Associate Director, Data Engineering (Real World Data)

About Formation Bio

Formation Bio is a tech and AI driven pharma company differentiated by radically more efficient drug development.


Advancements in AI and drug discovery are creating more candidate drugs than the industry can progress because of the high cost and time of clinical trials. Recognizing that this development bottleneck may ultimately limit the number of new medicines that can reach patients, Formation Bio, founded in 2016 as TrialSpark Inc., has built technology platforms, processes, and capabilities to accelerate all aspects of drug development and clinical trials. Formation Bio partners, acquires, or in-licenses drugs from pharma companies, research organizations, and biotechs to develop programs past clinical proof of concept and beyond, ultimately helping to bring new medicines to patients. The company is backed by investors across pharma and tech, including a16z, Sequoia, Sanofi, Thrive Capital, John Doerr, Spark Capital, SV Angel Growth, and others.


You can read more at the following links:

• Our Vision for AI in Pharma
• Our Current Drug Portfolio
• Our Technology & Platform

At Formation Bio, our values are the driving force behind our mission to revolutionize the pharma industry. Every team and individual at the company shares these same values, and every team and individual plays a key part in our mission to bring new treatments to patients faster and more efficiently.

About the Position

As Associate Director of RWD Intelligence at Formation Bio, you will lead the strategy and execution of our real-world data (RWD) capabilities, building the data foundations that power drug acquisition, clinical development, and portfolio decision-making. You will own the end-to-end lifecycle of RWD: sourcing, procurement, ingestion, harmonization, quality assurance, and delivery of analysis-ready datasets to downstream consumers across Product, Data Science, Clinical Development, and Business Development.

This role sits at the intersection of data engineering, data science, and drug development. You will build and maintain scalable data infrastructure (pipelines, data models, lakes/marts) while ensuring semantic interoperability across heterogeneous data sources through ontology-driven harmonization frameworks such as OMOP. You will also manage vendor relationships and data procurement, evaluating and integrating new data assets as the portfolio evolves. The ideal candidate combines deep RWD domain expertise with strong data fluency, enabling Formation Bio to treat real-world evidence as a first-class strategic asset.

Responsibilities

• Lead the RWD Intelligence function within Data Science, owning data strategy, sourcing, and delivery of analysis-ready datasets
• Architect and maintain the supporting infrastructure (pipelines, ingestion workflows, data models, lakes/marts) across EHR/EMR, claims, registries, and genomics-linked cohorts
• Drive adoption and extension of harmonization frameworks (e.g., OMOP CDM) across heterogeneous data sources, leveraging AI/ML tools for entity resolution, ontology mapping, data quality monitoring, and automated harmonization
• Manage RWD vendor relationships end-to-end: evaluate providers, negotiate data use agreements, broker new partnerships, and integrate acquired datasets into the platform
• Partner with Data Science, Clinical Development, Business Development, and Engineering teams to define RWD use cases (trial feasibility, synthetic control arms, epidemiology, label expansion) and productize ad hoc pipelines into scalable, production-grade systems
• Foster a culture of data quality rigor, documentation, and reproducibility across all RWD assets

About You

Required Qualifications

• BSc or MSc in biomedical informatics, computational sciences, epidemiology, or a related quantitative field
• 5+ years of industry experience working directly with real-world data (EHR/EMR, claims, registries, linked biobank data) in pharma, biotech, health tech, or consulting, with at least 2+ years in people management
• Strong data engineering proficiency (pipelines, ingestion frameworks, data models, data lakes/marts) combined with deep working knowledge of biological and medical ontologies (ICD, SNOMED CT, MedDRA, RxNorm, ATC) and harmonization standards, particularly OMOP CDM
• Demonstrated experience with RWD procurement and vendor management: evaluating data providers, negotiating agreements, and integrating new data assets
• Proven ability to deliver RWD-derived insights across multiple drug development use cases (e.g., trial design, epidemiology, comparative effectiveness, label expansion), with familiarity across the development lifecycle from target selection through post-market
• Proficiency with modern AI/ML tools, including large language models, and their applications in data engineering and harmonization workflows
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex data infrastructure concepts for clinical, scientific, and executive audiences

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in biomedical informatics, epidemiology, computational biology, or a related field
• Experience with large-scale biobank and genomics-linked RWD platforms (UK Biobank, FinnGen, All of Us), with a track record of building RWD infrastructure that directly influenced drug acquisition, licensing, or portfolio decisions
• Familiarity with additional biomedical data modalities (scientific literature mining, -omics datasets, molecular data integration) and with data science/analytics methodologies applied to RWD (causal inference, trial simulation, propensity score methods)
• Background transitioning data infrastructure from research/ad hoc to production-grade systems in regulated environments
• Experience working at the intersection of data engineering, data science, and business strategy in pharma/biotech

Total Compensation Range: $204,500 - $267,000

Compensation Individual compensation is determined by several factors, including role scope, geographic location, and skills & experience. Your offer will reflect where you fall within the range based on these considerations. In addition to base salary, we offer equity, comprehensive benefits, and generous perks. If the posted range doesn't match your expectations, we still encourage you to apply!

Where We Hire Formation Bio is prioritizing hiring in key hubs, primarily the New York City and Boston metro areas, with a hybrid model requiring 3 days per week in office. Applicants from the Research Triangle (NC) and San Francisco Bay Area may also be considered. Please apply only if you reside in these locations or are willing to relocate

Equal Opportunity Formation Bio is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome candidates from all backgrounds. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.