Principal AI Scientist in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences

AstraZeneca; Macclesfield; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A global biopharmaceutical company is seeking a Principal AI Scientist in Macclesfield, UK. In this role, you will lead the implementation of innovative AI systems to enhance drug development processes. The ideal candidate will have a PhD in natural sciences, several years of industrial experience, and expertise in generative AI applications. This is an opportunity to shape the future of medicine and improve patient outcomes through advanced technology and collaboration across departments.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Excellent benefits

Opportunity to impact patient care

Qualifications

• PhD in natural sciences required.
• Several years of experience in drug design or development.
• Demonstrated system-level design and platform thinking.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of agentic AI systems.
• Collaborate across scientific and IT teams.
• Foster a culture of innovation in drug development.

Skills

Expert knowledge in generative AI

Project leadership

Excellent communication skills

Domain knowledge in computational chemistry

Education

PhD in natural sciences

Job description

Overview

Do you have the expertise and passion to harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) for drug development in the pharmaceutical industry? Join AstraZeneca and use your expertise to implement ground-breaking methodologies, accelerate digital innovation, and help deliver life-changing medicines to patients worldwide. This isn’t just a role, it’s your opportunity to transform the future of medicine and improve millions of lives.

What we do

AstraZeneca is a global, science-driven Biopharmaceutical business and our innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. Ultimately, our aim is to work towards a cure for some of the world’s most complex diseases. Whether that’s by shaping the patient ecosystem and focusing on outcomes, or by progressing potential medicines and accelerating their launch.

Pharmaceutical Sciences at AstraZeneca delivers the therapies of the future through scientific leadership in drug delivery, design of synthetic routes, and manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and drug products. In essence, we are working “from molecule to medicine” to develop medicines for our patients today and tomorrow.

The Predictive Science, Digital, and Automation (PSDA) department leads the digital transformation of Pharmaceutical Sciences to drive innovation, optimize drug development, and enable data- and predict-first driven decisions. We develop and apply computational chemistry, machine learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methodologies - coupled with user centric informatics for seamless data capture, integration, insight, and prediction. This is coupled with strong leadership and expertise to advance lab and process automation all to accelerate projects.

The role

We are now seeking a Principal AI Scientist to join our team in Cambridge or Macclesfield, UK. This role will be at the heart of driving agentic AI and cross-departmental digital transformation within Pharmaceutical Sciences.

We are looking for a candidate who is experienced in deploying graph-based deep learning and/or agentic AI systems in chemistry, drug delivery and formulation science and is skilled at harnessing and connecting scientific knowledge from complex data. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated success embedding AI solutions within scientific teams, working collaboratively across departments, and navigating a landscape rich in existing and evolving digital platforms.

You’ll leverage your expertise to develop and lead our efforts in implementing agentic AI solutions into predict-first driven drug development workflows, bridge experimental and data science, and work with automation specialists to implement self-learning lab concepts. You will help shape our approach to leveraging AI models, designing orchestration and prompt engineering strategies, and collaborate to ensure we are at the forefront of fundamental AI developments.

Your core responsibilities will include:

• Lead the design and implementation of agentic AI systems to facilitate scientific discovery and drive productivity.
• Deliver agentic AI and generative AI based solutions for drug development tasks.
• Embed within and collaborate across scientific, digitisation, and IT teams to ensure that AI-driven solutions are both impactful and well-integrated into current workflows.
• Represent the group internally and externally, sharing insights on how best to deploy agentic AI to unlock data-driven value within R&D.
• Foster a scientific culture that connects lab innovation with advanced computational methods leading to a predict-first mindset in early drug development.
• Collaborate internally and externally to pursue the development of foundation models for Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC).

Essential requirements for the role

• PhD in natural sciences
• Several years of industrial experience in the field of drug design, pharmaceutical chemistry, or drug development
• Expert knowledge in using generative AI applied to drug design and development (e.g. Graph ML and representation learning; agentic AI and orchestration; scientific data integration)
• Domain knowledge in computational chemistry, chemical informatics, and/or laboratory and data workflows preferred
• Excellent communication skills, written and spoken; self-motivated team player
• Experience in project leadership
• Demonstrated system-level design and platform thinking
• Demonstrated external reputation (e.g. via internationally recognised publication track record)

Why AstraZeneca

At AstraZeneca, we turn ideas into life changing medicines and strive to continuously meet the unmet needs of patients worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big, and working together to make the impossible a reality.

Ultimately, it’s more than a job. We know that our work impacts people with serious conditions, many of whom have no other alternatives. That’s what drives us – the potential to impact over one billion patients worldwide.

Location

Cambridge or Macclesfield UK

Salary

Competitive + Excellent Benefits

So, what’s next?

Are you already imagining yourself joining us? Good, because we can’t wait to hear from you! Welcome with your application; CV and cover letter, no later than 15 February 2026.

Where can I find out more?

Our Social Media,

Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/

Follow AstraZeneca on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/astrazenecacareers/

Follow AstraZeneca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astrazeneca_careers/?hl=en

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That’s why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn’t mean we’re not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

Date Posted 02-Feb-2026

Closing Date 15-Feb-2026

Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.