Job Description

The Future Talent Program features Cooperative (Co-op) education that lasts up to 6 months and will include one or more projects. These opportunities in our Research and Development Division can provide you with great development and a chance to see if we are the right company for your long-term goals.

Nonclinical Drug Safety helps advance high-quality drug candidates into development by defining the nonclinical safety and selectivity of lead compounds. Nonclinical Drug Safety employees evaluate Lead Op candidates and preclinical toxicity of drug development candidates, providing a mechanistic understanding of drug-induced toxicity and assessing implications for human safety. Nonclinical Drug Safety provides collaborative research in animal model development, veterinary medical and animal care, and research facility management. Nonclinical Drug Safety also responds to regulatory questions in support of drug registration.

The Digital Operations and Innovation team within Nonclinical Drug Safety Operations comprises a talented group of data scientists dedicated to leveraging scientific and operational data to reduce administrative burden, improve the findability and accessibility of data, and discover and implement innovative applications of AI to modernize and advance our business.

Position Overview:

We seek a talented and motivated Co-op Computer Scientist to join our team for a six-month role. This position will contribute to the development of a web-based application that will enable our scientific and business leaders to retrieve critical scientific and operational data, surface similarities and patterns in the data, and generate natural language summaries of the structured and unstructured data being displayed. The ideal candidate will actively participate in regular sprints to develop and refine features in the application, propose new ideas and creative solutions to combine operational and scientific data, and consider the UI and UX impact of design choices. Additionally, there will be opportunities to contribute to the construction and evaluation of unsupervised clustering models and LLMs for integration into the solution.

In this role, you will be a valued contributor to a visible and necessary effort aimed at modernizing how nonclinical safety fulfills its critical role in the development of safe medicines for our patients. Your work will help produce stable, reliable, and user-friendly tools that bring data and insight to the scientists at the cutting edge of our field.

The ideal candidate will have experience with web frameworks such as DASH and working with both structured and unstructured data. Strong Python coding and documentation skills are essential. Familiarity with AWS services (Redshift, S3, EC2), GitHub Actions, LLMs, and vector databases are an additional advantage.

Key Responsibilities:

• Participate in agile sprints to develop and refine dashboard features based on user feedback from scientists and business leaders

• Build data pipelines in Python to integrate structured and unstructured data sources into the application.

• Design and implement interactive visualizations using DASH to surface patterns and insights in operational and scientific data

• Contribute to code reviews and maintain documentation using GitHub

• Collaborate with the team to evaluate and integrate ML models (clustering, LLMs) into the dashboard application

Required Qualifications:

• Must be currently pursuing a bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Data Science, Software Engineering, or a related field

• Must have strong proficiency in Python programming and code documentation

• Must have experience working with structured and unstructured data

• Must have excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail

• Must have effective communication and teamwork abilities

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with web frameworks (DASH, Streamlit, Flask, or similar)

• Familiarity with version control using Git/GitHub

• Experience with AWS services (Redshift, S3, EC2) or other cloud platforms

• Exposure to machine learning concepts, LLMs, or vector databases

• Previous co-op or internship experience in software development or data science

What You'll Gain:

• Hands-on experience building production applications in a regulated environment

• Exposure to modern AI/ML technologies, including LLMs and vector databases

• Agile development methodology and collaborative software engineering practices

• Understanding of how data science accelerates drug development

What We Offer:

• Hands-on experience with cutting-edge AI and cloud technologies

• Mentorship from experienced data scientists and software engineers

• Collaborative and inclusive team environment

• Potential for future full-time opportunities with the company.

Please note that this position may be closed before the posted end date or may remain open longer, at the discretion of the company.

Salary range:

The salary range for this role is $39,600.00-$105,500.00 USD

FTP2026

RL2026

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

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Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

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Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

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U.S. Hybrid Work Model

Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a Hybrid work consisting of three total days on-site per week, Monday - Thursday, although the specific days may vary by site or organization, with Friday designated as a remote-working day, unless business critical tasks require an on-site presence.This Hybrid work model does not apply to, and daily in-person attendance is required for, field-based positions; facility-based, manufacturing-based, or research-based positions where the work to be performed is located at a Company site; positions covered by a collective-bargaining agreement (unless the agreement provides for hybrid work); or any other position for which the Company has determined the job requirements cannot be reasonably met working remotely. Please note, this Hybrid work model guidance also does not apply to roles that have been designated as “remote”.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

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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:

Intern/Co-op (Fixed Term)

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

No Travel Required

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Not Applicable

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

01/20/2026

*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.

Requisition ID:R378187