Senior Principal Developer
About this opportunity
#LI-Hybrid Location: London, UK - remote working will be considered This role is based in London, UK. Novartis is unable to offer relocation support for this role. Please only apply if this location is accessible for you. 100,000+ unique, curious, and empowered individuals inspired by our purpose.This role will work as part of an interdisciplinary team to develop solutions and tools that enable study teams working on analyses and reporting activities in clinical trials. They will work across the clinical reporting lifecycle gain an appreciation of the user experience today and work with Product Owners to deliver progress in high impact areas. Additionally, this role will focus on enabling the use of open-source programming languages and tooling.
Major accountabilities:Develop and maintain R packages that enable clinical trial team through supporting data engineering, statistical analyses, automation, and reporting workflows.Design, build and deploy Shiny applications for interactive dashboards and data exploration tools.Collaborate with statistical programmers and statisticians, and clinical reporting teams to understand requirements and translate them into efficient, reproducible code and tools.Apply AI responsibly to support product design and development focusing on reliable, explainable, and impactful use in development workflows and solutions.Drive the rollout of tooling through demos, pilots, training and support.Engagement in the user experience of our users to identify and drive opportunities for continuous improvement and modernization.Role model best practices for data science and software development.Documentation of tools and processes to support modernization in an inclusive manner.Appetite to engage in open-source communities to collaborate in external settings.Minimum requirement:MSc in a quantitative / computational science or eqivalentExperience as an R developerDeep knowledge of data manipulation (tidyverse) and data visualization (ggplot2, plotly).Demonstrated ability to develop production-grade R packages, including comprehensive documentation and rigorous testing frameworks.Hands on experience deploying and maintaining R applications in production environments.Highly proficient in Shiny app development and deployment.Deep experience in software development best practices (virtual environments, git, CI/CD, code review etc.)Hands on experience applying AI and agentic approaches to improve developer productivity of data-driven applicationsSolution-oriented mindset with a collaborative spiritGood written EnglishDesirable requirements:Good understanding of drug development processHigh level understanding of the regulatory requirements for computer systems and toolsKnowledge of Quarto, workflow automation, or metadata-driven reporting.Participation in open-source projects within the pharmaceutical sector, such as those associated with R Consortium, pharmaverse, openpharma or openstatware. Benefits & RewardsAt Novartis, we’re committed to reimagining medicine together - and rewarding the people who make it happen.Expected Annual Base Salary Range for role: 57,050.00 -105,950.00 GBP The base salary offered is determined based on gender-neutral objectives, such as relevant skills, competencies and experience in accordance with the Novartis pay setting policy and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically.In addition to your base salary, you may be eligible for a performance-based bonus depending on certain performance parameters.The rewards of being part of our team go far beyond base pay and incentives. We also offer a variety of competitive benefits in kind to help you thrive personally and professionally, such as insurance plans, retirement plans, wellbeing resources and global recognition programs. In addition, we provide flexible and hybrid working options, where possible, and minimum 14 weeks paid parental leave.Pay equity is a fundamental principle of our employment policy and reflects our commitment to create a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment that treats all employees with dignity and respect, as outlined in our Code of Ethics.Read our brochure to learn more about our global total rewards offering:https://www.novartis.com/sites/novartis_com/files/novartis-life-handbook.pdfNote: Benefits and compensation may vary by country and are subject to local legal requirements, including provisions of collective bargaining agreements where applicable. A full overview of your compensation package, including any relevant collective bargaining agreement details applicable to your role based on your employment location and Novartis employer entity, will be communicated separately to you during the application process.Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion / EEO paragraphNovartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams’ representative of the patients and communities we serve.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Data & Digital role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 88 comparable Principal Data & Digital roles across 23 biopharma companies.
Salary context
18 of 88 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 88 comparable roles
+ 5 more countries
Seniority mix
88 of 88 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
2 of 88 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.