Senior Director Translational Data Sciences in Stevenage

We are a science-led, global pharmaceutical company committed to closing the gap between biological discovery and clinical impact. Our translational mission is to decode the molecular and cellular architecture of human disease, using multi-omics data as the connective tissue between causal mechanistic insight and patient outcome. We are building the analytical infrastructure that turns complex biological signals into actionable clinical hypotheses. We believe that the next generation of translational leadership will be defined by the ability to move fluidly between deep genomic profiling, including at single-cell and spatial resolution, and AI-driven data integration to derive and apply insights to identify and develop transformative medicines for patients.

This role has been created for a scientist who can operate at that interface with rigour, creativity, and strategic clarity.

Position Overview

We are seeking an exceptional and ambitious scientific leader to serve as Senior Director of Translational Data Sciences. This individual will define and drive our translational data strategy across the continuum from disease biology to clinical readout, integrating multi-omics platforms with AI-driven analytics to bridge the gap between mechanistic discovery and therapeutic decision-making. The successful candidate will combine deep expertise in spatial, single-cell and/or other multi-omics with a demonstrated record of delivering insights from agentic AI systems. Critically, we are looking for someone who can move between scientific rigour and strategic execution: a leader who communicates directly with R&D and clinical development executives, structures external alliances, and holds themselves and their team accountable to the clinical relevance of every analytical platform they deploy.

This is a rare opportunity for a senior data scientist with clinical and/or basic science training to shape how a leading pharmaceutical organisation connects omics data to patient outcomes, at a moment when the tools to do so are more powerful than ever before.

Key Responsibilities

• Scientific Strategy: Develop and execute the Translational Data Sciences strategy, with accountability for portfolio-level outcomes across multiple therapeutic areas including respiratory, renal, hepatology, and immune-mediated disease.
• Data Sciences and AI: Leverage the potential of data sciences for pipeline progress through team leadership, collaboration across Translational & Developmental Sciences and application across therapy areas and the broader organisations across GSK including R&D Technologies and AIML.
• Partnership & Alliance Leadership: Establish and maintain high-value partnerships with leading academic laboratories, companies, and international consortia; represent the organisation at international scientific forums and translate external innovation into internal competitive advantage.
• Translational Integration: Work directly with R&D leadership to align computational strategy with clinical development priorities, ensuring that AI-derived insights are translatable into actionable hypotheses spanning target identification and validation, biomarker discovery, and patient stratification to support pipeline delivery and clinical trial success.
• Team Leadership: Build and mentor an interdisciplinary team of computational biologists, AI/ML engineers, and clinician-scientists and wet-lab scientists; foster a culture of scientific excellence, methodological rigour, and collaborative ambition.
• Scientific Visibility: Contribute to the organisation's external positioning through publications, conference presentations, and academic collaborations.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications:

• Physical sciences (Maths, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering etc) or Biological sciences (Biology, Biochemistry, Bioengineering etc) undergraduate degree or Medical degree.
• PhD in data science, computer science, computational biology, bioinformatics, or a closely related discipline.
• Extensive experience spanning academic and industrial drug discovery environments, with a demonstrable record of leading high-impact computational biology programmes from conception through to application to drug discovery or development challenges.
• Prior line management experience and experience building and leading interdisciplinary teams across computational, experimental, and translational disciplines in both academic and industrial settings.
• Demonstrated experience structuring and managing strategic partnerships with academic institutions and companies, including contribution to alliance governance.
• Familiarity with the translational interface between target biology and clinical development; experience with adaptive clinical trial design and biomarker-driven patient stratification is highly desirable.
• Experience presenting to executive leadership, external partners, and international scientific audiences.

Preferred qualifications:

• Expert command of spatial transcriptomics platforms and single-cell multi-omics analysis, with fluency in applying established analytical frameworks and the capability to develop novel methods where existing approaches are insufficient.
• Deep expertise across the full spectrum of modern ML for biology: graph neural networks, Bayesian causal inference, topological data analysis, deep generative models (VAEs, diffusion models, GANs), and reinforcement learning, applied to biological discovery problems.
• Proven ability to design and deliver agentic AI systems integrating large language model APIs, generative AI frameworks, and analysis workflows for automated biological insight generation.

What We Offer

A leadership mandate at the frontier of genomic- and AI-enabled drug discovery, embedded within an organisation that is investing decisively in computational biology and translational data platforms. You will have direct influence on R&D Translational strategy and leadership, operational autonomy to build and execute your vision, and the institutional resources to deliver at scale. We offer a competitive senior compensation package, flexible hybrid working, and a genuine commitment to scientific impact.

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.