Director, Cheminformatics & Data Science for Drug Discovery

Merck & Co.; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 236,000 - 372,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Long‑term incentive

Comprehensive benefits package

Job summary

Merck & Co., Inc. in USA—Massachusetts, Boston area, seeks a Director of Cheminformatics to lead a multi-site team focused on modeling, informatics, and data science for drug discovery.

You will drive capabilities, governance, and platform strategy to accelerate scientific learning and decision‑making. The role emphasizes talent development, inclusive leadership, cross‑functional collaboration with IT, Chemistry, Bioinformatics, and Modeling, and delivering scalable workflows using ML, AI, and

Qualifications

• PhD with 7+ years in computational/data science in drug discovery; MS 9+ years; or BS 13+ years.

Responsibilities

• Set vision and strategy for cheminformatics capabilities and platforms that accelerate scientific learning and decision‑making in drug discovery.
• Leads a multi-site team of cheminformatics and data science specialists across data engineering, analytics, and software development.
• Develops talent, fosters diversity of thought, and builds an inclusive culture engaging all team members.
• Engages stakeholders across the drug discovery spectrum to understand needs and enable impactful solutions.
• Translates scientific challenges into scalable data architectures, workflows, and algorithms for broad reuse across projects.
• Drives next‑gen cheminformatics workflows using ML, knowledge graphs, and emerging AI approaches.
• Ensures capabilities are deployed in collaboration with project teams and modeling partners.
• Builds and maintains partnerships with IT to co‑develop robust platforms for scientific workflows.
• Balances strategic investment in new capabilities with effective use of existing solutions.
• Collaborates with Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Quantitative Biology, and Modeling to align data science strategy.
• Supports cross‑divisional alignment on data science and informatics roles.

Skills

Cheminformatics

Data Science

Machine Learning

Cloud Computing

QSAR

Data Modeling

Model Development

People Management

Drug Discovery

Stakeholder Engagement

Computational Chemistry

Education

BS/MS/PhD in cheminformatics or related STEM

Job description

Merck & Co., Inc. in USA—Massachusetts, Boston area, seeks a Director of Cheminformatics to lead a multi-site team focused on modeling, informatics, and data science for drug discovery.

You will drive capabilities, governance, and platform strategy to accelerate scientific learning and decision‑making. The role emphasizes talent development, inclusive leadership, cross‑functional collaboration with IT, Chemistry, Bioinformatics, and Modeling, and delivering scalable workflows using ML, AI, and