Senior Frontier AI Researcher

About the role

AstraZeneca is hiring a Senior Frontier AI Researcher for its Enterprise AI unit's Frontier AI Research lab in Barcelona, with an on-site commitment of three days a week and fluency in English required. The role works at the edge of AI and ML methods to build, deliver and support scalable AI and data science solutions across the business, applying both foundational and cutting-edge approaches to extract insights from structured and unstructured data.

Key responsibilities

• Develop, implement and support AI computational and data science solutions, including modelling algorithms, machine learning models and AI tools tailored to scientific and business needs.
• Translate complex, unstructured business or scientific problems into data-driven analytical and computational solutions.
• Collaborate with scientists, data scientists, engineers and business teams to deliver AI-driven recommendations and insights.
• Research and develop new predictive models, computational methods and algorithms, including classification, regression, clustering, NLP, image analysis, graph simulation theory, deep learning and recommendation systems.
• Integrate, process and analyse data from multiple sources and modalities.
• Deploy and optimise AI and data science solutions in production, using high-performance computing or cloud environments where appropriate.
• Provide expertise in frameworks such as TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch, BERT, R and Python, ensuring robust, scalable and reproducible methods.
• Work within project parameters and governance, aligning with regulatory, evidential, compliance and quality standards.
• Communicate findings clearly and contribute to publications, presentations and knowledge sharing.

Required profile

• Bachelor's, Master's or PhD degree in Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Statistics, Computational Sciences or a related quantitative discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated technical experience in modern AI and data science approaches, including supervised and unsupervised learning, machine learning and pattern recognition.
• Experience in data analytics or developing tools that extract insights from data.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, business analysis and the ability to explain complex results to diverse stakeholders.

Required skills

• Proficiency in Python and/or R.
• Experience with high-performance computing or cloud-based environments.
• Desirable: Master's or PhD in a quantitative discipline, published predictive modelling or AI research, and prior experience in life sciences, healthcare or drug discovery.