below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays less than
71%
of similar roles. Most pay
$147,200–$214,562
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$151k
versus about
$181k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About MSD
MSD (Merck Sharp & Dohme) is the international name for Merck & Co., a major U.S.-based pharmaceutical company.
MSD currently has
8 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$123,000–$193,650
across 6 roles with salary data.
The Senior Specialist, Scientific Software Engineer joins the Digital Insights team within the Development Sciences and Clinical Supply Digital Technologies organization. This role focuses on engineering scientific software, automation, and data solutions to support drug substance, drug product, and analytical development. You will build, scale, and sustain production-grade software by designing reusable platforms, backend services, APIs, and robust data pipelines. Key responsibilities include consolidating legacy tools into enterprise systems and ensuring scientific data remains well-structured and analytics-ready. You will utilize Python, Git, and CI/CD practices while integrating laboratory systems and chromatography data. The position requires translating complex scientific requirements into durable software, solving problems related to high-throughput screening and laboratory informatics. You will partner with IT and security teams to deploy these solutions within regulated environments.
Build and scale scientific software solutions from initial prototypes into production-grade enterprise systems.
Design and develop reusable platforms, backend services, and APIs to unify laboratory and instrument data.
Create and operate robust data pipelines and models to ensure data is reliable and analytics-ready.
Consolidate fragmented or legacy tools into secure, maintainable, and well-architected systems.
Partner with IT, security, and infrastructure teams to deploy and sustain solutions within enterprise standards.
Own end-to-end software delivery including architecture, integration testing, documentation, and CI/CD deployment.
Translate complex scientific requirements from researchers into durable, scalable software products.
Provide technical leadership during user onboarding, training, and production rollouts to reduce key-person dependencies.
What we're looking for
Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a closely-related field.
M.S. in a relevant field with at least 2 years of industrial/pharmaceutical or relevant experience.
B.S. in a relevant field with at least 4 years of industrial/pharmaceutical or relevant experience.
Deep software development expertise building production-grade applications, backend services, and APIs using Python and/or equivalent languages.
Demonstrated experience scaling software from prototype to production, including architecting reusable platforms and modernizing legacy tools.
Strong data engineering skills in designing and operating production data pipelines (ETL/ELT), data models, and data products.
Experience developing software integrations with scientific instruments, laboratory systems, or external platforms via APIs, SDKs, or file-based interfaces.
Experience with software engineering best practices including version control (Git), automated testing, code review, and CI/CD.
Predictive Modeling
Machine Learning
AI
Data Analytics
Statistical Analysis
DOE
Laboratory Automation
Digital Transformation
Simulation
Data Science
R&D
Advanced Analytics