Senior Data Scientist (Machine Learning & Generative AI)

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will leverage your expertise in machine learning model development, generative AI, and software engineering to rapidly prototype and deploy advanced analytics products for our manufacturing division. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including IT, engineering, and operations, to design and implement robust advanced analytics solutions at scale within production systems. You will also engage in ad-hoc consulting roles to support various projects across the organization. Our data science team contributes to different project phases, from ideation and business case development, through data discovery and preparation, to model development, prototyping, and facilitating adoption.

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  Independently design and develop innovative quantitative methodologies, leveraging different methods and approaches in machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI, to drive data-driven decision-making and influence key initiatives within the company.

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  Apply data science, machine learning, and deep learning techniques to create tools for process monitoring, process optimization, and predictive analytics.

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  Develop end-to-end digital solutions, including automation of data workflows and integration into existing systems.

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  Engage with customers and stakeholders to understand their needs, requirements, expectations, and potential opportunities, ensuring alignment with business objectives.

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  Build and disseminate in-depth domain knowledge of emerging trends in one or more sub-specialty areas of data analytics, fostering collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders.

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  Design, lead, and document the development of analytics applications, platforms, and processes to unlock value through scientific insights.

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  Stay updated on current best practices, methodologies, and technologies in AI, machine learning, and data science landscape, including compliance and ethical considerations.

• Extensive knowledge of both traditional supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms, as well as familiarity with advanced deep learning architectures.

• Proven hands-on experience with Python, including practical skills with libraries such as scikit-learn, Keras, TensorFlow, or PyTorch.

• Familiarity with feature engineering and exploratory data analysis for both structured and unstructured data sets.

• Knowledge of experiment tracking methodologies and tools to monitor model performance and maintain reproducibility.

• Exceptional communication skills to effectively convey complex information to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• A strong software engineering mindset, emphasizing the importance of producing high-quality code, documentation, and pipelines.

• A data-centric mindset, focusing on how data can be leveraged to create actionable insights and drive business value.

• Experience working within Agile frameworks and methodologies.

• Understanding of generative AI including large language models and vision language models, RAG, pre-training, and/or fine-tuning for specific applications.

• Experience with agents, agentic AI platforms (CrewAI, LangGraph, LangChain, AutoGen, Semantic Kernel, Bedrock, Strands, etc), agent tooling and protocols (MCP, A2A), and/or AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Open Claw)

• Familiarity with graph networks, semantic layers, and causal inference.

• Familiarity with deep learning applications or inference, computer vision, autoencoders, etc.

• Familiarity with modern MLOps tools and best practices for lifecycle management including CI/CD pipelines, containerization technologies such as Docker, and deploying machine learning models in cloud environments such as AWS, Databricks, or similar platforms.

• Bachelor’s degree required

• Preferred Ph.D. in chemical engineering, applied mathematics, or other technical fields with expertise in data science and machine learning projects or master’s degree in data science, computer science, applied statistics/mathematics, chemical engineering, or a related field with 2+ years of relevant experience in data science and machine learning projects.

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As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.  As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.  For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

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The salary range for this role is

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits.  Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.