Overview
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a science-led global healthcare company with a special purpose: to help people do more, feel better, live longer. We are on an audacious journey to impact the health of 2.5 billion people over the next decade. Our R&D division is at the forefront of this mission, dedicated to the discovery and development of groundbreaking vaccines and medicines. We are transforming the landscape of medical research by integrating cutting-edge science and technology and harnessing the power of genetics and new data. By fostering a collaborative environment that unites the talents of our people, we are revolutionizing R&D to pre-empt and defeat diseases. Join us in our commitment to uniting science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together.
Position Summary
At GSK we see a world in which advanced applications of Machine Learning and AI will allow us to develop novel therapies to existing diseases and to quickly respond to emerging or changing diseases with personalized drugs, driving better outcomes at reduced cost with fewer side effects. It is an ambitious vision that will require the development of products and solutions at the cutting edge of Machine Learning and AI. We’re looking for a highly skilled Backend Engineer to help us make this vision a reality.
The ideal candidate will have a track record of shipping data products derived from complex sources, responsible for the process from conceptual data pipelines to production scale. We have a commitment to quality, so the person in this role will be able to use modern cloud tooling and techniques to deliver reliable data pipelines and continuously improve them.
This role requires a passion for solving challenging problems aligned to exciting Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications. Educational or professional background in the biological sciences is a plus but is not necessary; passion to help therapies for new and existing diseases, and a pattern of continuous learning and development is mandatory.
Key Responsibilities
- Build data pipelines using modern data engineering tools on Google Cloud: Python, Spark, SQL, BigQuery, Cloud Storage.
- Ensure data pipelines meet the specific scientific needs of data consuming applications.
- Responsible for high quality software implementations according to best practices, including automated test suites and documentation..
- Develop, measure, and monitor key metrics for all tools and services and consistently seek to iterate on and improve them.
- Participate in code reviews, continuously improving personal standards as well as the wider team and product.
- Liaise with other technical staff and data engineers in the team and across allied teams, to build an end-to-end pipeline consuming other data products.
Minimum Requirements
- 2+ years of data engineering experience with a Bachelors degree in a relevant field (including computational, numerate or life sciences), or equivalent experience.
- Cloud experience (e.g. Google Cloud preferred).
- Strong skills with industry experience in Python and SQL.
- Unit testing experience (e.g. pytest).
- Knowledge of agile practices and able to perform in agile software development environments.
- Strong experience with modern software development tools / ways of working (e.g. git/GitHub, DevOps tools for deployment).
Preferred Requirements
- Demonstrated experience with biological or scientific data (e.g. genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics), or pharmaceutical industry experience.
- Bioinformatics expertise, familiarity with large scale bioinformatics datasets.
- Experience using Nextflow pipelines.
- Knowledge of NLP techniques and experience of processing unstructured data, using vector stores, and approximate retrieval.
- Familiarity with orchestration tooling (e.g. Airflow or Google Workflows).
- Experience with AI/ML powered applications.
- Experience with Docker or containerized applications.
Why GSK?
Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.
GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together – so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns – as an organisation where people can thrive. We prevent and treat disease with vaccines, specialty and general medicines. We focus on the science of the immune system and the use of new platform and data technologies, investing in four core therapeutic areas (infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory/ immunology and oncology).
Our success absolutely depends on our people. While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it’s also about making GSK a place where people can thrive. We want GSK to be a place where people feel inspired, encouraged and challenged to be the best they can be. A place where they can be themselves – feeling welcome, valued, and included. Where they can keep growing and look after their wellbeing. So, if you share our ambition, join us at this exciting moment in our journey to get Ahead Together.
Inclusion at GSK
GSK is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, genetic information, military service, covered/protected veteran status or any other federal, state or local protected class.
If you need any adjustments in the recruitment process, please get in touch with our Recruitment team () to further discuss this today.
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