Technical Team Lead for Model Lifecycle Management Platform

Job Description

We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company. We're at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions that advance the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals. As a Technical Team Lead for Model Lifecycle Management Platform (MLMP), you will play a crucial role in guiding a team of Full Stack Developers/Engineers to deliver and maintain business-critical GxP systems that support modeling, simulation, and data science workflows across Research & Development. Join our company and contribute to our mission of using the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world.

Responsibilities

• Lead a cross-functional team in developing enterprise-scale Java/Python applications integrated with AWS cloud infrastructure and Oracle databases.

• Partner closely with Product Managers to shape product vision, prioritize features, manage technical debt, and ensure successful release delivery.

• Maintain the highest standards of code quality, system reliability, and regulatory compliance.

• Contribute 70% hands-on technical expertise in the development and maintenance of applications.

• Provide 30% leadership/management responsibilities, including mentoring engineers, conducting code reviews, making architectural decisions, and driving continuous improvement initiatives.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical field.

• Proven experience in leading a team of Full Stack Developers/Engineers.

• Strong hands-on technical expertise in Java/Python applications.

• Experience with AWS cloud infrastructure and Oracle databases.

• Ability to maintain high standards of code quality, system reliability, and regulatory compliance.

• Excellent leadership and management skills, including mentoring and conducting code reviews.

• 8+ years of professional software development experience with significant focus on backend systems (Java and/or Python).

• 3+ years in technical leadership roles including team lead, tech lead, or engineering manager positions.

• Strong track record delivering enterprise-scale applications in regulated or mission-critical environments.

• Demonstrated experience with full software development lifecycle in Agile/Scrum environments.

Preferred

• Experience in developing and maintaining GxP systems.

• Familiarity with modeling, simulation, and data science workflows.

• Strong partnership skills with Product Managers to shape product vision and prioritize features.

Core Technical Competencies

Backend Development (Expert Level Required)

• Java Development: 6+ years with Java 8/11/17, strong OOP principles, design patterns, and modern Java features.

• Spring Ecosystem: Expert-level Spring Boot, Spring Data JPA, Spring Security, Spring Cloud for microservices.

• Hibernate/JPA: Advanced ORM concepts, entity mapping, caching strategies, query optimization, transaction management.

• Python Programming: 4+ years with Python 3.x, experience with Flask/FastAPI/Django for API development.

• Python Data/ML Libraries: Proficiency with Pandas, NumPy, and integration with ML platforms (Databricks, MLflow).

Database & Data Management (Expert Level Required)

• Oracle Database: 5+ years including database design, normalization, indexing, partitioning, and performance tuning.

• SQL Mastery: Advanced SQL with complex joins, subqueries, CTEs, window functions, and query optimization.

• PL/SQL Development: 3+ years writing stored procedures, functions, packages, triggers, and performance optimization.

• Database Administration: Experience with backup/recovery, capacity planning, and Oracle RDS management.

• Data Modeling: Ability to design scalable database schemas for complex business domains.

AWS Cloud Infrastructure (Advanced Level Required)

• Compute & Storage: EC2 instance management, S3 bucket policies, EBS volumes, Auto Scaling.

• Database Services: Oracle RDS configuration, monitoring, backup strategies, parameter tuning.

• Security Services: Secrets Manager, KMS encryption, IAM policies, security groups.

• Messaging & Integration: SNS notifications, SQS queue management, EventBridge.

• Monitoring & Operations: CloudWatch dashboards/alarms, CloudTrail, AWS Config.

• HPC Integration: Experience with compute clusters, job scheduling, AWS Batch or on-premises HPC.

DevOps & CI/CD (Advanced Level Required)

• GitHub Actions: Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines for Java (Maven/Gradle) and Python applications.

• Containerization: Docker for Java Spring Boot and Python services, Docker Compose for local development.

• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar tools for AWS resource management.

• Release Management: Experience with blue-green deployments, canary releases, and rollback strategies.

• Monitoring & Observability: Application logging, distributed tracing, metrics collection, and alerting.

Frontend Development (Intermediate Level Required)

• React.js: Component development, state management (hooks, Context API), modern JavaScript (ES6+).

• Web Technologies: HTML5, CSS3, responsive design principles.

• API Integration: Connecting React frontends to Java/Python backend services.

• Nice to Have: Redux, TypeScript, Material-UI, or similar frameworks.

What we offer

• Exciting work in a great team, global projects, international environment
• Opportunity to learn and grow professionally within the company globally
• Hybrid working model, flexible role pattern
• Competitive salary & incentive pay
• Pension and health insurance contributions
• Internal reward system and referral scheme
• 5  weeks annual leave, 5 sick days, 15 days of certified sick leave paid above statutory requirements annually, 40  paid hours annually for volunteering activities, 12 weeks of parental contribution
• Cafeteria for tax free benefits according to your choice (meal vouchers, sport, culture, health, travel, etc.), Multisport Card
• Vodafone, Raiffeisen Bank, Foodora, and discount programmes
• Up-to-date laptop and iPhone
• Parking in the garage, showers, refreshments, massage chairs, library, music corner 

Ready to take up the challenge? Apply now!

Know anybody who might be interested? Refer this job! 

Required Skills:

Accountability, Accountability, Agile Environments, Cloud Computing Services, Cloud Platform, Component Development, Database Administration, Database Management, Data Integration, Data Management, Data Modeling, Data Science, Detail-Oriented, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), IT Infrastructure Management, Java, Professional Networking, Release Management, Scheduling Jobs, Server Hardware Configuration, Software Development, Spring Data JPA, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Planning, Technical Debt {+ 4 more}

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully 
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

04/18/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.