Data Scientist - III (Senior)

The Data Scientist III / Senior Data Engineer will join the Digital Sciences team within the Analytical Enabling Capabilities sub-department of Analytical Research & Development (AR&D) at Merck. This team is dedicated to establishing data workflows and predictive tools that accelerate the identification, characterization, and development of novel medicines and vaccines.

This position is not a typical IT role. The successful candidate will collaborate directly with scientists to understand experimental data, automate electronic laboratory notebooks, and build scalable data pipelines to support research and development. Work will span multiple modalities, including small molecules, peptides, biologics, and vaccines, in a highly collaborative environment that bridges science and technology.

Location: West Point, PA (onsite 2–3 days per week)
Positions Available: 2

Key Responsibilities:

Design and develop data workflows and pipelines in Python.
Collaborate with scientists to understand experimental data and automate data capture in electronic notebooks.
Partner with IT to integrate data workflows into production environments.
Manage project deliverables, timelines, and provide accurate work estimations.
Participate in daily standups, provide progress updates, and present results to collaborators.
Drive continuous improvement in data engineering practices and propose innovative solutions to common workflow challenges.

Skills & Qualifications
Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field; OR degree in Chemistry (or related discipline) with strong programming capabilities.
• 7–8 years of relevant experience in data engineering or software development.
• Strong expertise with AWS cloud services (Lambda Functions, S3, CloudFormation Templates, RDS, ECR).
• Proficiency in developing ETL processes, data workflows, pipelines, wrangling, and ingestion.

Python 3.9+ software development, including:

• Packages: Boto3, Pandas, pyodbc, openpyxl
• Virtual environments: conda
• IDEs: Visual Studio Code or PyCharm
• Experience in software design, development, and testing (unit and system testing).
• Proficiency in version control (Git, GitHub) and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions).
• Strong database knowledge (relational databases, SQL, data modeling and design).
• Proficiency with data formats (XLSX, YAML, JSON, CSV, TSV).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently while effectively collaborating within a team.
• Proven ability to partner with scientists and translate experimental data needs into engineered solutions.

Preferred:

• Additional AWS services experience: SQS, DLQ, SNS, EventBridge, API Gateway.
• Advanced Python usage (Cerberus, PyYAML, logging, linters, type hints, regular expressions).
• Experience with data pipeline tools (e.g., Dataiku, Trifacta).
• Previous IT or data engineering experience in a pharmaceutical research setting.
• Background in genomics, analytics, or other scientific data generation workflows.

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field; OR
Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry (or related discipline) with strong programming capabilities.