Scientific Informatics Lead – Chemistry ELN

Cognizant; Foster City (CA); On-site; USD 132,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

Paid holidays plus PTO

401(k) plan and contributions

Long-term/Short-term Disability

Paid Parental Leave

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Scientific Informatics Lead in Foster City, CA to drive chemistry-focused ELN and data management initiatives across discovery and development. You will translate workflows into scalable platform capabilities and own end-to-end delivery, including testing and deployment.

The role requires deep chemistry domain knowledge and hands-on ELN tooling experience (Dotmatics, BIOVIA, Benchling, IDBS) with scripting (Python/SQL) and API access.

Qualifications

• Domain expertise in medicinal, synthetic, process chemistry or discovery research.
• Hands-on experience with chemistry-focused ELN or scientific informatics platforms.
• Knowledge of chemical structures, stoichiometry, registration and data traceability.
• Gathers requirements, configures workflows, tests, and supports releases.
• Leads platform oversight and guides stakeholders beyond end-user tasks.
• Experience with Signals Notebook, BIOVIA/IDBS/Benchling or similar ELN platforms is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead requirements discovery for chemistry experiments and data.
• Translate workflows into user stories, data mappings, and specs.
• Provide senior oversight for ELN config, testing, and deployment.
• Design capture, structure management, registration and traceability workflows.
• Guide integrations with registration, inventory, assays and data systems.
• Lead migration, data validation, reporting and platform upgrades.
• Coordinate chemists, informatics teams, security, and vendors.
• Develop SOPs, training, release notes and documentation.
• Ensure compliance with data integrity, security and regulatory needs.
• Provide roadmap planning and ongoing platform improvement.

Skills

Chemistry domain knowledge

Platform leadership

Requirements discovery

Cross-functional coordination

Education

Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Chemistry or Life Sciences

Tools

Dotmatics Chemistry/ELN

Python

SQL

REST APIs

Signals Notebook

BIOVIA ELN

IDBS

Benchling

PerkinElmer ELN

Job description

At Cognizant, our global community sets us apart—an energetic, collaborative and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. And with projects at the forefront of innovation, you can build a varied, rewarding career and draw inspiration from dedicated colleagues and leaders. Cognizant is right where you belong.

Job Summary

We are seeking a Scientific Informatics Lead to lead chemistry-focused Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) and scientific data management solutions across discovery, medicinal, synthetic, and process chemistry functions. This role will translate complex laboratory workflows into reliable, scalable, and user-friendly platform capabilities. The ideal candidate will combine strong chemistry domain knowledge with hands-on experience in Dotmatics Chemistry/ELN or comparable scientific informatics platforms. This position requires platform leadership, cross-functional coordination, and end-to-end ownership of requirements, configuration, testing, deployment, and operational support.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead requirements discovery for chemistry experiments, reactions, compounds, samples, inventory, analytical results, and scientific reporting.
• Translate medicinal, synthetic, process, and discovery chemistry workflows into user stories, functional specifications, data mappings, and acceptance criteria.
• Provide senior oversight for ELN configuration, workflow design, platform enhancements, testing, deployment, defect resolution, and user support.
• Design and optimize experiment and reaction capture, chemical structure management, stoichiometry, compound registration, and data traceability workflows.
• Guide integrations with compound registration, inventory, assay, analytical, laboratory instrument, and downstream scientific data systems.
• Lead migration, data validation, reporting, and integration activities associated with chemistry-focused ELN platforms.
• Coordinate chemists, scientific informatics teams, validation, security, infrastructure, product owners, and technology vendors.
• Develop and maintain SOPs, training materials, test evidence, release notes, workflow documentation, and operational procedures.
• Ensure platform enhancements meet scientific, data integrity, security, regulatory, and operational requirements.
• Provide technical and functional leadership beyond standard ELN end-user support, including roadmap planning and continuous platform improvement.

Qualifications:

• Strong domain experience in medicinal chemistry, synthetic chemistry, process chemistry, chemical development, or discovery research.
• Hands-on experience with Dotmatics Chemistry/ELN or a comparable chemistry-focused ELN or scientific informatics platform.
• Strong understanding of experiment and reaction capture, chemical structures, compound registration, stoichiometry, analytical results, inventory, and scientific data traceability.
• Experience gathering requirements, configuring scientific workflows, conducting functional testing, supporting defect triage, and managing controlled releases.
• Proven ability to provide platform leadership, solution oversight, and stakeholder guidance beyond basic ELN end-user responsibilities.
• Experience with Signals Notebook, BIOVIA ELN, IDBS, Benchling, PerkinElmer ELN, or similar platforms is preferred.
• Familiarity with Python, SQL, REST APIs, scientific data integrations, platform migrations, and reporting is desirable.
• Experience supporting pharmaceutical R&D, life sciences, laboratory informatics, or regulated research environments is preferred.
• Bachelor's, Master's, or doctoral degree in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Life Sciences, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.

Applications will be accepted until 23 Oct 2026.

Salary and Other Compensation:

The annual salary for this position is between $[132,000 -155,000] depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.

Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

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