Future Talent Program – Translational Sciences and Outsourcing Co‑op

About the role

The Future Talent Program offers a 6‑month co‑op within Merck's Translational Sciences and Outsourcing team. You will work on an AI‑enabled exposure prediction project that supports preclinical drug safety decisions.

Key responsibilities

• Curate and quality‑check preclinical cross‑dose PK/TK datasets, ensuring clear provenance and appropriate holdout splits.
• Conduct toxicokinetic analysis (AUC, Cmax) across compounds, doses, and routes to identify trends and nonlinearities.
• Develop and benchmark AI‑enabled and hybrid models against empirical baselines such as linear scaling and QSAR methods.
• Evaluate model performance, uncertainty estimation, and ability to detect nonlinear PK behavior.
• Prepare visualizations, written summaries, and technical presentations for cross‑functional stakeholders.

Required profile

• Currently pursuing a Master’s or Ph.D. in data science, computer science, applied mathematics, statistics, computational chemistry, chemical or biomedical engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Research experience in machine learning, statistical modeling, scientific computing, or computational modeling.

Required skills

• Strong Python programming skills.
• Experience with scientific libraries: NumPy, pandas, scikit‑learn.
• Familiarity with deep‑learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX.