Head of Data Science - Europe

We’re seeking an experienced, motivated, enthusiastic, and curious person with a solid understanding of Data Science and Data Management to grow our Services and Solutions business with a core focus on developing and expanding our Data Solutions and Services portfolio within the BioPharma Industry. The ideal candidate will be a skilled, self-motivated subject matter expert that can find, propose, design and deliver a variety of data science solutions for the complex data challenges in the Biopharma, Food & Beverage, FMCG and Crop Science Industries.

The successful candidate will remain close to science with a solid understanding of data science processes, systems and technologies required to create successful client outcomes.

About You:

We are looking for a track record in data science leadership roles with a history of delivering AI/ML solutions in the pharmaceutical or healthcare sector with knowledge of pharma discovery and manufacturing processes. Someone with a that can engage with stakeholders and solve their problems alignment, project delivery and change management.

As a client facing role, we think a person with a Product Management, Solutions Consulting, Professional Services or Technical Pre-Sales background with relevant domain experience and academic knowledge will be most suited. Someone that is:

Customer-Centric and Approachable: Confidently liaising at all levels, both internally and externally. You prioritize customer satisfaction and your commitment to managing priorities and encouraging interaction to foster a positive and supportive working environment.

Effective Communicator and Collaborator: Strong communicator, coupled with creativity and flexibility enable you to thrive in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary environment with productive relationships. You are willing to travel, visit customers and speak at conferences to stay connected with industry contacts and customers.

Scientific Relationship Builder: You actively work to strengthen our relationships with scientists, enabling their research. Providing expertise, you contribute to the growth and development of those around you.

Problem Solver: You are curious with a genuine interest in solving technical problems and courage to tackle diverse and complex data challenges. Your logical problem-solving skills contribute to innovative solutions.

Team Builder: You are genuinely interested in building and leading a happy team. Your commitment extends to fostering collaboration, both within and outside the team, and growth of a new business. You have a self-motivated growth mindset, can lead in a flexible environment with change and ambiguity, maintain a positive attitude and seek opportunities for personal and team development.

Continuous Learner: You are eager to learn from others, adapt, and share your expertise as a leader while being committed to staying current with fundamental theory, principles, and advancements in science & technology.

What you will be doing…

If you are confident that you can ramp up quickly, we would like to get to know you and look forward to receiving your application!

Commercial: Drive the growth and expansion of the services business by developing and executing strategies, value propositions, and tailored customer solutions. Leverage industry networks, customer insights, market analysis, and partnerships to shape the services portfolio and identify new opportunities. Actively participate in conferences, proposals, and retrospectives to secure projects and accelerate work pipelines. Oversee the end-to-end development and implementation of customer solutions while serving as the primary point of contact for the practice area and team.

Use your awareness of emerging technologies to find projects in some of these emerging industry trends including AI/ML in Drug Discovery and Development, Precision Medicine and Genomics, Real-World Evidence (RWE) and Data, Digital Therapeutics and AI-Powered Devices, AI-Driven Clinical Trials, Automation and Data Integration (Big Data and Cloud), Synthetic Biology and Advanced Biomanufacturing, Data Privacy and Ethics in AI, AI in Manufacturing and Supply Chain Optimization, Blockchain for Drug Traceability.

Science: Applying your knowledge of pharmaceutical processes and data across the drug lifecycle, including target identification, lead optimization, preclinical studies (toxicity, ADME), clinical trials (Phases I-III), manufacturing (process development, scale-up, validation), and batch release (quality control and regulatory compliance). Proficient in analysing diverse data modalities (e.g., text, image, time-series, multimodal) and drug discovery modalities such as small molecules, biologics, cell and gene therapies, nucleic acids, and vaccines.

Technical: Data Science subject matter expert, mentor and point of contact for:

Data Science & Machine Learning: Advanced statistical analysis and machine learning techniques to analyse complex datasets. Deploying machine learning models. Supervised, unsupervised, and deep learning algorithms (CNNs, RNNs, transformers). Natural language processing (NLP) techniques for analysis, entity recognition and search. Generative AI ecosystems tools and models (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Meta, OpenAI, Hugging Face).

Data Engineering & Big Data: Developing and managing scalable data integration and processing pipelines (e.g. Apache Spark, Airflow, and Luigi). Big data technologies (e.g. Hadoop, Spark) and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) to handle large datasets and optimise data workflows.

Data Management: Enterprise data architectures (e.g. lakes, warehouses, lakehouse, mart, fabric, mesh), structured and unstructured data management, data industry best practices (e.g. FAIR and Data Mesh). Ontological modelling, Classical relational and graph database modelling. Relational, NoSQL, Graph and Vector database technologies and applicability. Data lakes, warehouses, and platforms (e.g. Snowflake, Databricks, Talend, Informatica, Collibra).

Technical Tools & Frameworks: Applying your Python and R skills to analyse and visualize data. Use of AI/ML frameworks (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Scikit-learn) to build and optimize models, and leverage data visualization tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Python libraries (Matplotlib, Seaborn) to tell compelling data stories. Familiar with an alternative language for performance critical workflows (e.g. C/C++, Java, Rust or Julia).

Software Development & Integration: API development and integration for system interoperability, best practices for software engineering, modular design, testing, and debugging. Version control with Git/GitHub. Containerisation tools such as Docker, Kubernetes and Singularity for model deployment.

Data Analysis & Workflow: Lead the analysis of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) data, including genome assembly, annotation, and variant calling. You will design and implement data pipelines for sequencing data processing, and manage workflows for large-scale biological data analysis, visualization, and interpretation.

Regulatory & Compliance Knowledge: Ensure compliance with GxP, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, and EMA regulations, maintaining ethical AI practices and data privacy standards (GDPR, HIPAA). You will work to ensure AI models are explainable and transparent, adhering to the highest standards of data governance.

Data exchange standards and formats: CSV, JSON, and Parquet, YAML, OWL, RDF, Triple Store, CDISC, SDTM, ADaM, HL7 and FHIR for data integration across systems.

Team Leadership & Delivery Management:

Serve as a servant leader, mentoring and motivating consultants while proactively developing talent, skills, and capabilities. Collaborate with international colleagues to ensure cohesive global operations and equitable workload distribution. Oversee recruitment and onboarding to align with pipeline needs, geographic requirements, and growth objectives, ensuring seamless integration and early contributions from new hires. Monitor demand, capacity, and competency development while fostering collaboration, global teamwork, and alignment with organizational values.

Oversee team and project allocation to optimize resource utilization, minimize non-billable time, and ensure efficient execution, including leveraging remote teams where feasible. Manage timely and accurate reporting on opportunities, allocation, and performance data, ensuring insights into the practice area. Maintain governance standards with on-time billing, reporting, and monitoring to drive operational excellence.

Qualifications:

Candidates without a degree are encouraged to apply if they possess a strong background in the practical application of Bioinformatics and Machine Learning within the biotech/pharma industry.

Hold a higher-level degree or possess equivalent experience in Data Science, Computer Science or Applied Statistics/Mathematics, or a related field such as Computational Biology.

About Zifo:

Zifo RnD Solutions is a fast-growing global organization with a presence in US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, China, Singapore, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, Canada and India. Zifo helps organizations strategize, design, implement and support their systems in the areas of Laboratory Informatics, Scientific Data Management, Clinical Biometrics, Genome Informatics and Compliance Solutions.

If you are attracted by the idea of joining a team where each employee is integral to the success of the company, where trust, empowerment and self-development are more than just words…. then Zifo could be the Company for you. At Zifo, these values create our culture.

We offer an attractive salary in addition to an excellent benefits package and look forward to receiving your application.