Research Scientist

Research Scientist Costa Mesa, CA Job Details Full-time $125,000 - $150,000 a year 1 day ago Benefits Health insurance Dental insurance 401(k) Parental leave Vision insurance Employee discount Employee stock ownership plan Life insurance Qualifications Collaborate with healthcare professionals Research design Version control MATLAB Data preprocessing Image processing Computer Science Neuroscience Research manuscripts Scientific publications Technical documentation R PET scan Biomedical Engineering Scientific and medical presentations experience Doctoral degree in neuroscience Data quality management Doctoral degree in Computer Science Analysis skills Quality control documentation Doctor of Philosophy Neuroimaging Statistical modeling Psychology Supervised learning Experimental design Participating in conferences Predictive analytics Research data analysis Doctoral degree in psychology Data validation Metadata Clustering Implementing machine learning algorithms Unsupervised learning Senior level Ph.D. in Psychology Cross-validation Dimensionality reduction Model evaluation Communication skills Technical Proficiency Python Cross-functional communication Metadata management Data Science Full Job Description Join the Leader in Brain and Mental Health At Amen Clinics Inc./Mindworks Innovations Inc., our vision is bold: to be known as the best brain and mental health company in the world. Every member of our team plays a vital role in making that vision a reality—delivering exceptional care, advancing innovation, and changing lives every day. About Mindworks Innovations, Inc. & Amen Clinics, Inc.: At Amen Clinics, Inc./Mindworks Innovations Inc., we're proud to be an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) company. That means every employee is also an owner, sharing in the success and growth of the organization. As part of our team, you won't just be contributing to our mission — you'll be building long-term value for yourself and your future. Ownership isn't just a benefit here; it's a mindset we bring to everything we do. Amen Clinics are outpatient health care clinics that have been providing mental wellness strategies to patients of all ages since 1989. We offer patient-first experiences and customized solutions to an array of behavioral and psychiatric conditions. Amen Clinics employs an array of healthcare professionals across our nationwide locations, including psychiatrists, integrative physicians, nutritionists, therapists, and wellness coaches. These practitioners have diverse educational backgrounds and specialties and are skilled at treating patients in the least harmful, most effective means possible. We use all the tools available to us to help make brain health happen. We believe that a better brain always leads to a better life and that achieving our mission will help to prevent and alleviate suffering, not only for individuals but also for generations of individuals.

Job Description and Purpose:

We are seeking a PhD-level Research Scientist to support advanced neuroimaging research focused on functional brain imaging in psychiatric and neurobehavioral conditions. This position emphasizes the analysis of SPECT brain imaging data, the integration of clinical and behavioral measures, and the development of reproducible statistical and machine-learning workflows that support both scientific discovery and clinically meaningful translation. The successful candidate will contribute to a multidisciplinary research environment involving clinicians, scientists, and technical teams. Responsibilities include neuroimaging data processing, statistical modeling, predictive analytics, scientific communication, and the development of reproducible pipelines and documentation. This role is well-suited for an independent and collaborative researcher with expertise in neuroimaging methods, psychiatric research, and quantitative analysis.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Neuroimaging Data Processing and Quality Control

• Organize, preprocess, and curate SPECT functional brain imaging datasets across multiple psychiatric and neurobehavioral populations.
• Perform routine and advanced quality control procedures, including artifact detection, scan validity review, and dataset integrity checks.
• Maintain standardized workflows for imaging data and associated clinical, cognitive, and behavioral metadata.
• Generate clean, analysis-ready datasets and clear quality control documentation. 2. Neuroimaging Analysis
• Conduct voxelwise and region-of-interest neuroimaging analyses using SPM-style methods, including spatial normalization, smoothing, statistical contrasts, and group comparisons.
• Design and execute analyses to evaluate brain perfusion patterns across diagnostic groups, symptom dimensions, and other clinically relevant subgroups.
• Identify neuroimaging biomarkers and clinically meaningful signal patterns associated with psychiatric symptoms, diagnosis, and outcomes.
• Produce interpretation-ready outputs, including statistical maps, summary tables, effect size estimates, and visualizations. 3. Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics
• Develop and evaluate predictive models linking imaging-derived features to outcomes such as diagnosis, symptom profiles, treatment response, or other clinically relevant endpoints.
• Apply supervised and unsupervised learning approaches, including classification, clustering, dimensionality reduction, and related methods.
• Perform model validation using appropriate approaches such as cross-validation, hold-out testing, and performance metric evaluation.
• Contribute to feature engineering strategies that integrate imaging data with clinical, demographic, and behavioral measures.
• Support model interpretability efforts to improve scientific and clinical usefulness. 4. Research Design, Documentation, and Reproducibility
• Translate scientific and clinical questions into analysis plans, structured experiments, and reproducible workflows.
• Maintain clear documentation of methods, code, datasets, and decision points to support replication and internal review.
• Follow best practices in version control, workflow organization, and reproducible research.
• Support privacy-aware data handling and adherence to applicable research and compliance standards. 5. Scientific Communication and Publication
• Prepare publication-quality figures, tables, and written summaries of research findings.
• Contribute to manuscripts, conference abstracts, posters, presentations, and internal scientific reports.
• Communicate technical findings clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, including research and clinical stakeholders.
• Participate in scientific discussions that help guide interpretation, next steps, and dissemination. 6. Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Work closely with clinicians, research coordinators, data scientists, and data engineers in a clinical research environment.
• Provide scientific input on the interpretation of imaging findings in the context of psychiatric and neurobehavioral conditions.
• Contribute to team discussions regarding research priorities, analytic strategy, workflow refinement, and translational opportunities.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• PhD in neuroscience, neuroimaging, biomedical engineering, psychology, data science, biostatistics, computer science, or a related quantitative or biomedical field.
• Demonstrated experience in neuroimaging research, including image processing and statistical analysis.
• Experience with functional brain imaging data, ideally including SPECT, PET, or MRI/fMRI.
• Proficiency in one or more scientific programming languages such as Python, MATLAB, or R.
• Experience with neuroimaging analysis tools or frameworks such as SPM, FSL, AFNI, Nilearn, or related platforms.
• Experience applying statistical modeling and/or machine learning methods to biomedical or imaging data.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including scientific writing and presentation.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary research setting. Preferred Qualifications
• Experience working with psychiatric, behavioral, or clinical neuroscience datasets.
• Familiarity with voxelwise analysis, region-based imaging analysis, and multivariate modeling approaches.
• Experience integrating imaging features with clinical, cognitive, or behavioral measures.
• Knowledge of reproducible research practices, code documentation, version control, and workflow standardization.
• Experience contributing to peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations.
• Familiarity with interpretable machine learning methods and predictive modeling in healthcare or biomedical research.
• Experience working with large, multi-site, or real-world clinical datasets. Key Competencies
• Strong analytical and quantitative reasoning.
• Scientific rigor and attention to detail.
• Commitment to reproducibility and data quality.
• Clear and effective communication.
• Collaborative and cross-functional mindset.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines in a research environment.

Physical / Working

Conditions

• Primarily office- or computer-based work.
• May require prolonged periods of data analysis and computer use.
• Onsite + hybrid, travel as necessary to conferences.

Why Join Us This role offers the opportunity to contribute to clinically relevant neuroimaging research at the intersection of psychiatry, brain imaging, and predictive analytics. The position is ideal for a researcher who wants to work with real-world functional brain imaging data, collaborate across scientific and clinical teams, and help advance translational research with meaningful patient impact.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions:

• Ability to lift 50 lbs.
• Sitting for extended periods of time.
• Frequent typing and viewing of the computer screen.
• Frequent use of hands and fingers with machines, such as computers, copiers, fax machines, scanners, and telephones.
• Frequent hearing, listening, and speaking by telephone, video, and in person.
• Occasionally standing, walking, reaching with hands and arms, and stooping or bending.

Work Environment:

The work environment described here is representative of those encountered by an employee while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions:

• Work indoors in a temperature-controlled environment.
• The noise level is usually moderate.

Pay:

$125,000.00 - $150,000.00 per year

Benefits:

401(k) Dental insurance Employee discount Health insurance Life insurance Parental leave Vision insurance

Work Location:

Hybrid remote in Costa Mesa, CA 92626