Senior Scientist – Research Engineering

Eli Lilly and Company • San Diego, CA

1d • $66,000 - $193,600

About The Position

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world. Lilly is a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our 45,000+ employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them. At Lilly, the Investigative ADME, Toxicology and Bio-Analytical Research team focuses on drug discovery using cutting-edge science and technology approaches to treat diseases with poor treatment options. We are seeking a Senior Scientist to lead our Research Engineering efforts and reimagine the digital infrastructure of drug discovery. In this role, you will be the Technical Lead behind the "Operating System" for ADMET Intelligence. You will act as the bridge between AI/ML experts, wet lab operations, and discovery projects, architecting the scalable engines that transform raw experimental data into predictive "driving directions" for our scientists. Geography is flexible for this position.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or scientific discipline with 5+ years of full stack development experience (or Master’s with 3+).
• Experience building scalable production applications using Python (i.e. FastAPI) for backend and modern frameworks (i.e. React) for frontend.
• Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1.

Nice To Haves

• Direct experience wrapping AI/ML models into usable products (SageMaker endpoints, LLM tool-use, RAG architectures).
• Strong ability to design and optimize data systems for high-throughput experiments.
• Knowledge of AWS ecosystems (Lambda, S3, Step Functions, DynamoDB) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) in production environments.
• Experience with modern data tools such as Databricks and experience handling complex, structured scientific or diverse datasets.
• Proven ability to mentor junior scientists and influence technical decisions across cross-functional teams.
• History of implementing robust CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure-as-Code
• Experience working in Life Sciences, Biotech, or a similar R&D environment.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement robust, scalable data foundations that streamline scientific data pipelines.
• Lead the design and deployment of modern, cloud-native applications (Python, FastAPI, React) that abstract complex AI predictions into intuitive interfaces, accelerating the Design-Make-Test cycle for bench scientists.
• Set the technical standard for the group: on code quality, CI/CD , and architecture.
• Partner with AI/ML researchers to deploy algorithmic solutions (SageMaker, LLMs) to production. You will translate high-level planning logic into executable API endpoints that integrate seamlessly with lab automation.
• Create automated workflows that ingest complex multi-modal data and deliver real-time insights to program leaders, drastically reducing the cycle time of discovery.
• Serve as the primary technical translator between AI/ML researchers, discovery teams, and IT/Cloud organizations, converting scientific intent into rigorous engineering specifications.

Benefits

• Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance).
• In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).

What This Job Offers

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