Senior Data Scientist

For 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.

Job Summary

At Charles River Laboratories, we’re transforming how we work by harnessing the power of AI, data, and digital innovation to accelerate the discovery and development of life-saving therapies. Our vision is to embed AI and advanced analytics across every stage of our scientific and operational workflows, empowering our teams with smarter tools, seamless data, and actionable insights to deliver client-centric services and solutions that better serve our customers and, ultimately, improve patients’ lives.

As a Senior Data Scientist and a member of our Enterprise Data & Analytics engineering team, you will play a pivotal role in this transformation. You’ll lead the design, development, and deployment of data-driven and AI-powered solutions that enhance customer value, streamline operations, and create meaningful, data-informed experiences for our employees. Through advanced analytics and generative AI, you’ll help Charles River unlock new possibilities in how we deliver science, innovation, and impact to our clients and the patients they serve.

In this role, primary responsibilities include:

• Lead end-to-end data science initiatives, including data exploration, model development, validation, implementation, and support for mission-critical applications;
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional data teams to automate data science pipelines and integrate models into business workflows and digital platforms;
• Partner with business units in a consultative and collaborative manner, advising on the most effective approaches to leverage data science and Generative AI technologies to deliver innovative, high-impact solutions.

Key Elements

We are looking for the following minimum qualifications for this role:

• Master’s with a minimum of 5 years’ experience or Bachelor’s with a minimum of 7 years’ experience in Data science, Computer science, Statistics, Operations research, applied mathematics, applied physics or any related field;
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to approach challenges creatively;
• Strong communication skills to translate the findings into actionable business recommendations through rich data visualization;
• Familiar with Agile methodologies and tools;
• Self-driven and capable of working both independently and collaboratively within a team setting;
• Experience in or strong understanding of the life science industry, particularly in leveraging data science to support operational excellence, is preferred.

Technical Expertise required:

• 5+ years’ hands-on experience processing, analyzing and modeling large and complex data sets;
• 3+ years’ experience with the full Machine Learning product lifecycle, with a demonstrated ability to take initiative and ensure proactive delivery of project milestones;
• 5+ years’ experience working with development toolsets such as SQL, PySpark, Python, Pandas or Scala;
• Experience with Generative AI technologies for scientific document reading, summarization, and generation, including prompt engineering, retrieval pipelines, and LLM fine-tuning for domain-specific applications.

Role Specific Information:

• Location: Remote (Must be located in Canada);
• Annual bonus based on performance;
• Schedule: Daytime between Monday and Friday;
• Permanent position as of the hiring, full-time 37.5hrs per week.

Why Charles River ?

• We offer competitive benefits and advantages from day one to support your well-being;
• Paid development training;
• Employee and family assistance program;
• Excellent welcome program for new employees as well as in-house advancement and career development opportunities;
• Access to a doctor and various health professionals (telemedicine);
• 4 weeks’ Vacation & 10 Personal day policy.

If you are interested in contributing to the well-being of our communities, not only across the country but around the world, please join us. This is Your Moment.

About Safety Assessment
Charles River is committed to helping our partners expedite their preclinical drug development with exceptional safety assessment services, state-of-the-art facilities and expert regulatory guidance. From individual specialty toxicology and IND enabling studies to tailored packages and total laboratory support, our deeply experienced team can design and execute programs that anticipate challenges and avoid roadblocks for a smooth, efficient journey to market. Each year approximately 300 investigational new drug (IND) programs are conducted in our Safety Assessment facilities.

About Charles River
Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.

With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.

At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.

We’re committed to providing benefits that elevate your quality of life. Based on your position these may include: bonus/incentives based on performance, 401K, paid time off, stock purchase program, Health and wellness coverage, employee and family wellbeing support programs, and work life balance flexibility.