Senior Principal Data Scientist, Agentic AI

Sanofi • Waltham, MA

1d

About The Position

As Agentic AI Senior Principal Scientist in 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. The position provides scientific leadership and cross-functional collaboration to implement agentic AI workflows in bioinformatics, nucleic acid design, protein AI models, and viral strain surveillance, and supports the development of AI agents for Translational Data Science workflows.

The role combines scientific research, advanced technology, and strategic leadership. It advances AI-driven computational design and develops practices and capabilities that can be industrialized and scaled across Research, CMC, Translational, and Clinical contexts. The position is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Structural Biology, Computer Science, or a closely related quantitative discipline, plus 5 or more years of experience in drug development, molecular design, computational biology, or a related quantitative field in pharmaceutical, biotech, or technology environments; alternatively, a Ph.D. in one of these fields plus 3 or more 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, and protein structure prediction and design.
• Experience developing, productionizing, and deploying AI and machine learning models applied to molecular property prediction.
• 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.
• Familiarity with cloud-based computational infrastructure such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Fluency in English; French is a plus.
• Postdoctoral training.
• Strategic thinking and business acumen, including the ability to translate scientific vision into executable roadmaps and communicate priorities to stakeholders.
• Cross-functional collaboration experience at the interface of R&D, digital, and CMC functions.
• Strong communication, presentation, and scientific writing skills, including the ability to explain complex computational concepts to diverse audiences, including non-technical executives.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute Vaccines R&D agentic AI strategy, leading adoption of workflows in bioinformatics, nucleic acid design, protein AI models, and viral strain surveillance.
• Champion development and deployment of AI and machine learning methods, including autonomous AI agents, multi-step reasoning systems, and large language model workflows, to accelerate computational design.
• Collaborate with R&D, Digital, CMC, and Clinical teams so 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 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 their R&D activities.

Benefits

• Health and wellbeing benefits, including high-quality healthcare, prevention, and wellness programs.
• At least 14 weeks of gender-neutral parental leave.
• Opportunities for career growth, including promotion or lateral moves, domestically or internationally.
• Mentoring and international mobility programs.
• Opportunity to grow across four continents.
• Potential eligibility to participate in company employee benefit programs.

What This Job Offers

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