Senior Scientific Software Engineer – Production Data Platforms

Merck & Co.; Rahway (NJ); Hybrid; USD 117,000 - 184,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

401(k) retirement plan

Paid holidays

Job summary

Merck & Co. in Rahway, NJ seeks a Senior Specialist, Scientific Software Engineer to drive software and data engineering across scientific workflows. You will design scalable platforms, build backend services and APIs, and lead data pipeline development to ensure reliable, analytics-ready data across the portfolio.

Collaborate with IT, security, and vendor teams to deliver enterprise-grade solutions. You will translate complex scientific needs into durable software, mentor junior staff, and help

Qualifications

• Ph.D. or MS/BS with relevant industrial/pharmaceutical experience as stated above.
• Strong software development experience; production-grade apps, backend services, and APIs using Python or similar languages.
• Experience scaling, hardening, and modernizing tools; distributing software across enterprise.
• Data engineering expertise: ETL/ELT pipelines, data models, data products, databases, data warehouses or data lakes.
• Experience integrating instrument software and laboratory data systems via APIs/SDKs/file interfaces.
• Knowledge of software engineering best practices: Git, testing, code review, CI/CD.
• Ability to translate complex scientific needs into robust software and communicate clearly.

Responsibilities

• Provide software and data engineering to build, scale, and sustain scientific and automation solutions from prototype to production.
• Design and build reusable platforms, backend services, and APIs to unify instrument and lab data.
• Lead data product development, design/operate pipelines and data models for analytics-ready data.
• Collaborate with IT, security, governance, and vendor teams to deploy solutions in production.
• Own end-to-end delivery: architecture, development, testing, deployment, and rollout; promote best practices.

Skills

Analytical Acumen

Big Data

Computer Science

Data Engineering

Data Format

Data Ingestion

Data Lake

Data Modeling

Data Pipelines

Data Science

Dataset Management

Data Standards

Data Structures

Intellectual Curiosity

Manufacturing Scale-Up

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or related field

MS in Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or related field with at least 2 years industrial/pharmaceutical experience

BS in Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or related field with at least 4 years industrial/pharmaceutical experience

Job description

Merck & Co. in Rahway, NJ seeks a Senior Specialist, Scientific Software Engineer to drive software and data engineering across scientific workflows. You will design scalable platforms, build backend services and APIs, and lead data pipeline development to ensure reliable, analytics-ready data across the portfolio.

Collaborate with IT, security, and vendor teams to deliver enterprise-grade solutions. You will translate complex scientific needs into durable software, mentor junior staff, and help