Lead Scientific Software Engineer

Role onsite Barcelona based / 3 days at the office - 2 days at home

AstraZeneca has invested heavily in our Augmented Drug Design-Make-Test and Analyse platforms as we seek to deliver better, differentiated candidate drugs into trials, faster, for greater patient benefit. We have made great strides in creating an ecosystem enabling operational and experimental data capture, and in developing AI/ML analytics, AI, and ML services for both traditional small molecules and complex modalities that will pave the way for this transformation. The next stage of this journey involves building a unified scientific data and AI platform with state-of-the-art algorithms and technology that will enable our scientists to design new and safer drugs faster.

We are looking for a Lead Cheminformatics Engineer who can excel in both cheminformatics and software development to join our team to help build and modernise our integrated software platform supporting key drug discovery science.

In Early Science, we have highly skilled scientists generating ideas and performing experiments supporting complex drug discovery projects. Our environment is driven by scientific and technical innovation with a high degree of diversity in workflows, data, vendor solutions and in-house builds.

Working alongside Computational and Medicinal Chemists, Software and Data Engineers, Architects, and Analysts, you will lead in designing and implementing scientific solutions end-to-end. You will use your scientific knowledge and technical acuity to troubleshoot and provide innovative solutions to ensure smooth experiences for our scientists as well as for the software development team.

Your work will have a direct impact on the science we do, and you have an opportunity to enable our scientists to undertake science that is not possible today.
 

Accountabilities

You will join a global team of cheminformaticians, scientific software engineers, and devops engineers in our Augmented-DMTA platform. Here is what you will do:

• Be one of the subject matter experts for the team having knowledge of cheminformatics and computational chemistry tools used in drug discovery
• Work with cutting edge technology stack in a cloud environment solving scientific challenges for drug discovery
• Be responsible for designing and implementing scientific software and data solutions to make our science easier to do, easier to learn from, and offer faster delivery and higher quality across all therapeutic areas
• Design and build novel products and features to address long-standing problems in drug discovery with a focus on producing amazing user experiences that are more than the sum of their parts
• Collaborate with product, design, data science, software engineering, and scientists to build cutting-edge experiences and services
• Propose and implement changes to our drug discovery data models, core architecture, and codebase
• Develop all levels of the technical stack even if you’re more experienced in some layers with a strong focus on scalable backend services
• Proactively review and improve the scalability, reliability, performance, and availability of drug discovery services
• Advocate rigorous engineering practices and discipline: code reviews, automated testing, logging, monitoring, alerting, etc.
• Be passionate for staying on top of tech trends, experiment with and learn new technologies, participate in internal & external technology communities, and mentor other members of the engineering community
• Propose engineering solutions for scientific problems deploying critical thinking and analysis skills

Essential Skills/Experience

The role requires senior level technical skills, and we consider the below essential capabilities:

• Expertise in Cheminformatics, ML, or a related field and experience working with one of the cheminformatics toolkits
• Experience in chemistry data standardization, transformation and harmonization combining multiple data sources
• Expertise in one or more languages like Python, Java, Node.js with the willingness and ability to quickly adapt to a new language
• Demonstrable high proficiency in data structures and design patterns
• Some experience with end-to-end web development with at least one of the web frameworks: FastAPI, Flask, Spring, Django, React, etc.
• Experience working with relational and/or NoSQL databases and knowledge of query optimization techniques
• Proficiency in Linux environments
• Demonstrable abilities with coding best practices including testing, code review, and version control
• CI/CD experience with some automation tooling like Jenkins, TravisCI, Github actions, etc.
• Excellent teamworking, verbal, and written communication skills

Desirable Skills/Experience

The following skills would be advantageous for your application but are not considered essential:

• Experience in cloud services and tools
• Experience ETL tools either generic or cheminformatics-specific ones
• Basic understanding of Machine Learning concepts and MLOps
• Experience with Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience with GitOps
• Experience of LIMS and/or laboratory automation systems
   

AstraZeneca leverages technology to impact patients' lives by combining cutting-edge science with leading digital technology platforms. We empower the business to perform at its peak by driving scale and speed to deliver exponential growth. Our dynamic environment offers countless opportunities to learn and grow while experimenting with leading-edge technology. Join us at this crucial stage of our journey to innovate, disrupt an industry, and change lives.

Ready to make a meaningful impact? Apply now!

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.