Senior Data Scientist - AI Engineering - Clinical Applications

BioSpace; Lexington (MA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Novo Nordisk in Lexington, MA seeks a Senior Data Scientist I to advance AI/ML for drug development. You will develop and validate LLM-based solutions, enable software engineering for AI products, and collaborate with data scientists and AI engineers to deliver robust data-driven insights.

You will mentor junior researchers, stay current with GenAI trends, and contribute to data pipelines, RAG, and knowledge bases. Strong Python, Azure Databricks, and transformer/PEFT experience are required.

Responsibilities

• Develop and validate LLM-based solutions for content retrieval, generation, summarization and inference in healthcare and drug development.
• Enable and assist in software engineering for AI products: architect services, design APIs, build backend systems, and integrate with frontend applications while meeting performance, safety, privacy & ethics requirements.
• Build and maintain data solutions including vector databases, embedding pipelines, and knowledge bases to support RAG and document understanding.
• Collaborate with other data scientists to design, code, train, test, deploy, and iterate on ML systems.
• Explore model-driven reasoning via prompt engineering, model fine-tuning (supervised, LoRA, PEFT), and optimization methods.
• Create technical documentation, runbooks, and training materials for model usage and maintenance.
• Achieves objectives with a high degree of self-sufficiency.
• Collaborate with engineers and other disciplines to complete daily tasks.
• Actively participate in cross-functional teams to develop AI/ML solutions.
• Stay current on GenAI/LLM research, best practices and roadmaps.
• Contribute to Novo Nordisk’s therapy areas with domain knowledge.

Job description

About The Department

Our Research & Development organization brings together the best minds in life science innovation. The teams located in facilities in Lexington, Watertown, Cambridge and Plainsboro reflect the full R&D continuum, from early research through late-stage clinical development. Here, we are building for the future, creating a distinct R&D community based on collaboration, partnerships, and cutting-edge research across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas. We recognize that improving human health starts here and that patients rely on us. Our R&D hub merges biotech speed and agility with large pharmaceutical company quality, resources, and stability, uniting the best of both worlds to develop new medicines for patients.

About The Department

Our Research & Development organization brings together the best minds in life science innovation. The teams located in facilities in Lexington, Watertown, Cambridge and Plainsboro reflect the full R&D continuum, from early research through late-stage clinical development. Here, we are building for the future, creating a distinct R&D community based on collaboration, partnerships, and cutting-edge research across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas. We recognize that improving human health starts here and that patients rely on us. Our R&D hub merges biotech speed and agility with large pharmaceutical company quality, resources, and stability, uniting the best of both worlds to develop new medicines for patients.

The Position

The Senior Data Scientist I will contribute to the research team's effort towards exploring and creating new technology and being a world leader in data science within our fields. The Senior Data Scientist I will bring elements of data collection, preparation and engineering as well as software engineering in a data science context. The Senior Data Scientist I will develop and validate algorithms and models in support of data science efforts with a high degree of initiative and self-sufficiency. Moreover, the Senior Data Scientist will guide more junior Data Scientists in the execution of their tasks.

Relationships

The Senior Data Scientist I reports to the Associate Director of the Clinical AI development area. Internal partners include fellow Data Scientists, AI Engineers, and System Architect – see 'System Architects' who serve as primary day-to-day collaborators in the design and delivery of AI/ML solutions. The role also works closely with medical professionals, clinical trial squad members, and biostatisticians to ensure that solutions are grounded in clinical context and meets the needs of drug development workflows.

Essential Functions

Develop and validate LLM-based solutions for content retrieval, generation, summarization and inference applied to healthcare and drug development challenges

Enable & assist in software engineering for AI products: architect services, design APIs, build backend systems, and integrate with frontend applications while meeting performance, safety, privacy & ethics requirements.

Build and maintain requisite data solutions , including vector databases, embedding pipelines, and knowledge bases to support retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and document understanding

Collaborate with other data scientists to design, code, train, test, deploy, and iterate on machine learning systems

Explore model-driven reasoning through the application of prompt engineering, model fine-tuning techniques (supervised, LoRA,PEFT, etc.), and optimization methods (quantization, distillation, caching) as part of day-to-day development work.

Create technical documentation, runbooks, and training materials for model usage and maintenance.

Accomplishes objectives with a high degree of self sufficiency

Collaborate with other Data Scientists, as well as engineers from other disciplines to complete daily tasks

Actively participates in cross-functional teams to develop AI and ML solutions

Stay current on GenAI/LLM research, best practices and technology roadmap

Achieves business goals, shares learnings, knowledge and skills and promotes cross-functional teamwork.

Raise the level of competency in the team by seeking and sharing domain knowledge in the area of Data Science, as well as Novo Nordisk’s therapy areas

Physical Requirements

0-10% overnight travel required.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree required. Master’s degree, or PhD is preferred. Degree within subject matter expertise preferred

A Bachelor’s degree with 5+ years’ relevant experience, OR Master’s Degree with 3+ years’ relevant experience, OR PhD with no experience can be considered

Hands on experience with Azure Databricks

Experience working in LLM and generative AI domain: model selection, system design, fine-tuning (supervised, LoRA, PEFT, etc.), prompt engineering, evaluation, observation, etc.

A foundational understanding of deep/reinforcement learning models and architectures such as transformers, GANs, VAEs, etc.

Experience in designing agentic solutions to tackle problems in healthcare, with considerations on evaluation and harnessing.

Proven programming skills in Python and familiarity with data science and ML tooling (e.g., Jupyter Notebook, HuggingFace, PyTorch)

Experience building data pipelines and retrieval systems (vector databases, embedding pipelines, knowledge bases) to support RAG, Graphs, and document understanding workflows

Ability to execute own Data Science tasks while mentoring more junior Data Scientists in the development of their skills.

Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Detail oriented with strong documentation skills.

Ability to develop and implement sound technical solutions to complex problems.

Ability to work independently and in teams, and to collaborate with external parties.

Preferred Experience Includes

Experience in pharmaceutical industry, healthcare industry, regulated medical device development or in another regulated field.

Experience in deploying agentic solutions to tackle problems in healthcare.

Familiarity with CI/CD best practices, cloud-based distributed systems, containerization, and test automation, particularly in stateful LLM system designs

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.

At Novo Nordisk, we're not chasing quick fixes – we're creating lasting change for long-term health. For over 100 years, we've been driven by a single purpose: to defeat serious chronic diseases and help millions of people live healthier lives. This dedication fuels our constant curiosity and inspires us to push the boundaries of what's possible in healthcare. We embrace diverse perspectives, seek out bold ideas, and build partnerships rooted in shared purpose. Together, we're making healthcare more accessible, treating and defeating diseases, and pioneering solutions that create change spanning generations. When you join us, you become part of something bigger – a legacy of impact that reaches far beyond today.

Novo Nordisk is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal laws, rules or regulations.

If you are interested in applying to Novo Nordisk and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply, please call us at 1-855-411-5290. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.