Johnson & Johnson Posted July 31, 2026

Principal Data Scientist, Real World Evidence

Madrid, Spain Full time
Biostatistics & Data Science Principal

Johnson & Johnson is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at jnj.com .

As guided by Our Credo, Johnson & Johnson is responsible to our employees who work with us throughout the world. We provide an inclusive work environment where each person is considered as an individual. At Johnson & Johnson, we respect the diversity and dignity of our employees and recognize their merit.

Job Function:

Data Analytics & Computational Sciences

Job Sub Function:

Data Science

Job Category:

Scientific/Technology

All Job Posting Locations:

Barcelona, Spain, Madrid, Spain

Job Description:

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine R&D Data Science and Digital Health are recruiting for a Principal Data Scientist, Real World Evidence (RWE).

Madrid and Barcelona are the considered locations. Hybrid work model.

J&J Innovative Medicine develops treatments that improve the health of people worldwide. Research and development areas encompass oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiopulmonary and specialty ophthalmology. Our goal is to help people live longer, healthier lives. We have produced and marketed many first-in-class prescription medications and are poised to serve the broad needs of the healthcare market – from patients to practitioners and from clinics to hospitals. To learn more about Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine visit https://innovativemedicine.jnj.com/

The R&D Data, Data Science & AI, Real-World Evidence (RWE) team at J&J Innovative Medicine is dedicated to developing innovative evidence solutions and critical insights through diverse data sources including RWD, trial data and emerging innovative data sources, to support our clinical programs and regulatory submissions. The Principal Data Scientist will collaborate closely with strategic partners in R&D Data, Data Science & AI, as well as multidisciplinary teams within J&J Innovative Medicine, to develop and implement evidence and insights to improve patient outcomes and enhance clinical development in Neuroscience.

Key Responsibilities:

Contribute to the development of a portfolio of RWE projects based on RWD that will provide key insights to our pipeline assets

Leverage emerging scientific and technological developments to generate new research ideas, solutions and initiatives using real-world data

End-to-end experience in RWE studies including conceptualizing the research questions, data feasibility, study design, analysis, programming, and interpretation

Analyze and interpret data to support urgent requests from internal and external stakeholders

Ensure quality of design, execution, and publication of real-world evidence studies, and quality of models & tools

Create study protocols, statistical analysis plans, and statistical programming deliverables

Clearly articulate highly technical methods and results to diverse audiences and partners to drive decision-making

Ensure RWE generation aligned with regulatory requirements and scientific standards

Required Qualifications:

A Ph.D. degree, or master’s degree in a quantitative field (e.g., biostatistics, AI Data Science, Bioinformatics, similar)

Relevant experience (2+ years for Ph.D., 4+ years for a master’s) within biopharma companies, RWE consulting firms, or other relevant healthcare industries

Experience designing and executing studies using real-world healthcare data, such as claims, electronic health records (EHRs), or registries

Extensive hands-on experience with data engineering and data analysis

Proven track record of consistently delivering on high impact data science projects

Expert proficiency in either R or Python, SPARQL, Cypher

Excellent interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills

Experience delivering on Data Science projects using predictive technologies as machine learning/deep learning, or forecasting

Familiarity with and exposure to drug discovery and clinical development processes with one or more of the following therapeutic areas: oncology, immunology, neuroscience, or specialty ophthalmology

Hands-on experience with graph neural networks and related graph ML methods for learning across large, heterogeneous, multi-domain graphs.

Hand-on bioinformatics experience running and interpreting results in a biological/disease context, including pathway or functional enrichment analysis.

Preferred Qualifications:

Deep neuroscience domain expertise: in-depth knowledge of neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric and ophthalmic diseases, clinical development, and trial design challenges

Experience in multi-omics including designing and interpreting large-scale proteomic studies, analyzing data from large biobanks to identify causal drivers and clinical relevancy

Experience integrating multi-modal data for holistic disease understanding and patient subtyping

#LI-GR

#LI-Hybrid

#JRDDS

#JNJDataScience

#JRD

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

Advanced Analytics, Coaching, Critical Thinking, Data Analysis, Data Privacy Standards, Data Quality, Data Reporting, Data Savvy, Data Science, Data Visualization, Digital Fluency, Econometric Models, Organizing, Process Improvements, Strategic Thinking, Technical Credibility, Workflow Analysis

The anticipated base pay range for this position is:

€61,800.00 - €106,260.00

Benefits:

In addition to base pay, we offer the following benefits*: an annual bonus with set target (% of pay) depending on pay grade / location, where the actual amount is based on the employees’ and companies’ performance of the previous calendar year, or sales commissions. Moreover, we offer vacation days, parental leave for a minimum of 12 weeks, bereavement leave, caregiver leave, volunteer leave, well-being reimbursement, programs for financial, physical and mental health. We also offer service anniversary and recognition awards, and subject to the terms of their respective plans, employees - and in some location’s eligible dependents - can participate in several insurance plans. For more information, visit Employee benefits | Supporting well-being & career growth | Johnson & Johnson Careers.

*This is for informative purposes only. Amounts and actual benefits may vary by location and are subject to change.

Job details

Seniority
Principal
Function
Biostatistics & Data Science
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Madrid, Spain
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Biostatistics & Data Science role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 97 comparable Principal Biostatistics & Data Science roles across 18 biopharma companies.

97Comparable roles tracked
87Currently active
18Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

52 of 97 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.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Sr. Computational Statistician (R2 – R3) · Lilly $46,842/yr – $117,289/yr
Highest disclosed · Scientific Director, Clinical and Real World Evidence · AbbVie $211,000/yr – $400,500/yr
Peer group range $82,066 – $305,750 (median $165,625)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 97 comparable roles

United States65
India7
United Kingdom6
Japan5
Germany5
China2

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

97 of 97 peers have a known seniority level

Senior45
Principal37
Director15

Therapeutic area mix

14 of 97 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology13
Immunology1

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.

50%similar
Johnson & Johnson Madrid, Spain Senior
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
45%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Merck North Wales, Pennsylvania, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

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.

50%
Senior Data Sciencist - AI & Scientific Applications
Johnson & Johnson · Madrid, Spain · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
45%
Principal Scientist, Biostatistics
Merck · Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Associate Principal Scientist, Biostatistics
Merck · North Wales, Pennsylvania, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Senior Principal Biostatistician
Novartis · London (The Westworks), United Kingdom · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 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.