--- title: 'Medical Scientific Annotation Specialist at Black Canyon Consulting' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/medical-scientific-annotation-specialist-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-vzank9eek18z' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-23' --- # Medical Scientific Annotation Specialist at Black Canyon Consulting - **Company:** Black Canyon Consulting - **Location:** Bethesda, MD - **Posted:** 2024-11-04 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-23 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting/jobs/6262925003 ## Job description ## Overview Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is seeking highly qualified Medical Scientific Annotation Specialists to support a critical NIH research initiative focused on modeling sepsis progression using multimodal clinical data from MIMIC-IV. This role will support the development of a high-quality annotated clinical reference set by reviewing and refining clinical events and their timing within patient records. Annotators will work with clinical notes and, where applicable, structured electronic health record (EHR) data to determine when clinically meaningful events occurred and assess the certainty of those timestamps. The project will also evaluate the use of large language models (LLMs) to assist with clinical annotation. Ideal candidates will have a strong clinical background, experience interpreting complex patient records, and familiarity with sepsis and critical care. Purpose The primary aim of this project is to improve the temporal characterization of sepsis progression by creating a certainty-aware annotated reference set that can be used to evaluate unimodal and multimodal approaches to clinical timeline construction. Annotators will help identify and validate clinically meaningful events, determine their timing, distinguish certain from uncertain timestamps, and assess the clinical evidence supporting event timing. Roles & Responsibilities - Training & Onboarding Participate in remote project training and onboarding, including: - Annotation guidelines and protocols. - Clinical event and timestamp annotation procedures. - Use of the project's annotation and visualization tools. - Required CITI training and secure environment access. - Calibration exercises prior to production annotation. - Clinical Annotation - Review clinical documentation from patients with sepsis and identify clinically meaningful events related to disease progression and patient care. - Review and correct draft events and candidate timestamps generated through the project's annotation workflow. - Apply the project's defined event schema consistently across assigned records. - Temporal Event Validation - Determine when clinical events occurred based on available documentation. - Classify timestamps as certain when supported by an explicit time or unambiguous temporal anchor. - Identify uncertain timestamps when timing must be inferred from clinical context, judgment, or supporting structured data. - Resolve temporal expressions such as "overnight," "earlier today," or "worsening over several hours" using available evidence. - Multimodal Clinical Review - Review structured EHR information, when provided, to support or refine the timing of events described in clinical notes. - Evaluate relevant clinical signals such as vital signs, laboratory trends, interventions, vasopressor initiation or escalation, urine output, ventilator settings, and other indicators of patient deterioration. - Document whether timing evidence is supported by notes only, structured data only, or a combination of notes and structured data. - Quality Control & Adjudication - Participate in pilot calibration and double-annotation activities. - Review annotation disagreements and participate in adjudication as needed. - Follow versioned annotation guidelines and incorporate updates resulting from calibration and adjudication. - Maintain consistent annotation quality across production batches. - Support targeted quality assurance for uncertain timestamps, discrepancies between narrative and structured data, and high-risk clinical transitions. - Communication - Participate in regular project meetings and annotation discussions. - Raise ambiguous cases or guideline questions for team review. - Incorporate feedback and guideline updates throughout the annotation effort. - Collaborate with other annotators and project team members to maintain consistency across the reference dataset. Required Skills - Clinical training and demonstrated ability to interpret complex patient records. - Familiarity with sepsis, acute organ dysfunction, and clinical deterioration. - Ability to interpret clinical notes, vital signs, laboratory results, interventions, and other EHR information. - Strong clinical reasoning and attention to detail. - Ability to interpret temporal information within clinical documentation. - Ability to consistently apply detailed annotation guidelines. - Comfort working with digital annotation tools and structured clinical data. - Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a distributed team environment. Education & Experience Required - Advanced degree or professional certification in a clinical field, such as MD, DO, PA, NP, or RN with relevant clinical experience. - Experience reviewing and interpreting clinical documentation and patient records. ## Benefits and Salary We attract the best people in the business with our competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage, 401k plan with employer contribution, paid holidays, vacation, and tuition reimbursement. We offer a competitive salary commensurate with experience and location. If you enjoy being a part of a high performing, professional service and technology focused organization, please apply today! ## About Black Canyon Consulting ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is a privately held, woman-owned small business that delivers innovative program and IT management support services to federal research and development programs. - **Entity Type**: Private (Woman-Owned Small Business, SBA-certified WOSB) - **Headquarters**: Fairfax, Virginia, United States - **Founded**: 2017 [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/) - **Founders**: Manish Salhotra (Managing Director, Co-Founder) and Haley Esser (Principal / CEO) [sba.gov](https://dsbs.sba.gov/search/dsp_profile.cfm?SAM_UEI=WB3LFMA4KM45) | [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-canyon-consulting-llc) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Federal IT consulting and program management support for life sciences, bioinformatics, tool development, and environmental sciences. - **Target customers**: U.S. federal government agencies (e.g., NIH, HHS) and other R&D-focused organizations. - **Mission/purpose**: “Integrity, Impact, Innovation” – providing agile, adaptive, customer-focused support to advance national missions. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/) ## Products & Services - **Program Management Support**: Strategic and tactical program oversight, administrative management, and consulting for federal R&D initiatives. - **IT Management Support**: Custom computer programming, systems design, cloud engineering, DevOps, data engineering, AI/ML, and cybersecurity services. - **Proprietary Technologies**: BCC leverages its own IT system tools, workflows, and a distributed network of consulting resources to deliver turn-key enterprise solutions. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/) - **GSA Schedule Holder**: Contract #47QTCA18D00JA, providing a streamlined procurement vehicle for federal clients. [gsaelibrary.gsa.gov](https://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/home.do/contractorInfo.do?contractNumber=47QTCA18D00JA&contractorName=BLACK+CANYON+CONSULTING+LLC&executeQuery=YES) ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly available (private company). - **Key Metric**: Annual revenue not disclosed; total funding not applicable (bootstrapped / organic growth). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: No external investors; key certifications include WOSB, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 20000-1:2018, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, FISMA compliance, and SOC readiness. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/) - **Growth Signals**: LinkedIn reports 42 employees (+75% year-over-year growth), 65 active job postings on Greenhouse, and a +50% increase in job postings monthly/quarterly. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-canyon-consulting-llc) | [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting) ## Competitive Advantages - **Certified Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB)**: Provides set-aside contracting advantages in the federal market. - **Deep Federal R&D Focus**: Over 125 years of combined experience in supporting NIH and other research programs. - **Compliance & Security**: Holds multiple ISO certifications and FISMA, NIST, and PCI-DSS compliance, enabling work on sensitive government systems. - **Agile Delivery**: Proprietary workflows and IT tools allow rapid, high-value execution for complex program needs. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/) ## Strategic Focus - **Current priorities**: Expanding support for NIH bioinformatics, data platforms (e.g., DailyMed, RxNorm, SRA), and AI/LLM initiatives. Actively hiring for roles like AI/ML Specialist, FHIR API SME, and Platform DevEx Engineer. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting) - **Growth direction**: Continuing to secure federal contracts, growing the consulting workforce, and deepening capabilities in cloud, DevOps, and data science. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Emphasizes “Integrity, Impact, Innovation” with a collaborative, mission-driven environment focused on supporting national research priorities. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/) - **Work location**: Most roles are based in Bethesda, Maryland (NIH campus) or Fairfax, Virginia. Remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated but likely on-site or hybrid given federal client requirements. - **Notable perks**: Opportunity to work on high-impact federal R&D programs (e.g., NIH’s National Library of Medicine), professional growth in a rapidly expanding company (75% YoY headcount growth), and exposure to cutting-edge technologies (AI, cloud, bioinformatics). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-canyon-consulting-llc) - **Engineering culture**: Strong focus on software development, DevOps, data engineering, and AI/ML. Teams are organized into divisions like Software Engineering, Platform & DevOps, and Information Engineering. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting) ## Sources 1. [bccdc.net](https://www.bccdc.net/) 2. [greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/blackcanyonconsulting) 3. [sba.gov](https://dsbs.sba.gov/search/dsp_profile.cfm?SAM_UEI=WB3LFMA4KM45) 4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-canyon-consulting-llc) 5. [gsaelibrary.gsa.gov](https://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/home.do/contractorInfo.do?contractNumber=47QTCA18D00JA&contractorName=BLACK+CANYON+CONSULTING+LLC&executeQuery=YES) ## Other roles at Black Canyon Consulting - [Senior Program Manager – Strategic Planning & Analytics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-program-manager-strategic-planning-analytics-black-canyon-consulting-3d7cx1d6yrgy) — Bethesda, MD - [Contracts & Legal Operations Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/contracts-legal-operations-specialist-black-canyon-consulting-bcc-q62403brefnw) — Bcc - [Embedded Systems Engineer (Medical Devices)](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-systems-engineer-medical-devices-black-canyon-consulting-ashburn-w18ke9nmmb2r) — Ashburn, VA - [QA Analyst (CTG)](https://feeny.ai/job/qa-analyst-ctg-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-snwnzqn23b1k) — Bethesda, MD - [Front-End Technical Lead – Wagtail CMS](https://feeny.ai/job/front-end-technical-lead-wagtail-cms-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-3yarp4nfjvnw) — Bethesda, MD - [Full Stack Developer – Wagtail CMS](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-developer-wagtail-cms-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-6px5ydn9hsg7) — Bethesda, MD - [Senior Windows Systems Administrator](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-windows-systems-administrator-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-rm7ttb762h8n) — Bethesda, MD - [Computational Biologist (SRA Bioinformatics)](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-biologist-sra-bioinformatics-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-7tmwwbc53sva) — Bethesda, MD - [Junior/Mid Full Stack Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/junior-mid-full-stack-software-engineer-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-3mfn5d4a5338) — Bethesda, MD - [Systematic Review Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/systematic-review-analyst-black-canyon-consulting-bethesda-ry1se1hxn6sy) — Bethesda, MD