Vertex Fall Co-op 2026, Data Technology & Engineering for Research

Vertex Pharmaceuticals•Boston, MA

1d•$30 - $50•Onsite

About The Position

The Vertex Data Technology & Engineering for Research Co-Op program is a 6-month experiential training program for students currently working towards an advanced degree in Computer Science or Life Sciences, or other related fields. If you are passionate, collaborative, and growth-minded, a co-op at Vertex will help you gain meaningful experience in our DTE functional areas and serve as a launchpad for your career. The application deadline for this role is April 3rd, 2026. Please note that Vertex reviews applications on a rolling basis and reserves the right to close this job posting prior to the listed deadline. DTE RPMS supports Vertex research and preclinical scientists with technology solutions that help us discover and develop new medicines. A critical capability that we are developing, is our ability to provide insights and uncover knowledge through scientific agentic, AI, workflows that can rapidly federate and summarize knowledge across public, commercial, and internal scientific data sources. This co-op position will provide the opportunity to influence Vertex’s AI roadmap by helping us understand our different user personas and their workflow requirements, and in translating those requirements into an agentic AI pilot for a diverse group of stakeholders across Vertex. Ultimately, this pilot will help us evaluate the value and possibility of these scientific agents to augment the capabilities these teams need in order to fuel discovery, generate hypotheses, and understand the competitive landscape. To accomplish the above, this position will first interview stakeholders across our R&D enterprise, with an initial focus on competitive intelligence use cases. These interviews will capture user stories that help Vertex understand what queries and source data these stakeholders require, and how they consume, leverage, and report on that data. Then, the co-op will collaborate with our literature platform lead, software and data engineers, and Research Technology business engagement leads to rapidly translate these user stories into technical requirements. Finally, they will work with these DTE collaborators to design, iterate, and pilot a compelling, agentic AI proof-of-concept, based on these technical requirements.

Requirements

Enrolled in a graduate or Doctoral program in Computer Science or Life Sciences, or another related field
Demonstrated experience (1-2 years) in designing and building agentic workflows
Prior engagement with commercial agentic AI platforms and LLMs (Claude, GTP, Gemini, etc.) focused on life sciences use cases
Capacity to work full-time onsite in Boston, MA
Legal authorization to work in the United States, now and in the future. Please note that Vertex does not provide sponsorship for internships or entry level roles within this part of the organization.
You must be enrolled in an advanced degree program if graduating before December 2026
You must be available to work full-time, 40 hours per week from July – December 2026

Nice To Haves

Deep understanding of public, commercial, and internal scientific data sources, APIs, MCPs, or sematic technologies (e.g. ontologies, knowledge graphs)

Responsibilities

Interview stakeholders across our R&D enterprise, with an initial focus on competitive intelligence use cases.
Capture user stories that help Vertex understand what queries and source data these stakeholders require, and how they consume, leverage, and report on that data.
Collaborate with our literature platform lead, software and data engineers, and Research Technology business engagement leads to rapidly translate these user stories into technical requirements.
Work with these DTE collaborators to design, iterate, and pilot a compelling, agentic AI proof-of-concept, based on these technical requirements.