Senior Expert, Data Science – Immuno-Oncology & Hematology

Key Skills

Data science techniques, Java Programming, Large scale data processing, Leadership, Machine learning techniques, Python Programming, R Programming, SQL, Terabyte scale datasets

Job Description

The Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) is Novartis’ innovation engine, focusing on powerful new technologies that have the potential to help produce therapeutic breakthroughs for patients. Within NIBR, the Immuno-Oncology & Hematology (IOH) department is dedicated to developing and deliver cutting-edge therapies to benefit patients with cancer and blood disorders.

We are seeking an experienced data scientist/ computational biologist/bioinformatician to join the IOH Data Science team to support the drug discovery process with a focus on gene therapy approaches and non-malignant hematology programs. In this very collaborative environment, this position will engage in a wide range of exploratory and translational research activities and will drive target and biomarker discovery through data curation, visualization, and computational analysis. This scientist will play a key role in providing computational expertise and leadership to the department and in facilitating collaborations between IOH investigators and other NIBR data science groups.

The ideal candidate should be an independent, creative, and flexible scientist, a highly motivated and open-minded team player that communicates clearly and effectively, and a continuous learner. The successful candidate will translate intricate biological questions into computational analyses with interpretable results and has a strong understanding of omics data and data science and machine learning methodologies.

This is a unique opportunity to contribute to drug development to deliver innovative new therapies to patients with cancer and non-cancerous blood disorders.

In this role you will:

• Interrogate large-scale omics datasets, including single-cell data, to answer research questions and drive target and biomarker discovery.
• Show leadership towards the IOH non-malignant hematology data science activities with a focus on gene therapy approaches.
• Help build computational infrastructure that facilitates sustainable development of computational tools, storage and integration of large datasets, and simultaneous query of multiple datasets.
• Make oral and written updates in team meetings routinely, communicating key findings to both computational and experimental biologists.
• Document analysis code and results in electronic lab notebooks and contribute to scientific publications.
• Keep abreast of newly published methods in machine learning and computational biology.

Diversity & Inclusion / EEO

The Novartis Group of Companies are Equal Opportunity Employers and take pride in maintaining a diverse environment. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. We are committed to building diverse teams, representative of the patients and communities we serve, and we strive to create an inclusive workplace that cultivates bold innovation through collaboration and empowers our people to unleash their full potential.

Minimum Requirements

What you’ll bring to this role:

• M.Sc./Ph.D. degree in computational biology, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, computer science, statistics, applied math, or a related discipline.
• Solid scientific programming skills in Python, R or related languages.
• Prior experience analyzing omics data, including (epi)genomic data, to answer biological questions strongly preferred, must be demonstrated by the completion of projects.
• A strong working knowledge of biology, ideally with relevant hematology knowledge, preferred.
• Be comfortable independently interacting with project teams, execute computational analyses, troubleshoot, and keep detailed documentation.
• Experience employing machine learning models to interrogate omics data preferred.

Why consider Novartis?

769 million. That’s how many lives our products touch. At Novartis, being there when and how it matters most for our patients and customers allows us to live our purpose and help bring maximum impact to health outcomes.

Furthering our commitment to transforming medicine for patients, Novartis is embarking on an ambitious and exciting journey to reinvent how we use technology, data and customer insights to better serve our consumer’s needs and put them on a path to better health. This includes taking bold approaches that begin with a customer-centric mindset and harness the power of today’s digital and data-driven healthcare revolution to continue to improve and extend even more people’s lives.

Do you want to help people understand their disease and how to seek out the proper treatment for it?

Do you want to support patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes?

Do you want to deliver a leading customer experience at all touchpoints?

Do you want to be at the forefront of leveraging today’s technology advances to create tomorrow’s healthcare innovations?

We believe the answers are found when curious, adventurous, and collaborative people like you are brought together in an inspiring environment. Where you’re given opportunities to utilize the power of digital and data to individualize and maximize interactions with customers. Where you’re empowered to not fear failure when taking smart risks. And most importantly, where you’re surrounded by people who share your determination to tackle the world’s toughest medical challenges.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse team’s representative of the patients and communities we serve.