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Data Science & AI Graduate ProgramExpires January 17, 2020

Your two-year programme comprises of 3 eight month rotations where you’ll apply your developing skills and experience to help us overcome challenges in some of our active research projects. Your first rotation will be selected to reflect your skills and interests and allows you to get an introduction to drug discovery, and how we harness the potential of Data Science, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Your following two rotations will be self selected to reflect your development and interests.
Your placements will help you develop your technical skills and industry knowledge, and on our Global Graduate Development Programme you’ll develop the interpersonal and business skills that will set you up for success.

Throughout the programme you’ll work alongside our experts, and take advantage of our close collaborations with leading international academic institutions and organisations to deliver work with real impact.

Placements could involve…

  • Applying the latest techniques in machine learning and artificial intelligence to preclinical data from drug projects to help detect and understand safety risks and guide the development of new medicines. Exciting work which could also help us refine, reduce and replace animal experiments
  • Combining innovative de novo molecule design methodologies utilizing state-of-the-art artificial intelligent technologies with chemistry automation to design novel molecules of therapeutic interest
  • Working with our Quantitative Clinical Pharmacology and Data Science and AI Teams to optimizing clinical development programs using Bayesian statistic and machine learning modelling
  • Developing Bayesian machine learning models for predicting the mechanism and probability of drug toxicity in liver, heart, and other organs. Incorporating existing knowledge of causal relationships and toxicity mechanisms into the prediction problem, and applying Bayesian models to account for uncertainty to improve predictions
  • Contributing to challenging projects using advanced Machine Learning models to improve drug discovery by generating testable hypotheses about targets, predicting compound properties, automating complex decision-making processes, and turning data into knowledge
  • Applying Artificial Intelligence to integrated electronic health records and genomic data to optimize clinical trial design, generate comparative effectiveness evidence, and help improve patient outcomes
  • Working with our Data & Analytics Team to identify, assess and recommend the most innovative external partners, and high impact AI technologies. Writing algorithms to support next generation natural language processing, and optimising code to enable powerful predictive models to be used across AstraZeneca.

As a Data Sciences and AI Graduate you’ll discover how we’re pioneering more open innovation, and actively sharing knowledge and ideas to make the next scientific breakthrough.

Qualifications and Skills Required:

  • Highly numerate with a strong Maths, Physics, Statistics or Computer Science focused Bachelors or Masters level qualification gained in 2019 or due in 2020
  • A postgraduate qualification in Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Biology, Computational Chemistry, Bioinformatics or Cheminformatics would be advantageous, but is not essential
  • Innovative thinking, with enthusiasm, energy and drive
  • Open-minded, and ready to embrace new ideas and different perspectives
  • Strong critical thinking, planning, organisational and time management skills
  • Ability to work as part of a collaborative team that focuses unequivocally on patient needs.

Research &Development (R&D) Graduate ProgramExpires January 17, 2020

We’re looking for talented science graduates from a broad range of science disciplines with a Bachelors or Masters degree, who have graduated in 2019, or are due to graduate in 2020. We are particularly looking for those individuals who have a passion for science. 

  • This is a two-year programme and includes three individual eight-month placements through different areas of R&D, providing a broad exposure to multiple areas of basic and applied scientific research 
  • You’ll be encouraged to make a real contribution to our projects from day one. You’ll find yourself involved in the design and development of new drug projects, which have the potential to be the next generation of life-saving medicines, right from the start of your career 
  • Graduates are enrolled in our Global Graduate Development Programme where we focus on the softer skills
  • Graduates are also aligned to a mentor who is a full time member of the organisation and will support you for the duration of the programme
  • You can expect a competitive salary and benefits
  • We offer all graduates generous relocation support, if required, including Swedish language lessons for graduates relocating to Sweden. 

What does the programme involve? 

The R&D Graduate Programme will give you broad experience of the drug discovery process by immersing you in real science, giving you responsibility on real projects from the outset and providing ongoing mentoring. The programme includes three rotations, which you can choose from an extensive range of placements, allowing you to tailor your development to your passion – whether this is in chemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmacology or another branch of science. And as well as building your scientific knowledge, we’ll help you to develop ‘soft’ skills  which will help you in your career progression.Wherever you’re based, you’ll be working with colleagues who are true experts, as well as with academic institutions and like-minded scientific companies. You’ll discover how we’re pioneering more open innovation, and actively sharing knowledge and ideas to make the next scientific breakthrough.The programme provides a springboard to great things for your future career. Through the rotations you are given an excellent opportunity to explore different areas of science which will help you to define your research interests. You will be completing novel and cutting-edge research which you could end up presenting at conferences or getting published in academic journals. Following completion of the programme over half of the graduates choose to continue their development by moving on to study for a PhD in their chosen field, whilst some manage to secure roles within the industry. What will you achieve?

Essential requirements 

What we’re looking for: 

  • Science graduates with a minimum of a 2:1 (UK) / GPA 3 (US) / VG Grade (Sweden) or local equivalent Bachelor’s degree or Masters gained in 2019 or 2020.
  • Bright, motivated and highly driven individuals with a real passion for drug development .
  • Innovative thinkers with enthusiasm and energy to match their scientific expertise.
  • Ability to work as part of a collaborative team that focuses unequivocally on patient needs. 
  • Strong critical thinking, stakeholder management, planning, organisational and time management skills.