Principal Data Scientist, Commercialization

Principal Scientist

We are looking for a deeply technical, intellectually curious Principal Scientist who is excited about the power of AI and motivated to ship solutions that meaningfully change how commercial teams operate.

You will join a high impact Commercial AI and Data Science team working at the intersection of AI, data engineering, and commercial strategy. The team supports a growing portfolio of production AI applications built on a modern Snowflake and Databricks architecture.

This role is ideal for a hands-on expert who codes, experiments, and delivers AI solutions, and who is eager to become a technical leader in advanced ML and AI methods that push the boundaries of what pharma commercial teams can do.

Key Responsibilities:

Advanced Analytics & AI Delivery

• Design, develop, and deploy advanced analytical and machine learning solutions to support commercial decision making for hundreds of users across multiple disease areas and modalities.

• Build and enhance Next Best Action models, including propensity scoring, HCP segmentation, and recommendation engines.

• Develop patient and HCP analytics to support targeting, activation, and reactivation strategies.

• Apply causal inference and experimental methods to assess the impact of marketing and field interventions.

AI & Platform Enablement

• Develop and support production grade AI solutions and decision support tools.

• Partner with data engineering and platform teams to ensure solutions are scalable, compliant, and production ready within Snowflake and Databricks environments.

• Contribute to the evolution of reusable analytics and AI frameworks that can be leveraged across brands and disease areas.

Commercial Decision Support

• Collaborate with commercial, marketing, and field leadership to define business requirements and translate them into scalable solution roadmap.

• Translate complex analytical outputs into clear, actionable insights for nontechnical stakeholders and senior leadership.

• Support launch readiness, postlaunch optimization, and ongoing performance management through data driven recommendations.

Leadership & Mentorship

• Serve as a technical leader within the Commercial AI and Data Science team, setting best practices for modeling, experimentation, and impact measurement.

• Mentor and coach junior data scientists, contributing to capability development and a strong analytics culture.

• Promote responsible and ethical use of AI in alignment with Vertex values and governance standards.

Required Education and Experience

• PhD in a quantitative discipline (e.g., Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Applied Mathematics) or Master's degree with significant relevant experience.

• Principal level: typically, 5+ years of hands-on data science experience.

• Senior Principal (AD) level: typically, 8+ years of experience with demonstrated leadership and ownership of complex analytics initiatives.

• Proven experience building and deploying analytical or ML solutions in production environments.

• For Senior Principal level: experience leading and owning complex projects or products.

• Experience working with healthcare or life sciences data (e.g., claims, EHR, commercial data) is strongly preferred.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL.

• Experience with modern machine learning techniques and model lifecycle management.

• Familiarity with cloud-based data platforms such as Snowflake and/or Databricks.

• Experience building or productionizing LLM-powered or AI-driven applications (e.g., RAG pipelines, agentic workflows) is a strong plus.

• Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, ambiguous environments where decisions are made with clear goals but imperfect data.

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to convey complex analytical concepts to nontechnical audiences.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate cross-functionally and influence without authority.