Associate Director Data Science

Novartis; London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A global healthcare company based in London is seeking an Associate Director of Data Science to lead data methodologies applied to patient-level data. The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. in a quantitative field and experience in clinical drug development. Responsibilities include analyzing clinical trial data and using machine learning techniques to support drug development decisions. Join us to drive breakthroughs in patient care and improve lives.

Qualifications

• Experience in clinical drug development, especially clinical trials.
• Strong knowledge of statistical methods such as time-to-event analysis, mixed-effects, and Bayesian methods.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.

Responsibilities

• Lead data science methodologies applied to patient-level data across clinical development.
• Contribute to planning, executing and communicating exploratory analyses.
• Perform hands-on analysis of integrated clinical trial and real-world data.

Skills

Proficiency in Python

Statistical Analysis

Data Visualization

Machine Learning

Data Science

Education

Ph.D. in data science, biostatistics, or a related quantitative field

Tools

R

Apache Spark

Job description

Job Description Summary

- Understands complex and critical business problems from various stakeholders and functions. Formulates integrated analytical approaches to mine data sources, employs statistical methods and machine learning algorithms to address unmet medical needs, discover actionable insights, and automate processes to reduce effort and time for repetitive tasks. Manages the definition, implementation, and adherence to the data lifecycle of enterprise data—from acquisition or creation through enrichment, consumption, retention, and retirement—ensuring the availability of clean, accurate data throughout its useful lifecycle. Demonstrates high agility to work across different business domains. Integrates business presentations, visualization tools, and storytelling to communicate findings clearly and impactfully to business users. Independently sets strategy, manages budgets, and ensures appropriate staffing and project coordination within the area. If managing a team, empowers members, provides guidance, and coaches with limited oversight from senior managers.

Job Description

Our Development Team is guided by our purpose: to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives. We are optimizing processes, investing in new technologies, and building therapeutic and platform capabilities to bring medicines to patients faster. We seek talented individuals like you to join us and help give people with disease and their families a brighter future. Apply today and thrive together!

The Role

As an Associate Director of Data Science in the Medical Affairs Advanced Quantitative Sciences group, you will lead data science methodologies applied to patient-level data—clinical, real-world, and biomarker data—across clinical development. You will combine your expertise in data science and AI with your scientific knowledge in biology or medicine to support drug development decisions in collaboration with internal and external partners.

Key Accountabilities:

• Contribute to planning, executing, interpreting, validating, and communicating exploratory analyses and algorithms to facilitate decision-making.
• Provide technical expertise in data science and machine learning/AI to identify opportunities influencing internal decisions and regulatory discussions.
• Perform hands-on analysis of integrated clinical trial and real-world data to generate evidence supporting decision-making in drug development.

Your Experience

• Ph.D. in data science, biostatistics, or a related quantitative field (or equivalent).
• Experience in clinical drug development, especially clinical trials.
• Strong knowledge of statistical methods such as time-to-event analysis, machine learning, meta-analysis, mixed-effects and longitudinal modeling, Bayesian methods, variable selection techniques (e.g., lasso, elastic net, random forest), and clinical trial design.
• Proficiency in R and Python programming, with skills in data visualization, exploratory analysis, and predictive modeling.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Ability to prepare and deliver clear presentations for decision-making contexts.

Why Novartis: Join us to help people with disease and their families. Collaborate, support, and innovate to achieve breakthroughs that change lives. Learn more: https://www.novartis.com/about/strategy/people-and-culture

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: We strive to build an inclusive environment reflecting the patients and communities we serve.

Join our Novartis Network: Not the right role? Sign up to stay connected: https://talentnetwork.novartis.com/network

Skills Desired: Apache Spark, AI, Big Data, Data Governance, Data Literacy, Data Management, Data Quality, Data Science, Data Strategy, Data Visualization, Machine Learning, Python, R, Statistical Analysis