Principal Data Scientist (AI-assisted Clinical Development)

Roche • Boston, MA

4d • $169,100 - $314,000 • Onsite

About The Position

This role is based in the Innovation Accelerator (IA) team, the innovation engine and connective tissue for Design, Data and Data Science innovation strategy within Product Development Data Sciences (PDD). We translate our long-term PDD vision into actionable strategy, shaping and prioritizing innovative cross-functional use cases that span PDD, PD, and Pharma. As both integrators and incubators, we explore, prototype, and help productize solutions to deliver impact in close partnership with internal Roche teams and external collaborators. With a mindset rooted in openness, value creation, and adaptability, we navigate the innovation ecosystem to drive transformative impact and future readiness across the organization. The IA Principal Data Scientist plays a pivotal role in building and deploying AI/ML-powered digital solutions that transform how we develop medicines. You will partner closely with product managers, software engineers, and UX researchers to design, test, and scale statistical capabilities that unlock actionable insights from clinical, operational, and real-world data. With a strong product-thinking mindset and deep technical fluency, you will help create intelligent tools that are scalable, ethical, and built for impact in regulated healthcare environments.

Requirements

• Master’s or PhD in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Bioinformatics, or a related field
• 6+ years of experience applying advanced statistical and ML techniques in biomedical, clinical, or digital health domains
• Proven expertise in model development, simulation studies, and decision-support frameworks
• Strong hands-on experience with Python or R, and ML libraries such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar
• Track record of translating complex domain questions into robust statistical models or ML systems
• Experience building pipelines for training, evaluating, and deploying ML solutions in production environments
• Demonstrated expertise with RWD, Bayesian methods, decision theory, high-dimensional data, or causal inference
• Attention to detail and quality work with an ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects simultaneously, including both long-term and short-term initiatives
• Excellent collaboration skills, including statistical consulting skills, interpersonal skills to contribute effectively in cross-functional team settings, ability to influence others without authority, and ability to build strong collaborative relationships with scientific and non-scientific partners
• Capacity for independent thinking and ability to make decisions based upon sound principles
• Excellent strategic agility including problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and agility that extends beyond technical domain
• Respect for cultural differences when interacting with colleagues in the global workplace
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, specifically in the areas of presentation and writing, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts in clear language

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading technical design or mentoring junior team members
• Experience applying Agile software development practices, ideally for a product embedding statistical algorithms and/or GenAI
• Experience prototyping and launching innovative data science or AI products
• Experience deploying ML models in compliant, regulated environments
• Experience developing evidence synthesis models or methods (e.g., network meta-analysis) and/or approaches to construct data-driven priors for drug development
• Experience with Bayesian computing or probabilistic programming languages (PPLs), including Stan, PyMC, brms, or others
• Experience with AI-native software engineering practices
• Familiarity with data governance, privacy, and regulatory frameworks relevant to ML in pharma
• Exposure to multiple stages of the pharma development life cycle (e.g., early development, assessment of external molecules for business development, commercialization)
• Familiarity with cloud-native ML architectures, ML Ops tools, or real-world data pipelines
• Strong publication record or external visibility in scientific communities

Responsibilities

• Support or lead the development and application of advanced statistical and machine learning methods for integration into tools and software products in clinical development and decision-making support
• Design and productize the execution of simulation studies to evaluate innovative trial designs and statistical frameworks
• Translate complex scientific and operational considerations into software requirements that productize model development and usage, collaborating with domain experts to productize the validation of assumptions and result interpretation
• Independently drive exploratory analysis of complex clinical, biomarker, and operational data to extract insights and develop predictive models
• Develop scalable, reproducible pipelines for data processing, model training, evaluation, and deployment in regulated environments
• Optimize model performance, ensure algorithmic fairness, proactively mitigate bias or drift in deployed systems, and develop evaluation approaches for algorithms including generative AI (GenAI) components
• Co-lead the architectural design of ML and GenAI systems supporting traceability, compliance, and explainability
• Partner with software engineering, product, UX, and science teams to integrate models into real-world user applications
• Contribute to scientific leadership by publishing and presenting novel methodologies in high-impact venues, both internal and external
• Serve as a best-practice resource for statistical modeling strategies, code quality, and responsible AI principles
• Lead or co-lead cross-functional data science efforts that impact portfolio strategy and delivery

Benefits

• Relocation assistance is not available
• A discretionary annual bonus may be available based on individual and Company performance.
• This position also qualifies for the benefits detailed at the link provided below.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal