Lead Principal Data Scientist, R&D

Lead Principal Data Scientist, R&D

Lonza

Basel, Switzerland

Are you passionate about leading innovative machine learning projects and driving advancements in biomanufacturing? Lonza is seeking a dynamic and experienced Lead Principal Data Scientist, to join our R&D team in Basel. In this role, you will lead a team of talented ML scientists and engineers, manage multiple ML programs, and collaborate with various departments to develop cutting-edge solutions that will improve and transform biomanufacturing.

What you’ll do:

• Lead the R&D Machine Learning team and manage direct reports.
• Develop and execute the end-to-end Machine Learning roadmap, from ideation to deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle support.
• Create innovative and proprietary machine learning solutions to address challenges across the Integrated Biologics Business.
• Advise R&D leadership on ML-relevant risks and opportunities, providing strategic insights for project prioritization and business decisions.
• Represent Lonza externally at conferences, in academic collaborations, and in key industry forums.
• Identify innovation opportunities and use data to address complex biomanufacturing problems.
• Mentor and develop ML scientists and engineers, ensuring high scientific rigor and compliance with reproducible research principles.
• Guide the development and implementation of MLOps practices to streamline machine learning workflows.
• Build and nurture external partnerships with academia, CROs, and technology vendors.

What we’re looking for:

• PhD or MSc with 7+ years of industry experience in ML/AI, computational biology or related field.
• Ability to identify innovative solutions to problems leading to valuable R&D discoveries and applications.
• Hands-on with supervised, unsupervised and deep-learning techniques in Python or R.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and proven experience managing small technical teams.
• Understanding of GMP requirements and their application in the industrial deployment of Machine Learning projects.
• Strong expertise in MLOps, CI/CD, containerization and cloud platforms (preferably Azure)
• Strong stakeholder-influence skills, comfortable presenting to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Apply Now