Principal Data Scientist – DDSAI GD

About the role

J&J Innovative Medicine's Data, Data Science and AI Global Development team (DDSAI GD) is looking for a Principal Data Scientist in Madrid to lead end-to-end delivery of integrated analytical solutions for defined clinical-development and trial-operations business problems. The role covers solution definition, delivery, adoption and use-case outcomes using machine learning, generative AI, optimization and real-world data.

Key responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end definition, development, validation, deployment and adoption of data-science solutions for business problems.
• Lead predictive modeling, simulations, optimization and GenAI applications for study feasibility, enrollment forecasting, country and site selection, protocol design and operational planning.
• Apply clinical, operational, cost and real-world data (EHR, claims, registries, clinical-trial data) to generate evidence on patient populations, treatment pathways, feasibility and operational risks.
• Lead real-world data analytics on protocol feasibility, eligibility criteria, recruitment and retention, study design and comparative evidence.
• Develop LLM-enabled workflows for information extraction, protocol comparison, data harmonization and targeted automation.
• Partner with clinical, operational, technology and data stakeholders to turn outputs into adopted recommendations and measurable outcomes.
• Apply model-validation, MLOps, documentation, privacy, data-quality and responsible-AI standards, and mentor junior colleagues.

Required profile

• Master's degree in computer science, engineering, biostatistics, health economics, biomedical informatics, applied mathematics or another quantitative discipline; PhD preferred.
• At least 5 years of industry experience leading end-to-end delivery of data-science solutions using ML, predictive modeling, optimization, NLP, GenAI or RWD analytics.
• Demonstrated experience driving adoption of analytical solutions that inform clinical-development, clinical-operations or real-world evidence decisions.
• Hands-on experience with structured and unstructured clinical, operational or RWD data, including multimodal modeling and time-series or simulation methods.
• Strong communication, stakeholder-management and technical-leadership skills.

Required skills

• Proficiency in Python and SQL
• Modern ML, optimization and LLM-development libraries
• Reproducible MLOps practices

Preferred: healthcare, pharma, MedTech or clinical development experience; RWD methods such as target-trial emulation, propensity methods, survival analysis or time-to-event analysis; analytical products used by clinical or business teams.

What we offer

• Base pay range of EUR 61,800 to EUR 106,260.
• Annual bonus, vacation days, parental leave of at least 12 weeks, bereavement and caregiver leave, well-being reimbursement and health programs.
• Service anniversary and recognition awards, and optional insurance plans for eligible dependents.