Associate Director, Data Science

Our Research Scientists serve as the driving force behind our Innovations. We identify and target mechanisms or pathways involved in the disease process, and invent novel therapies to address unmet medical needs. This exceptionally COMPLEX task represents one of the most MULTIDISCIPLINARY endeavours in the field.

INNOVATION also thrives at that intersection of multiple disciplines! In this role as an Associate Director, Imaging and Omics AI Analytics Research, you will have the opportunity to work at that intersection of disciplines to shape innovation in biomarker sciences, influence pipeline decisions, and contribute to a research-driven environment with industry-leading expertise. This role is within our Biomarkers & Data Analytics team at our state-of-the-art research laboratory in Biopolis, Singapore.

If you are PASSIONATE about applying your expertise to address critical unmet needs and accelerate the discovery and development of new therapies, we invite you to join us in pioneering the future of biomarker research for the biopharmaceutical industry.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:

• Opportunity to drive AI-ML/data science innovation at the intersection of multiple disciplines by integrating medical and disease biology, imaging & omics technologies, big data and biobanks.

• Opportunities for engaging your innovative & creative mind to experiment with new ideas and approaches.

• A supportive working environment that fosters career growth and continuous learning.

WHAT YOU WILL DO :

You will spearhead the research and development of AI/ML algorithms to analyze multimodal medical images (e.g., MRI, CT, OCT), digital pathology and spatial-omics data, as well as molecular biomarkers and other omics datasets, with the goal of discovering and deploying novel biomarker solutions.

You will shape these efforts by collaborating with cross-functional teams to identify key research questions and develop robust AI/ML pipelines for integration into our applications, enhancing biomarker and data analytics solutions for various diseases, including cardiometabolic, immunological, and neurological conditions.

You will partner with internal teams of experts, external research institutions, and technology vendors to identify and access state-of-the-art AI/ML technologies and drive innovation to achieve significant outcomes. One key aspect of your role will be contributing to the development of reusable software/analytics pipelines that serve as foundational AI/ML capabilities, which can be integrated across various applications.

As a result of these initiatives, you will play a crucial role within the team that harnesses big data (such as Biobank, real-world data, and electronic health records) and data science to support both reverse and forward translation. Your efforts will contribute to transforming insights from medical and disease biology into biomarker solutions that enable decision-making in our drug development programs.

In this role, you will present our AI/ML technology and algorithms to a variety of stakeholders, including project teams, senior management, and external partners. You will also author project proposals and technical reports as part of your responsibilities.

Working at the cutting edge of AI/ML technology for pharmaceutical drug discovery and development offers you the opportunity to present and publish your findings, contributing fresh perspectives and diverse viewpoints that can shape the future of the industry.

WHAT YOU MUST HAVE:

You are required to have a PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Physics or a related discipline, along with over 5+ years of experience in applying AI/ML technologies to solve biomedical research questions. Alternatively, a master’s or bachelor’s degree in these areas with 10+ years of relevant experience will also be acceptable.

You are required to have a strong background in machine learning, deep learning, and various advanced neural network architectures (e.g., CNNs, RNNs, GNNs, and Transformers), key learning paradigms (supervised/self-supervised/unsupervised learning, GANs, diffusion modeling etc) and foundation models/LLMs for applications in large-scale medical imaging, omics, and text/EHR data analytics (e.g., for bigdata/biobank applications).

You should possess significant hands-on experience with modern programming languages (e.g., Python, R, Java, JavaScript), ML/DL frameworks (e.g., scikit-learn, PyTorch, CUDA, TensorFlow), cloud computing services (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google) and common ML engineering platforms/tools (e.g., MLFlow, Spark, Databricks, Dataiku).

You are required to have understanding of medical imaging modalities (e.g., MRI, CT, PET). It will be an advantage for you to have expertise in image processing techniques (such as image segmentation, registration, and feature extraction) and familiarity with tools like ITK, SimpleITK, OpenCV, or similar frameworks.

It would be ideal for you if you have knowledge in cardiometabolic, immunological, and/or neurological disease biology. However, more importantly, you are expected to demonstrate a strong interest in learning the key concepts in disease biology and in applying that knowledge to drug discovery and development in pharmaceutical R&D.

Your leadership skills in building partnerships and leveraging relationships within and across work groups, along with your ability to engage and persuade others to gain acceptance of ideas & foster commitment, will be critical for unlocking the potential of our talents and investments.

Your proficiency in identifying and understanding problems and opportunities through the analysis of quantitative and qualitative information; choosing the best course of action by establishing clear decision criteria; evaluating alternatives and making timely decisions —will be crucial to your leadership skills required for success in shaping our future.

Finally, your ability in facilitating change by encouraging others to implement better approaches and leading the implementation of change within the workplace; along with creating novel solutions that provide measurable value and experimenting with new ways to address work problems, will be vital for driving innovation and deliver impact.

WHO WE ARE

We are known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada and MSD everywhere else. For more than a century, we have been bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Today, our company continues to be at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions and advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world.

We are a research-driven biopharmaceutical company. Our mission is built on the simple premise that if we “follow the science” and that great medicines can make a significant impact to our world. And we believe that a research-driven enterprise dedicated to world-class science can succeed by inventing medicine and vaccine innovations that make a difference for patients across the globe.

WHAT WE LOOK FOR

Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who pursue and bring hope to countless people who are battling some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are among the intellectually curious, join us — and start making your impact today.

We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing diverse, talented, and committed people together. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when diverse ideas come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively. We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace.