Capabilities & Insights Analyst - Life Sciences

McKinsey & Company; Gurugram District; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 2,800,000; Full time

Job summary

McKinsey & Company in Gurugram, India, seeks a Life Sciences R&D analyst to benchmark performance across the pharmaceutical value chain, evaluating productivity, timelines, cost, and quality. You will work with international teams and leverage Excel, R, and Generative AI to synthesize insights into client deliverables.

You will collaborate with the Life Sciences CCN, contribute to scoping questions, and support data-driven decisions on development phases, including efficiency improvements and

Qualifications

• Graduate or postgraduate degree in Pharmacy, Life Sciences, or a related field.
• 2+ years of pharmaceutical R&D experience (industry or consulting).
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and quantitative skills with proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Excellent English communication; willingness to travel as needed.

Skills

Analytical skills

Excel proficiency

English communication

R&D knowledge

Generative AI familiarity

Travel willingness

Education

B.Pharm / M.Pharm or Life Sciences

Tools

MS Excel

Generative AI tools

Job description

Who You'll Work With

Driving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work. You are the kind of person who thrives in a high performance/high reward culture - doing hard things, picking yourself up when you stumble, and having the resilience to try another way forward.

In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we'll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities you need to become a stronger leader faster than you ever thought possible. Your colleagues—at all levels—will invest deeply in your development, just as much as they invest in delivering exceptional results for clients. Every day, you'll receive apprenticeship, coaching, and exposure that will accelerate your growth in ways you won’t find anywhere else.

When you join us, you will have:

• Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.
• A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions, all while upholding our unwavering commitment to ethics and integrity. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.
• Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions for our clients. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
• World-class benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.

Your Impact

You will work on Life Sciences R&D topics, with a particular focus on performance benchmarking across R&D functions throughout the pharmaceutical value chain.

You will be evaluating productivity, throughput, timelines, cost, and quality, and helping clients identify opportunities for improvement across development phases, such as reducing timelines or optimizing R&D organizational structures and cross-functional integration.

Your home office will be based in Gurugram, India, as part of our global Life Sciences and Client Capabilities Network. Depending on project requirements, your work may require you to be at the client location.

Your day-to-day work will involve scoping business questions and understanding, disaggregating, and prioritizing information needs across client engagements. Working with international, cross-functional knowledge and intelligence teams, you will solve complex problems and determine solutions while balancing quality, availability, timelines, and cost considerations. You will also leverage Generative AI tools and strengthen your ability to craft effective prompts that enhance analysis and problem solving.

You will generate insights using analytical tools such as Excel, R, and Generative AI by combining licensed third-party data, proprietary McKinsey datasets, external data sources, and primary and secondary research. Leveraging your R&D expertise, you will synthesize findings into actionable insights and communicate them through high-quality client deliverables, including Excel models, memos, and PowerPoint presentations.

The Life Sciences team is part of McKinsey’s global Client Capabilities Network (CCN), a community of more than 3,500 colleagues who deliver distinctive client impact and are driven by a culture of innovation. CCN serves as our platform for advancing the way we support Life Sciences clients through the development of intellectual property, digital assets, and consistent approaches to delivering high-quality client service.

Within the CCN, our Life Sciences team is the firm’s second-largest industry group, with more than 100 professionals across major hubs in Boston, Lisbon, Poland, India, Japan, and China. You will collaborate closely with Life Sciences consultants and the broader team across our global network.

Your Qualifications and Skills

• Graduate or postgraduate degree in Pharmacy (B.Pharm/M.Pharm), Life Sciences, or a related field
• 2+ years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D (industry or consulting)
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and quantitative skills with proficiency in Microsoft Excel
• Experience with benchmarking methodologies, tools, and developing insights through peer-to-peer comparisons is preferred
• Understanding of the drug development lifecycle, particularly Generics (Gx) and Biosimilars, including key R&D concepts such as API characteristics, formulation types, bioequivalence, and molecular complexity
• Ability to quickly learn and apply proprietary tools, software, and Generative AI applications; experience with Generative AI prompting is a plus
• Willingness to travel based on client and internal needs
• Excellent English communication skills with the ability to synthesize and communicate insights effectively