Four Data Science Specialists for the Center for Pharmaceutical Data Science Education (CPDSE) at University of Copenhagen (UCPH) and at University of Southern Denmark (SDU)

Background
The center for pharmaceutical data science education is a joint effort by seven departments at two universities to raise the data literacy of people discovering, developing and helping the right usage of drugs. We aim to rapidly evolve and integrate data and modelling heavy research into the pharmaceutical education contributing to progressing the cultures and mindsets of people and organizations involved in the pharma value chain. To do this we are creating and joining expertise at the universities and the broader ecosystem. The center aims to be human-centric and characterized by co-leadership and high levels of autonomy and empowerment. Read more at our temporary website also linking to the individual departments.

Of the 4 Data Science Specialists, 1 will be employed and primarily located at the Department of Public Health, Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Environmental Medicine, SDU. The 3 other positions will be at UCPH, 1 at Department of Pharmacy and the remaining 2 at Department of Drug Design and pharmacology. This job announcement is posted both at SDU and UCPH. Please apply at both universities if you want to be considered for all four positions, or at the university of your choice, if you only want to be considered at either UCPH or SDU.  All applications received at either SDU or UCPH will be evaluated together to select candidates with complementary skills and competences..

Job description
We are looking for 4 passionate Data Science Specialists to lead the integration of advanced data science techniques into life sciences education, supporting educators and inspiring the next generation of professionals in pharmacy, biology, and chemistry, and other areas in life science. The positions aim to elevate data science skills across students, faculty, and staff while offering a unique pathway for professional growth by collaboration across disciplines, innovation of teaching strategies, and contribution to groundbreaking pharmaceutical research.

As one of the Data Science Specialists, you will be part of a team with complementary expertise, including, among other things, system architects, data/database engineers, data analysts/scientists, and programmers. You will also work closely together with course teams to develop data generation, data analysis, modeling, simulation, and machine learning workflows as well as develop custom data science-related materials for teaching. In addition, you will aid the scientific staff in their day-to-day work in activities related to data science research and education within the Center. Actual teaching of students in practical data science exercises and classroom assignments will also be part of the job. Furthermore, you are expected to take part in organizing workshops and other events for employees to broaden the application and integration of data, code, and computational tools in the research at the departments. Assisting with practical tasks including access to high-performance facilities, server/data management, and alignment with IT departments.

The positions are for 5 years starting as soon as possible with the following possibility of permanent employment.

Profile
The ideal candidate should have prior work experience related to research and/or teaching within some field of expertise including Data Science and fulfil many of the below listed requirements:

Essential experience and skills

• MSc (or BSc plus minimum of 2-years of work experience) related to data science, bioinformatics, computer science or within natural sciences
• Excellent programming skills, preferably in Python and/or R
• Good software engineering practices (e.g. git, virtual environments, modular code organization)
• Excellent data handling and analysis skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, preferentially in both Danish and English
• Ability to work and communicate with non-data scientists from different areas 
• Ability to work collaboratively with a diverse team of specialists
• Experience with AI/machine learning

Ideally the final team of 4 data science specialists should between them cover these desirable experience and skills

• Knowledge of the drug discovery and design processes and pharmaceutical sciences in general, including e.g. physics and chemistry
• High-level knowledge and experience in working with ML models and in particular neural networks.
• Experience with teaching and development of teaching material
• Familiar with system administration and integration, Linux and shell scripting
• Familiar with high-performance computing environments (e.g. Slurm scheduler)
• Experience with GDPR compliance
• Experience with database design and management
• Knowledge and experience with various publicly available databases related to health, disease and treatment as well as biobanks and registries.
• Data engineering and data wrangling (e.g., well-ordered flatfiles, SQL, Spark or similar)
• Data storytelling and communication (notebooks, static graphics, dynamic graphics, dashboards, Shiny, Plotly, Streamlit)

Terms of employment
The positions are full-time with an average working week of 37 hours. Salary and other terms and conditions of appointment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Finance and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant professional organizations. The position is covered by the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2020.

2 positions at Department of Drug Design and pharmacology, UCPH – Jagtvej 160, 2100 København Ø.

1 position at Department of Pharmacy, UCPH, Jagtvej 160, 2100 København Ø.

1 position at Department of Public Health, Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Environmental Medicine, SDU,  Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense.

Use the UCPH application system for the Copenhagen-based positions and the SDU application system for the Odense-based position. 
 

Application
The application must be submitted in English and include the following documents:

• Application, including motivation for applying for this position (max. 1 page)
• Curriculum vitae.
• Diplomas (Master, PhD, and other relevant certificates)
• List of publications, contributions to software projects or similar if relevant.
• Teaching experience/teaching portfolio, including documentation of any formal qualifications and teaching experience.

Practical information
The University of Southern Denmark and the University of Copenhagen encourages all interested in this position to apply. Please submit your application with the required documents. Only online applications will be accepted. The application deadline is 15 August 2025, 23.59 p.m. CET.

Interviews for this position are expected to be held on de the end of August and beginning of September. 

For questions about the position, please contact Head of Center, Professor Morten Lindow (UCPH), morten.lindow@sund.ku.dk,   Professor Anton Pottegård (SDU), apottegaard@health.sdu.dk or data manager Morten Olesen (SDU), moolesen@health.sdu.dk