Director of Translational Data Sciences

Gsk
Heidelberg, Germany
10 days ago

Role details

Contract type
Permanent contract
Employment type
Full-time (> 32 hours)
Working hours
Regular working hours
Languages
English
Experience level
Senior

Job location

Heidelberg, Germany

Tech stack

API
Artificial Intelligence
Data analysis
Artificial Neural Networks
Bioinformatics
Computational Biology
Reinforcement Learning
Data Strategy
Information Technology
Variational Autoencoders
Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML)

Job description

We are seeking an exceptional and ambitious scientific leader to serve as Senior Director of Translational Data Sciences. This individual will define and drive our translational data strategy across the continuum from disease biology to clinical readout, integrating multi-omics platforms with AI-driven analytics to bridge the gap between mechanistic discovery and therapeutic decision-making., Scientific Strategy. Develop and execute the Translational Data Sciences strategy, with accountability for portfolio-level outcomes across multiple therapeutic areas including respiratory, renal, hepatology, and immune-mediated disease.

Data Sciences and AI. Leverage the potential of data sciences for pipeline progress through team leadership, collaboration across Translational & Developmental Sciences and application across therapy areas and the broader organisations across GSK including R&D Technologies and AIML.

Partnership & Alliance Leadership. Establish and maintain high-value partnerships with leading academic laboratories, companies, and international consortia; represent the organisation at international scientific forums and translate external innovation into internal competitive advantage.

Translational Integration. Work directly with R&D leadership to align computational strategy with clinical development priorities, ensuring that AI-derived insights are translatable into actionable hypotheses spanning target identification and validation, biomarker discovery, and patient stratification to support pipeline delivery and clinical trial success.

Team Leadership. Build and mentor an interdisciplinary team of computational biologists, AI/ML engineers, and clinician-scientists and wet-lab scientists; foster a culture of scientific excellence, methodological rigour, and collaborative ambition.

Scientific Visibility. Contribute to the organisation's external positioning through publications, conference presentations, and academic collaborations.

Requirements

The successful candidate will combine deep expertise in spatial, single-cell and/or other multi-omics with a demonstrated record of delivering insights from agentic AI systems. Critically, we are looking for someone who can move between scientific rigour and strategic execution: a leader who communicates directly with R&D and clinical development executives, structures external alliances, and holds themselves and their team accountable to the clinical relevance of every analytical platform they deploy., Physical sciences (Maths, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering etc) or Biological sciences (Biology, Biochemistry, Bioengineering etc) undergraduate degree or Medical degree

PhD in data science, computer science, computational biology, bioinformatics, or a closely related discipline;

Extensive experience spanning academic and industrial drug discovery environments, with a demonstrable record of leading high-impact computational biology programmes from conception through to application to drug discovery or development challenges.

Prior line management experience and experience building and leading interdisciplinary teams across computational, experimental, and translational disciplines in both academic and industrial settings.

Demonstrated experience structuring and managing strategic partnerships with academic institutions and companies, including contribution to alliance governance.

Familiarity with the translational interface between target biology and clinical development; experience with adaptive clinical trial design and biomarker-driven patient stratification is highly desirable.

Experience presenting to executive leadership, external partners, and international scientific audiences.

Preferred qualifications:

Expert command of spatial transcriptomics platforms and single-cell multi-omics analysis, with fluency in applying established analytical frameworks and the capability to develop novel methods where existing approaches are insufficient. Ideally, also with experience of integration of genomic insights with germline genetic evidence to derive causal mechanistic insight.

Deep expertise across the full spectrum of modern ML for biology: graph neural networks, Bayesian causal inference, topological data analysis, deep generative models (VAEs, diffusion models, GANs), and reinforcement learning, applied to biological discovery problems.

Proven ability to design and deliver agentic AI systems integrating large language model APIs, generative AI frameworks, and analysis workflows for automated biological insight generation.

Benefits & conditions

A leadership mandate at the frontier of genomic- and AI-enabled drug discovery, embedded within an organisation that is investing decisively in computational biology and translational data platforms. You will have direct influence on R&D Translational strategy and leadership, operational autonomy to build and execute your vision, and the institutional resources to deliver at scale. We offer a competitive senior compensation package, flexible hybrid working, and a genuine commitment to scientific impact.

About the company

* Science and Technology At GSK, we unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. Our goal is to improve the lives of billions across the world. By bringing together outstanding people in an inclusive environment, we can make an impact on a global scale. Competitive base salary Annual bonus based on company performance Flexible working options available for most roles Learning and career development Access to healthcare & wellbeing programmes Employee recognition programmes We take on some of the biggest healthcare challenges in the world to deliver results that matter We prevent and treat disease with vaccines, specialty and general medicines, focusing on science of the immune system, human genetics and advanced technologies. We invest in 4 core therapeutic areas: Infectious diseases, HIV, Oncology, Immunology/Respiratory and future opportunities to impact health at scale. All of this depends on our people and our culture. A culture that is ambitious for patients - so we deliver what matters better and faster; where we are all accountable for our impact and supported to succeed; and where we do the right thing to meet legal obligations and keep ourselves and others safe both at and through our work. So, if you share our ambition, join us at this exciting moment in our journey to get Ahead Together., At GSK, we unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. Our goal is to improve the lives of billions across the world. By bringing together outstanding people in an inclusive environment, we can make an impact on a global scale. Competitive base salary Annual bonus based on company performance Flexible working options available for most roles Learning and career development Access to healthcare & wellbeing programmes Employee recognition programmes We take on some of the biggest healthcare challenges in the world to deliver results that matter, Why GSK? Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases - to impact health at scale. People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we're committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people. GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law. We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

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