Principal Data Engineer

Are you highly self-motivated, forward-thinking and like to explore new ways of applying existing new technologies to solve business problems?  Do you understand the importance of prioritizing according to business value and can communicate with stakeholders? We’d like to hear from you if you think you might make a good fit!

The distinct behavior demonstrated by a Principal Data Engineer is defined by Product Thought Leadership and Innovation. The Principal Data Engineer for Global Drug Safety, within GSK R&D Tech, is accountable for delivering solutions in line with the Drug Safety roadmap with a focus on improving efficiency whilst working collaboratively with peers and stakeholders.

The role will have responsibility for leading design, development and delivery of various Drug Safety Data products within GSK’s Global Safety Operations and Safety Data product set and will have a key role in shaping and creating GSK’s future Drug Safety and data platforms. Experience of Drug Safety systems such as Argus / Aris-G / Veeva is desired, as is experience of other platforms like tools such as Power BI, Azure, Snowflake.

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will contribute to the technical evolution of our data processing and automation capabilities. This role is focused on developing robust, scalable solutions that analyze our patient safety data far more effectively than current processes. You will leverage AI, machine learning, and advanced automation techniques to mitigate manual business processes and drive continuous improvement in data quality and efficiency. 

About R&D Tech, Data Acquisition & Management in Drug Safety Solutions

GSK R&D is led by science. Science is driving an ever-increasing variance and complexity of Drug Safety, and its related data collection and management. This presents great opportunity for Tech enablement via investments in modern platform technologies and Digital applications, across GSKs Pharma and Vaccines organizations.

In this role you will

Technical Leadership & Architecture:  Design and implement end-to-end, AI-driven data pipelines that ingest, transform, and analyze safety data from multiple sources. Lead the integration of machine learning, OCR, and document intelligence technologies, RAG to automate manual processes and enhance data accuracy.

Automation & Process Optimization: Build scalable solutions that replace labor-intensive tasks with automated workflows, significantly reducing processing time and errors. Collaborate with the Product Owner and cross-functional teams to ensure technical solutions align with the strategic product roadmap.

Product/Project Delivery: Deliver the optimal set of products and services which meets the business strategy and requirements. Execution of the product roadmap. The ability to think big picture and customer first is imperative.

Data Analysis & Enhancement: Develop novel approaches to extract actionable insights from complex data sets. Utilize advanced analytics techniques to continuously optimize data quality, drive signal detection, and support regulatory reporting.

Operational Excellence: Ensure solutions adhere to best practices in software development, including robust testing, code documentation, and DevOps practices. Monitor system performance, proactively identify areas for improvement, and implement optimizations to maintain high system reliability.

Quality, Risk & Compliance: Responsible for ensuring all products supporting the business are compliant with internal security, risk management policies and practices, external regulatory and statutory requirements e.g. GxP, and that Tech continuity plans are in place for all business-critical products.

Feature Definition: Proven ability to translate customer requests, competitive activities, and industry trends into value drivers of new technology solutions and product requirements that can be easily understood by product teams, developers and other key constituencies within the organization.

Service Management: Consult on complex Level 3 support issues and escalations.

Team Collaboration: Work in collaboration with the broader team to drive and deliver business value to tight timelines adhering to the release management calendar where applicable. Work closely with data engineers, scientists, and business stakeholders to troubleshoot issues, gather requirements, and drive technical innovations.

Adoption strategy & change management : In the role of change agent, support both the product teams and the business in agile approaches to solution development and adoption, building excitement, momentum, visible success stories and clear value-based versions of vision as roadmap plans come to life.

Why you? Qualifications & Skills: We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:  Minimum 10+ years of hands-on technical experience in data engineering, AI/ML, and automation projects within regulated industries

Strong proficiency in programming languages such as Python (PySpark  and Fastapi is a plus)

Handson experience with AI/ML, LLM, NLP algorithms & capabilities and vision to drive business value and enhance the Drug Safety data offerings

Experience with cloud-based data platforms like Snowflake and Azure - development, integration, and configuration (Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, Azure App Services, Azure Cognitive Services, ADLSv2, Azure Key Vault and more)

Experience with implementation of DevOps best practices (version control, CI/CD, Azure DevOps, YAML pipelines)

Experience with data analytics platforms, data visualization or Business Intelligence tools (preferably Power BI)

Experience with data virtualization (Denodo)

Excellent problem-solving skills, a proactive mindset, and the ability to collaborate effectively across technical and business teams

Strong communication, and interpersonal skills, ability to influence sr. leadership and decision-making using data, market evidence

Good track record in delivering business impact through process and IT enabled solutions, across multiple business lines

Preferred Qualifications & Skills: If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus: Understanding of data mesh / fabric principles

Understanding Datawarehouse design and ELT processes

Experience in designing scalable architectures and automating business processes using AI

Knowledge of cloud & webservice platforms such as Azure Databricks, RESTful Webservices

Relentless for delivering business outcomes and value and simplification with a passion for science and advancing medicines to patients

Skills Architecture Governance, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Enterprise Application Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Strategy, Generative AI, Information Technology (IT) Risk Management, IT Infrastructure Design, Technical Evaluation, Technology Roadmap    

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.

Inclusion at GSK: As an employer committed to Inclusion, we encourage you to reach out if you need any adjustments during the recruitment process.

Please contact our Recruitment Team at IN.recruitment-adjustments@gsk.com to discuss your needs.

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