Senior Associate, Data Science & Applied AI

West Pharmaceutical Services • Exton, PA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Associate, Data Science and Applied AI develops AI methods and research applications at the intersection of materials science, biology, and pharmaceutical drug containment and delivery. Working with West R&D scientists, laboratory teams, and AI engineers, this role applies machine learning, generative AI, and scientific computing to accelerate materials characterization, experimental design, biological assessment, and product development. The successful candidate brings deep expertise in either materials science or biology, working knowledge of the other discipline, and demonstrated ability to apply AI to scientific problems.

This is a hybrid position requiring onsite work three days per week. Travel is up to 10%, or 26 business days per year. The role involves sedentary work, sitting most of the time, and occasionally exerting up to 10 pounds of force.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Polymer Science, Biology, Bioengineering, Computational Biology, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related scientific discipline.
• At least 3 years of relevant scientific research, applied AI, or computational-modeling experience; doctoral research may count as relevant experience.
• Demonstrated experience applying AI, machine learning, or advanced statistical methods to materials or biological research.
• Experience working with experimental scientists and translating scientific questions into computational approaches.
• Deep expertise in either materials science or biology, with sufficient knowledge to work across the interface between materials and biological systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python and scientific-computing libraries.
• Knowledge of experimental design, statistical inference, uncertainty quantification, and model validation.
• Ability to distinguish scientifically supportable conclusions from exploratory model outputs.
• Strong technical writing, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, or comparable machine-learning frameworks.
• Experience with materials informatics, bioinformatics, computational biology, chemoinformatics, or molecular modeling.
• Familiarity with polymeric materials, elastomers, coatings, surface science, drug–container interactions, or biocompatibility.
• Experience analyzing spectroscopy, microscopy, mechanical-testing, molecular, assay, or other laboratory datasets.
• Familiarity with large language models, scientific retrieval-augmented generation, and knowledge graphs.
• Exposure to Azure AI Foundry, Azure Machine Learning, Azure OpenAI, or comparable cloud platforms.
• Experience in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, combination products, or regulated research environments.
• Publications, patents, research projects, code repositories, or other evidence of interdisciplinary scientific and AI work.

Responsibilities

• Identify research opportunities where AI can accelerate materials discovery, biological assessment, formulation, testing, or product development.
• Develop machine-learning and statistical models using experimental, materials, biological, imaging, and scientific-literature data.
• Apply AI to polymer and coating performance, structure–property relationships, material–drug interactions, biocompatibility, extractables and leachables, and degradation or stability.
• Build predictive models, scientific knowledge systems, and decision-support tools for scientists and engineers.
• Apply active learning, Bayesian optimization, graph-based learning, computer vision, multimodal modeling, and scientific foundation models.
• Use generative AI and agentic workflows for literature review, patent analysis, hypothesis generation, and research synthesis.
• Partner with laboratory scientists to design experiments that validate model predictions and generate higher-value datasets.
• Integrate structured laboratory data with scientific documents, images, and other unstructured information.
• Quantify model accuracy, uncertainty, generalizability, and scientific limitations.
• Develop reproducible code, data pipelines, evaluation methods, and technical documentation.
• Translate research prototypes into usable tools with AI engineering, D&T, Quality, and R&D teams.
• Communicate findings, assumptions, and recommendations to scientific, technical, and business stakeholders.
• Support intellectual-property development through invention disclosures, technical reports, and patent-related analysis.
• Follow West requirements for data integrity, quality, information security, responsible AI, and scientific rigor.

Benefits

• Volunteer opportunities through West without Borders and other charitable programs.
• Professional growth through training programs, tuition assistance, leadership development, and skill-certification initiatives.
• Opportunities for international exposure and cross-functional collaboration.
• Inclusive and collaborative culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Performance-based bonuses, service recognition, and employee appreciation initiatives.

What This Job Offers

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