Senior Principal Data Scientist, Agentic AI

Sanofi • Waltham, MA

3d • $148,500 - $214,500

About The Position

As Agentic AI Senior Principal Scientist within Sanofi’s Vaccines R&D Data and Computational Sciences (DCS) organization, this role defines and executes the Agentic AI strategy for computational design across the vaccine development portfolio. It is a scientific leadership and cross-functional collaboration position focused on implementing agentic AI workflows across bioinformatics, nucleic acid design, protein AI models, and viral strain surveillance, while also supporting AI agents for Translational Data Science workflows.

The role applies advanced AI and computational methods to vaccine research and development, working at the intersection of science, technology, and strategic leadership. It collaborates with R&D, Digital, CMC, and Clinical teams to make computational design outputs actionable and aligned with downstream development needs, and develops practices and capabilities that can be scaled across research and development contexts.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Structural Biology, Computer Science, or a closely related quantitative discipline, with 5+ years of experience in drug development, molecular design, computational biology, or a related quantitative field in pharmaceutical, biotech, or technology environments; alternatively, a PhD in one of these fields with 3+ years of such experience.
• At least 3 years of demonstrated scientific contribution or R&D work.

Nice To Haves

• Deep expertise spanning at least two of bioinformatics and genomics, nucleic acid sequence design, or protein structure prediction and design.
• Experience developing, productionizing, and deploying AI and machine learning models applied to molecular property prediction.
• Demonstrated experience with autonomous AI systems, large language models, or AI agents applied to scientific research or drug discovery workflows.
• Fluency in scientific computing with Python and R, and familiarity with cloud-based computational infrastructure such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Fluency in English; French is a plus.
• Postdoctoral training.
• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen, with ability to translate scientific vision into executable roadmaps and communicate priorities to stakeholders.
• Exceptional cross-functional collaboration skills and experience at the interface of R&D, Digital, and CMC functions.
• Outstanding communication, presentation, and scientific writing skills, including ability to explain complex computational concepts to diverse audiences, including non-technical executives.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the Vaccines R&D agentic AI strategy, implementing and leading adoption across bioinformatics, nucleic acid design, protein AI models, and viral strain surveillance.
• Leverage and contribute to Sanofi’s enterprise AI infrastructure; champion development and deployment of AI and machine learning methods, including autonomous AI agents, multi-step reasoning systems, and large language model workflows.
• Drive collaboration with R&D, Digital, CMC, and Clinical teams to ensure computational design outputs are actionable, integrated, and aligned with downstream development needs.
• Establish and enforce best practices for code generation, software engineering, data governance, model validation, and reproducibility across computational workflows.
• Explore autonomous workflows for scientific computing, data analysis, and application development, and build internal capabilities that can be industrialized and scaled across Research, CMC, Translational, and Clinical contexts.
• Build a community of agentic AI experts to harmonize practices across the broader DCS organization.
• Mentor scientists in adopting AI-assisted workflows for R&D activities.

Benefits

• Health and wellbeing benefits, including high-quality healthcare, prevention, and wellness programs.
• At least 14 weeks’ gender-neutral parental leave.
• Mentoring and international mobility programs.
• Opportunities for career growth and promotion or lateral moves, including internationally.

What This Job Offers

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