Associate Principal Scientist PharmaR&D

Associate Principal Scientist, PharmaR&D

Tempus is seeking an Associate Principal Scientist, PharmaR&D passionate about using clinico-genomics to transform cancer therapeutic care. Join a technology company at the forefront of multi-modal healthcare data generation and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize cancer care.

About the Role

The Associate Principal Scientist, PharmaR&D will design, propose, and execute research projects for Tempus’s top biopharmaceutical partners. This role requires staying current with oncology drug development trends to identify areas where the Tempus platform can impact partner portfolios. You will perform complex computational analyses and guide algorithm development for advancing cancer precision medicine.

Key Responsibilities

• Scientific Communication: Expertly navigate client interactions and present highly technical results and methods clearly to diverse external stakeholders.
• Real World Data Expertise & Technical Oversight: Lead the derivation of complex real-world endpoints using extensive coding, demonstrating deep comprehension of Tempus clinical and molecular data structures, and serving as an expert on the methodological nuances of real-world data.
• AI & LLM Innovation: Incorporate LLMs, agentic workflows, foundation models, and other AI tools to accelerate code development, discovery, documentation, review, and insight generation.
• Collaboration: Work with Research, Engineering & Data Science teams across Tempus to develop and deliver innovative computational solutions.
• Drug R&D: Partner with big pharma clients, becoming proficient in their strategies, drug modalities, and pipeline to identify where the Tempus platform can add value.
• Continuous Improvement: Stay current with industry trends, best practices, and advancements in computational oncology research, applying this knowledge to enhance research methodologies and improve overall research quality.

Qualifications

• Advanced education in epidemiology, biostatistics, data science, public health, or related fields (PhD with 5+ years of experience or Masters with 7+ years of experience).
• Experience at a Pharmaceutical company or in a client-facing analytical role.
• Expert-level proficiency in observational real-world healthcare data, specifically in designing and implementing complex time-to-event methodologies (survival analysis).
• Track record of leading RWD analytical studies from initial scoping through to publication or dissemination.
• Proficient in R, Python, and SQL, and respective packages for computational biology.
• Strong understanding of cancer biology.
• Strong peer-reviewed publication record.
• Expert in navigating client interactions and presenting scientific findings clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences.
• Ability to excel in a dynamic environment, adapt to shifting priorities, and be self-motivated.

Preferred Skillsets/Background

• Goal orientation, self-motivation, and drive to make a positive impact in healthcare.
• Previous experience working with large transcriptome and NGS data sets.
• Proficiency applying machine learning, statistical modeling, LLM-based coding assistants, and agentic frameworks.
• Experience in clinical trial design (particularly Phase II-III).
• Extensive proficiency with claims, EHR, or registry data.
• High-level familiarity with NCCN guidelines and ability to interpret real-world outcomes within the context of current oncology standards of care.
• Significant experience analyzing biomarker, genomic, or other high-dimensional molecular data alongside clinical datasets.
• Experience with Package development, tidyverse, Git, matplotlib, Pandas, Jupyter Notebook.

Key skills/competency

• Associate Principal Scientist PharmaR&D
• Precision Medicine
• Oncology Drug Development
• Real World Data Analysis
• Machine Learning
• AI and LLMs
• Computational Oncology
• Biostatistics
• Epidemiology
• Scientific Communication