Principal Data Scientist – Clinical/Commercial (Director-level) - Avidity Biosciences

Job Title:

Principal Data Scientist – Clinical/Commercial (Director-level)

Location:

San Diego, CA / Hybrid / Remote

Position type:

FLSA:

Full time

Exempt

Department:

Finance ID:

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

7100-2025-1

At Avidity Biosciences, we are passionate about the impact of every employee in realizing our vision of improving people’s lives by delivering a new class of RNA therapeutics. Avidity is revolutionizing the field of RNA with its proprietary AOCs, which are designed to combine the specificity of monoclonal antibodies with the precision of oligonucleotide therapies to address targets and diseases previously unreachable with existing RNA therapies. If you are a committed, solution-oriented thinker, join us in making a difference and become part of our growing culture that is integrated, collaborative, agile and focused on the needs of patients. 

Avidity Biosciences, Inc.'s mission is to profoundly improve people's lives by delivering a new class of RNA therapeutics - Antibody Oligonucleotide Conjugates (AOCs™). Utilizing its proprietary AOC platform, Avidity demonstrated the first-ever successful targeted delivery of RNA into muscle and is leading the field with clinical development programs for three rare muscle diseases: myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Avidity is broadening the reach of AOCs with its advancing and expanding pipeline, including programs in cardiology and immunology through internal discovery efforts and key partnerships. Avidity is headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information about our AOC platform, clinical development pipeline, and people, please visit www.aviditybiosciences.com and engage with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Opportunity

As a Principal Data Scientist at Avidity, you will be a hands-on technical leader within Avidity’s AI & Machine Learning team, responsible for delivering impactful data-driven solutions across the company. This role requires a highly skilled data scientist with expertise in clinical and commercial data science—preferably with experience in analyzing claims data, clinical trial data, and/or longitudinal health studies. Experience in biological data science (e.g., RNAseq/Multi-Omics analysis) is also beneficial, but a secondary priority. You, and your future team, will also eventually support data science initiatives across the entire enterprise, so you should be excited to work with marketing, medical affairs, program management, HR, IT, Finance, Research, and everyone else.

In this role, you will be a key contributor from day one, working directly with teams across research, technical development & operations, clinical, commercial, G&A, and IT business partners. You will help develop and execute Avidity’s AI and data science roadmap and contribute directly to coding, model building, and data analysis, alongside leadership. At Avidity, we believe in “leading by doing”—even senior leaders are hands-on and our VP writes code every day. You will report directly to Avidity’s VP of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, and this is an opportunity to contribute your leadership skills and eventually lead a team while staying deeply involved in technical work.

What You Will Contribute

• Hands-on technical development, coding, and analysis across teams from day one.
• Design and implement advanced data science models using multivariate statistical analysis, machine learning, and deep learning to help accelerate our programs and teams.
• Apply modern data science techniques to a wide range of clinical, commercial, and biological data sets.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with teams in research, technical development & operations, clinical, commercial, G&A, and IT business partners to deliver impactful data science solutions.
• Support the development and lead the execution of Avidity’s AI & data science roadmap.
• Over time, build and lead a team of data scientists working across all functional areas of the company. We have a strong culture and you should be excited to lead, mentor, and grow.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to junior team members as the team grows.

What We Seek

• Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Data Science, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field; Advanced Degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in biomedical data sciences, with strong clinical and/or commercial data science experience (e.g., claims data, clinical trials, longitudinal health studies) at a biotechnology or pharma company, and biological data science (e.g., RNAseq/Multi-Omics analysis) as a secondary priority. You should be an expert at figuring out the right questions to ask and the right ways to answer them.
• Proficiency in Python, R, data manipulation tools, and the modern data science stack.
• Expertise in multivariate statistical analysis, machine learning, and ideally deep learning applications.
• Team leadership experience within a cross-functional matrix environment.
• Ability to roll up your sleeves and deliver immediate impact.
• Strong communication (oral and written), organizational, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills.
• Humility to say “I don’t know, but I can find out” because our team works with every team, and we won’t always know the answer. We learn every day and we learn fast.
• Ability to travel as needed.

Even if you don’t have every bullet on this list but think you’re the right fit, reach out and tell us why. We’d love to hear from you.

• The base salary range for this role is $227,938 - $251,931. The final compensation will be commensurate with such factors as relevant experience, skillset, internal equity and market factors.
• Avidity offers competitive compensation and benefits which includes the opportunity for annual and spot bonuses, stock options and RSUs, as well as a 401(k) with an employer match. In addition, the comprehensive wellness program includes coverage for medical, dental, vision, and LTD, and four weeks of time off.
• A commitment to learning and development which includes a variety of programming internally developed by and for Avidity employees, opportunities for job-specific training offered by industry, and an education reimbursement program.

Avidity Biosciences

10578 Science Center Dr. Suite 125

San Diego, CA

92121

O: 858-401-7900

F: 858-401-7901

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