Senior Principal Developer

Job Description Summary
#LI-Hybrid

Location: London, UK - remote working will be considered

This role is based in London, UK. Novartis is unable to offer relocation support for this role. Please only apply if this location is accessible for you.

100,000+ unique, curious, and empowered individuals inspired by our purpose.

This role will work as part of an interdisciplinary team to develop solutions and tools that enable study teams working on analyses and reporting activities in clinical trials. They will work across the clinical reporting lifecycle gain an appreciation of the user experience today and work with Product Owners to deliver progress in high impact areas. Additionally, this role will focus on enabling the use of open-source programming languages and tooling.

Job Description

Major accountabilities:

• Develop and maintain R packages that enable clinical trial team through supporting data engineering, statistical analyses, automation, and reporting workflows.
• Design, build and deploy Shiny applications for interactive dashboards and data exploration tools.
• Collaborate with statistical programmers and statisticians, and clinical reporting teams to understand requirements and translate them into efficient, reproducible code and tools.
• Apply AI responsibly to support product design and development focusing on reliable, explainable, and impactful use in development workflows and solutions.
• Drive the rollout of tooling through demos, pilots, training and support.
• Engagement in the user experience of our users to identify and drive opportunities for continuous improvement and modernization.
• Role model best practices for data science and software development.
• Documentation of tools and processes to support modernization in an inclusive manner.
• Appetite to engage in open-source communities to collaborate in external settings.

Minimum requirement:

• MSc in a quantitative / computational science or equivalent
• Experience as an R developer
• Deep knowledge of data manipulation (tidyverse) and data visualization (ggplot2, plotly).
• Demonstrated ability to develop production-grade R packages, including comprehensive documentation and rigorous testing frameworks.
• Hands on experience deploying and maintaining R applications in production environments.
• Highly proficient in Shiny app development and deployment.
• Deep experience in software development best practices (virtual environments, git, CI/CD, code review etc.)
• Hands on experience applying AI and agentic approaches to improve developer productivity of data-driven applications
• Solution-oriented mindset with a collaborative spirit
• Good written English

Desirable requirements:

• Good understanding of drug development process
• High level understanding of the regulatory requirements for computer systems and tools
• Knowledge of Quarto, workflow automation, or metadata-driven reporting.
• Participation in open-source projects within the pharmaceutical sector, such as those associated with R Consortium, pharmaverse, openpharma or openstatware.

Benefits & Rewards
At Novartis, we’re committed to reimagining medicine together - and rewarding the people who make it happen.

Expected Annual Base Salary Range for role: 57,050.00 -105,950.00 GBP

The base salary offered is determined based on gender-neutral objectives, such as relevant skills, competencies and experience in accordance with the Novartis pay setting policy and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically.

In addition to your base salary, you may be eligible for a performance-based bonus depending on certain performance parameters.

The rewards of being part of our team go far beyond base pay and incentives. We also offer a variety of competitive benefits in kind to help you thrive personally and professionally, such as insurance plans, retirement plans, wellbeing resources and global recognition programs. In addition, we provide flexible and hybrid working options, where possible, and minimum 14 weeks paid parental leave.

Pay equity is a fundamental principle of our employment policy and reflects our commitment to create a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment that treats all employees with dignity and respect, as outlined in our Code of Ethics.

Note: Benefits and compensation may vary by country and are subject to local legal requirements, including provisions of collective bargaining agreements where applicable. A full overview of your compensation package, including any relevant collective bargaining agreement details applicable to your role based on your employment location and Novartis employer entity, will be communicated separately to you during the application process.

Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams’ representative of the patients and communities we serve.