Data Scientist, AI for Biomedical Imaging

About the role

Novartis Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA is looking for a seasoned, innovative and collaborative data scientist with deep expertise in AI-enabled image analysis to join its Data Science team in Discovery Sciences. The role combines hands-on delivery of robust image analysis workflows with advanced AI method development, including biomedical image segmentation, representation learning, foundation models and scalable deployment. It is an onsite position.

Key responsibilities

• Lead AI-enabled image analysis strategies for complex biological imaging workflows, acting as the embedded imaging-AI scientific partner alongside wet-lab scientists.
• Identify high-impact opportunities for AI, define benchmarking and evaluation strategies and develop, validate and deploy image analysis algorithms for cellular, organoid and tissue phenotypes.
• Drive adoption of deep learning, vision foundation models, embedding-based phenotyping, segmentation, classification and multimodal integration, turning them into validated workflows.
• Contribute to scalable, reusable image analysis workflows with data scientists, data engineering and platform teams.

Required profile

• PhD in computer science, AI, machine learning, biomedical image analysis, computational imaging, data science or a related quantitative field, with 3+ years of applied experience in AI for bioimaging and computer vision.
• Demonstrated experience developing and validating image analysis algorithms for biological, biomedical or pharmaceutical research, with practical experience in segmentation, feature extraction, phenotypic profiling, object classification or representation learning.
• Ability to work in Linux-based high-performance computing, cloud or large-scale data environments, with a commitment to reproducible research, version control and data provenance.
• Strong scientific communication skills, able to explain complex AI and image analysis concepts to experimental scientists and non-technical audiences.

Required skills

• Python and the scientific deep learning stack (PyTorch, Hugging Face, Lightning, MONAI).
• Image analysis tools such as scikit-image, OpenCV, napari, Cellpose, StarDist, InstanSeg and OME-Zarr.
• Desirable: foundation models, self-supervised learning, multimodal models (e.g. DINO, CLIP, SAM), familiarity with the drug discovery pipeline, reusable workflow creation, publications or open-source contributions, and agentic coding tools.

What we offer

• Expected salary of $126,000-$234,000 USD for Senior Expert I and $138,600-$257,400 USD for Senior Expert II, with a performance-based cash incentive and possible annual equity awards.
• Health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a time-off package including vacation, personal days and holidays.