Director, R&D AI, Insights & Analytics

Scorpion Therapeutics; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base

Bonus

Equity

401(k) match

ESPP (2-year lock-in)

Vacation and holidays

Job summary

Scorpion Therapeutics in San Diego seeks a leader to drive data, analytics, AI, and insights across R&D to transform drug development.

You will define roadmaps, govern data, build platforms, and partner with IT. The role requires 10+ years in R&D analytics and familiarity with regulated data standards; travel required.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in R&D analytics/data strategy/clinical development analytics/AI or digital transformation.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the R&D insights, analytics, AI, and data capability roadmap.

Skills

Data governance

Cloud platforms

AI/ML

R&D analytics

Leadership

Strategic planning

Education

Bachelor’s degree (Data Science, CS, Engineering, Life Sciences)

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Databricks

Snowflake

Microsoft Fabric

AWS

Azure

Job description

Position Summary

Lead the strategy and execution of data, analytics, AI, and insights capabilities across the R&D organization to transform how data is leveraged throughout the drug development lifecycle.

Primary Responsibilities

• Define and execute the R&D insights, analytics, AI, and data capability roadmap.
• Lead R&D data governance (ownership, stewardship, ontology, metadata, lineage, business glossary, data quality, FAIR, semantic consistency).
• Establish consistent definitions, metrics, semantic standards, and data quality expectations.
• Partner with Enterprise IT/data engineering on modern R&D data platforms (data lake, lakehouse, cloud).
• Provide expertise for architecture/platform/technology/vendor evaluations (scalability, security, interoperability).
• Build and operationalize clinical development benchmarking (study start-up, enrollment, site performance, cycle times, data quality).
• Develop dashboards, predictive analytics, and decision-support for enrollment, site selection, trial execution, and portfolio oversight.
• Identify and implement AI/ML/predictive analytics/intelligent automation opportunities to accelerate trials.
• Translate R&D use cases into scalable products with Enterprise AI/IT.
• Lead assessments, process/capability mapping, gap analysis, and future-state roadmaps.
• Collaborate across R&D functions to identify high-value data/analytics opportunities.
• Manage vendors/partners for analytics and transformation initiatives.
• Present strategies and progress to senior leadership.

Qualifications/Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, CS, Engineering, Life Sciences, or related (advanced degree preferred). 10+ years in R&D analytics/data strategy/clinical development analytics/AI or digital transformation.
• Pharmaceutical/biotech/life sciences experience; strong drug development lifecycle knowledge.
• Data governance leadership; experience with data lake/lakehouse/cloud strategies.
• Working knowledge: Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, AWS, Azure; semantic layer and metadata/catalog tools.
• Experience with clinical performance metrics/benchmarking and dashboards.
• AI/ML and predictive analytics; process mapping/capability assessments/gap analyses.
• Regulated R&D and clinical data standards: GxP, CDISC, SDTM, ADaM, FHIR.
• Ability/willingness to travel domestically/internationally.

Benefits (US-based Employees)

• Competitive base, bonus, equity; medical/dental/vision; employer-paid life/disability/business travel/EAP; 401(k) match 1:1 up to 5%; ESPP (2-year lock-in); 15+ vacation days; 13-15 paid holidays; 10 days paid sick time; paid parental leave; tuition assistance.