2027 Future Talent Program - Computer Scientist - Agentic & Augmented Authoring Systems - Co-op

MSD; West Point (PA); On-site; USD 39,000 - 111,000; Part time

Job summary

Merck & Co., Inc. invites a Computer Science Co-op to join the Digital Operations and Innovation team for six months. You will help develop an agentic, augmented authoring system that collects and formats data for nonclinical safety, driving a zero-draft style workflow and AI-driven pipelines.

The role emphasizes Python, NLP, and orchestration with LangChain/LlamaIndex, tool calls, and API integration, partnering with scientists and SMEs to modernize safety reporting through scalable automation.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a PhD in a quantitative field relevant to AI and software engineering.
• Strong Python skills with clean, modular, and well-documented code.
• Experience with LLM APIs, prompt engineering, and orchestration frameworks.
• Ability to work with structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
• Excellent communication to bridge AI development and scientific domains.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement agentic workflows and orchestration pipelines to automate data retrieval, synthesis, and formatting.
• Develop robust Python data extraction pipelines across diverse scientific sources.
• Evaluate and benchmark LLM outputs for accuracy and formatting against templates.
• Translate manual authoring steps into automated, step-by-step agent tools and skills.
• Participate in agile sprints, code reviews, and maintain production-grade documentation on GitHub.

Skills

PhD pursuit in Computer Science

Python programming

Data handling

NLP concepts

Agent-based tooling

LLM APIs

Orchestration frameworks

Collaboration

Education

PhD in Computer Science/Data Science/AI/SE

Tools

LangChain

LlamaIndex

CrewAI

GitHub

AWS/GCP

Vector databases

Job description

Job Description

The Future Talent Program features Co-operative (Co-op) education that lasts up to 6 months and will include one or more projects. These opportunities in our Research and Development Division can provide you with great development and a chance to see if we are the right company for your long-term goals.

Nonclinical Drug Safety (NDS) helps advance high-quality drug candidates into development by defining the nonclinical safety and selectivity of lead compounds. NDS employees evaluate Lead Op candidates and preclinical toxicity of drug development candidates, providing a mechanistic understanding of drug-induced toxicity and assessing implications for human safety. NDS provides collaborative research in animal model development, veterinary medical and animal care, and research facility management. NDS also responds to regulatory questions in support of drug registration.

The Digital Operations and Innovation (DOI) team within NDS Operations comprises a talented group of data scientists dedicated to leveraging scientific and operational data to reduce administrative burden, improve the findability and accessibility of data, and discover and implement innovative applications of AI to modernize and advance our business.

Position Overview

We seek a talented and motivated Computer Science Co-op to join our team for a six-month role. This position will contribute to our efforts to develop an agentic, augmented authoring system supporting Nonclinical Drug Safety (NDS). The goal of this effort is to drive towards a “zero-draft” process that retrieves, combines, and formats key data from structured, semi-structured, and unstructured sources into a consistent template for our scientists. The ideal candidate will actively participate in regular sprints to design and refine agents, propose creative solutions to agent-based workflows, and work closely with scientific and operational SMEs. In this role, you will be a valued contributor to a visible and necessary effort aimed at modernizing how nonclinical safety fulfills its critical role in the development of safe medicines for our patients. Your work will help produce stable, reliable, and consistent AI-driven pipelines that accelerate our reporting timelines and build technology at the cutting edge of our field. The ideal candidate will have experience with the principles of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in addition to agent-based concepts including orchestration frameworks (such as LangChain, CrewAI, LlamaIndex, or equivalent), tool calling, and API integration. Strong Python coding and documentation skills are essential. Familiarity with AWS and Google services, GitHub, LLMs, and vector databases is an additional advantage. Familiarity with nonclinical drug safety, report authoring, and summarization is a strong advantage.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement agentic workflows and orchestration pipelines to automate the retrieval, synthesis, and formatting of nonclinical safety data.
• Develop robust data extraction pipelines in Python to parse and clean structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data from diverse scientific sources.
• Evaluate and benchmark LLM outputs for accuracy, formatting consistency, and alignment with strict nonclinical reporting templates.
• Collaborate closely with fellow data scientists and scientific SMEs to translate manual document‑authoring steps into automated, step-by‐step agent tools and skills.
• Participate in agile sprints, contribute to team code reviews, and maintain clean, production‑grade documentation via GitHub.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, or a highly quantitative, research-focused field.
• Programming: Strong proficiency in Python programming with a focus on clean, modular, and well‑documented code.
• Data structures: Solid understanding of data structures and proficiency in manipulating structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
• AI & Orchestration: Hands‑on experience working with LLM APIs, prompt engineering, agentic tool use, and orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, etc.).
• Problem Solving: Strong analytical and research skills, particularly when dealing with noisy, unstructured, or ambiguous data sources.
• Collaboration: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to bridge the gap between technical AI development and scientific domains.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with vector databases and document embedding techniques.
• Experience with text processing, OCR, and principles of NLP and NLP evaluation (ROUGE, BLEU, etc.).
• Experience with cloud services (AWS/GCP) and version control using Git/GitHub.
• Exposure to building lightweight developer UIs and dashboards for analytics and prototype/demo usage.

What You’ll Gain

• Cutting‑Edge Experience: Deep, hands‑on experience building and deploying production‑grade LLM agents and advanced Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines.
• Highly Valued Domain Knowledge: Practical knowledge of how to navigate enterprise data engineering and AI development within a secure, highly regulated healthcare environment.
• Real‑World Impact: A clear understanding of how modern generative AI accelerates drug safety reporting, directly shortening timelines to bring life‑saving medicines to patients.

What We Offer

• Hands-on experience with cutting‑edge AI and cloud technologies
• Mentorship from experienced data scientists and software engineers
• Collaborative and inclusive team environment
• Potential for future full‑time opportunities with our Company

Please note that this position may be closed before the posted end date or may remain open longer, at the discretion of the company.

Salary range: The salary range for this role is $39,108 through $111,111.

FTP2027 RL2027

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only

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Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

Employee Status: Intern/Co-op (Fixed Term)

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Job Posting End Date: 10/9/2026*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.