’ll Bring Active clinical background. MD, DO, NP, PA, or equivalent clinical degree with 3 years of clinical practice experience. Board certification preferred. You understand the daily realities of documentation burden, specialty-specific workflows, and what makes a note clinically useful. Management experience. 3 years managing technical or clinical teams. Track record of recruiting, developing, and retaining high-performing individuals. Technical fluency with AI/ML. Strong understanding of NLP, LLMs, prompt engineering, and model evaluation. You don't need to be an ML researcher, but you can speak credibly with ML scientists about model architecture, evaluation methodologies, and quality measurement. Experience with clinical informatics, health IT, or AI in healthcare strongly preferred. Product sensibility. Experience working in cross-functional product teams. Comfortable translating clinical insights into product requirements and prioritizing work that drives meaningful impact. Systems thinking. Ability to design scalable processes and frameworks—not just provide one-off clinical input. You think about how to embed clinical expertise into systems, not just individual decisions. Strong communication and influence. Comfortable presenting clinical perspectives to technical and non-technical audiences. Skilled at building relationships across functions and earning trust from engineers, ML scientists, product managers, and customer-facing teams. Pragmatic problem-solver. Bias toward action and iteration. Comfortable with ambiguity and able to make progress even when clinical "gold standards" don't exist. Bonus Points If… You have completed a fellowship or advanced training in clinical informatics, health IT, or biomedical informatics. You have research experience in NLP, clinical decision support, or AI for healthcare, with published work in peer-reviewed venues. You have worked at a health tech company, EHR vendor, or AI healthcare startup in a product or applied research role. You have expertise in a high-priority specialty. You have experience designing clinical evaluation frameworks, annotation pipelines, or quality measurement systems. You have worked with large health systems on EHR optimization, clinical documentation improvement, or ambient AI pilots. You can code (Python, SQL) and are comfortable working with data, running basic analyses, or prototyping evaluation scripts. Why Work at Abridge? At Abridge, we’re transforming healthcare delivery experiences with generative AI, enabling clinicians and patients to connect in deeper, more meaningful ways. Our mission is clear: to power deeper understanding in healthcare. We’re driving real, lasting change, with millions of medical conversations processed each month. Joining Abridge means stepping into a fast-paced, high-growth startup where your contributions truly make a difference. Our culture requires extreme ownership—every employee has the ability to (and is expected to) make an impact on our customers and our business. Beyond individual impact, you will have the opportunity to work alongside a team of curious, high-achieving people in a supportive environment where success is shared, growth is constant, and feedback fuels progress. At Abridge, it’s not just what we do—it’s how we do it. Every decision is rooted in empathy, always prioritizing the needs of clinicians and patients. We’re committed to supporting your growth, both professionally and personally. Whether it's flexible work hours, an inclusive culture, or ongoing learning opportunities, we are here to help you thrive and do the best work of your life. If you are ready to make a meaningful impact alongside passionate people who care deeply about what they do, Abridge is the place for you. How we take care of Abridgers: Generous Time Off : 14 paid holidays, flexible PTO for salaried employees, and accrued time off for hourly employees Comprehensive Health Plans : Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage for all full-time employees and their families. Generous HSA Contribution : If you choose a High Deductible Health Plan, Abridge makes monthly contributions to your HSA. Paid Parental Leave : Generous paid parental leave for all full-time employees. Family Forming Benefits: Resources and financial support to help you build your family. 401(k) Matching : Contribution matching to help invest in your future. Personal Device Allowance : Tax free funds for personal device usage. Pre-tax Benefits: Access to Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Commuter Benefits. Lifestyle Wallet : Monthly contributions for fitness, professional development, coworking, and more. Mental Health Support : Dedicated access to therapy and coaching to help you reach your goals. Sabbatical Leave : Paid Sabbatical Leave after 5 years of employment. Compensation and Equity : Competitive compensation and equity grants for full time employees. and much more! Equal Opportunity Employer Abridge is an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants equally without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or disability. Staying safe - Protect yourself from recruitment fraud We are aware of individuals and entities fraudulently representing themselves as Abridge recruiters and/or hiring managers. Abridge will never ask for financial information or payment, or for personal information such as bank account number or social security number during the job application or interview process. Any emails from the Abridge recruiting team will come from an @ abridge.com email address. You can learn more about how to protect yourself from these types of fraud by referring to this article . Please exercise caution and cease communications if something feels suspicious about your interactions.

Keywords: Abridge, North Highlands , Head of Clinician Science, IT / Software / Systems , San Francisco, California