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Try Merck & Co.validationAnnex 22Discovery

    Draft Pharma AI Hiring Snapshot

    Substantive AI roles at 29 large pharma companies

    I counted roles open on November 7, 2026 whose postings give substantive AI duties, meaning AI is part of the work and not just a tool the person uses. The count covers 29 of the 30 tracked employers. Each role comes from the company's own careers site and links to the posting.

    A role posted in several places counts once, so the 1,195 substantive roles come from 1,229 postings. Spreadsheet download

    The count leaves out 195 incidental roles, where the job only uses AI tools, and 298 rows I have not resolved yet.

    Headline numbers

    • 1,195substantive AI roles at 29 companies
    • 22.8%mention GxP (273 roles)
    • $154.4k to $238.1kmedian posted US pay range (420 roles)

    Amgen, GSK and AstraZeneca post the most AI roles

    Substantive AI roles by company, as of November 7, 2026. The top five companies account for 519 of the 1,195.

    1. Amgen 129 roles
    2. GSK 119 roles
    3. AstraZeneca 99 roles
    4. Novartis 92 roles
    5. Johnson & Johnson 80 roles
    6. Roche 76 roles
    7. Bristol Myers Squibb 61 roles
    8. Eli Lilly 60 roles
    9. Takeda 58 roles
    10. AbbVie 57 roles
    11. Gilead Sciences 42 roles
    12. Vertex Pharmaceuticals 42 roles
    13. Merck & Co. 40 roles
    14. Pfizer 38 roles
    15. Sanofi 29 roles
    16. Merck KGaA 28 roles
    17. Boehringer Ingelheim 23 roles, likely undercounted
    18. Regeneron 22 roles
    19. Novo Nordisk 21 roles
    20. UCB 21 roles
    21. Bayer 17 roles
    22. Otsuka 11 roles
    23. Teva 9 roles
    24. Astellas 4 roles
    25. CSL 4 roles
    26. Daiichi Sankyo 4 roles
    27. Sandoz 4 roles
    28. Viatris 3 roles
    29. Zoetis 2 roles

    Likely undercounted because the company's careers site search limits results

    Most roles where AI is the main job build products or analyze data

    809 roles where AI is the main job, by category, as of November 7, 2026.

    1. AI product 275 roles
    2. Data science 239 roles
    3. Agent operations 181 roles
    4. MLOps 72 roles
    5. AI governance and validation 42 roles

    Machine learning operations (MLOps) means running models in production. Agent operations means building and directing AI agents. The chart leaves out 386 of the 1,195 substantive roles, where AI is part of the job but not the main focus (Other). They still count in the 1,195.

    AI governance and AI product roles post the highest US pay

    Median posted yearly pay range in US dollars, by category, from the 420 US roles that post a yearly range, as of November 7, 2026.

    1. AI product (108) $168.7k to $268.5k
    2. Data science (86) $140.8k to $214.9k
    3. MLOps (19) $140.0k to $208.5k
    4. Agent operations (66) $159.3k to $236.5k
    5. AI governance and validation (11) $184.0k to $274.1k
    6. Other, AI part of the job (130) $153.8k to $247.0k
    7. All roles (420) $154.4k to $238.1k

    Shown for comparison: Other and all roles

    Each bar runs from the median posted low end to the median posted high end. These are what employers advertise, not what anyone is paid. 489 of the 1,195 roles show pay; the chart uses the 420 with a US yearly range, and the other 69 are hourly or non-US. The scale starts at $120k.

    How often GxP comes up

    GxP covers the good practice rules for regulated pharma work, such as good manufacturing practice (GMP). Here it also counts mentions of 21 CFR Part 11, the US Food and Drug Administration rule on electronic records and signatures, EU GMP Annex 11, the European rule for computerized systems, and computer system validation. 273 of 1,195 roles (22.8%) mention one of them.

    GxP mentions by categoryShare of roles in each category that mention GxP, as of November 7, 2026.
    CategoryRoles that mention GxPShare
    AI governance and validation17 of 4240.5%
    Agent operations57 of 18131.5%
    MLOps19 of 7226.4%
    Other, AI part of the job96 of 38624.9%
    AI product48 of 27517.5%
    Data science36 of 23915.1%

    Governance and validation roles mention GxP most often, yet 25 of 42 don't. Most AI hiring here sits outside regulated GxP work.

    Every role

    Showing 50 of 1,195 roles.

    Substantive AI roles, sortable by column
    AI Architect (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Agent operations United States No $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Associate Director - Cybersecurity Posture, Hygiene and AI (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Associate Director, Aesthetics AI Strategy (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Associate Director, AI & Automation Strategy (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Associate Director, Global AI Forecasting (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Associate Director, Procurement Category Management & Capability Leadership - AI/Emerging Technology (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Associate Director, R&D Quality Transformation and Data Science (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Associate Director, Strategy & Innovation (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Associate Director, Transformation (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Associate Scientific Technical Engineer II, PDS&T CMC (opens the posting in a new tab) (3 postings) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States Yes $65,500 to $125,500 a year
    Business Systems Consultant - Business Relationship Management (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    China AI/ML, Automation, and Capability Expansion Lead, Biotherapeutics and Genetic Medicine (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product China No Not posted
    Computational Biologist Principal Research Scientist II (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Director, Data & AI Architect, Operations and Finance (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $160,500 to $305,000 a year
    Director, Medical Affairs Analytics & Planning - International Medical Affairs (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $160,500 to $305,000 a year
    Director, Tax Technology (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $160,500 to $305,000 a year
    Domain Architect, Applications and Integration (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Engineer, Technology I (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States Yes $75,000 to $142,500 a year
    Lead Data and Analytics Engineer (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States Yes $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Manager, AI Forecasting (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Manager, Data, Analytics & AI (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Manager, eQMS Technologies (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Manager, Statistics (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States Yes $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Modeling and Simulation Project Embedment Lead (opens the posting in a new tab) (4 postings) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Non-Human Identity and Cloud IAM - Platform Lead (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Agent operations United States No $124,500 to $236,500 a year
    Operations Quality Senior Systems Engineer (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States Yes $96,500 to $183,500 a year
    Postdoctoral Fellow, Materials Science & Characterization PPG Analytical (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $75,000 to $142,500 a year
    Principal Data Architect II, Biotherapeutics and Genetic Medicine (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Principal Data Engineer, AI Enablement (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $124,500 to $236,500 a year
    Principal Data Scientist (opens the posting in a new tab) (2 postings) AbbVie Data science United States No $124,500 to $236,500 a year
    Principal Engineer, Digital Regulatory Assurance (Life Sciences) (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States Yes $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Principal Research Scientist I, In Vivo Antibody Discovery (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $124,500 to $236,500 a year
    Principal Scientist II, AI-Guided Antibody Drug Conjugate Design (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $141,500 to $268,500 a year
    Scientific Technical Engineer - PDS&T CMC (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States Yes $96,500 to $183,500 a year
    Scientist, Data II (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $78,500 to $141,000 a year
    Semantic AI Engineer (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States Yes $78,500 to $141,000 a year
    Senior Business Intelligence & Data Management Specialist (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job Taiwan No Not posted
    Senior Business Systems Engineer, AI Capability Lead - MHI (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States No $124,500 to $236,500 a year
    Senior Contact Center Engineer (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $84,500 to $162,000 a year
    Senior Data Science Analyst & Project lead (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science France No Not posted
    Senior Data Scientist (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Senior Data Scientist I - Bioassay Data Scientist (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $96,500 to $183,500 a year
    Senior DevOps Engineer II - Platform & Full Stack Engineering (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie MLOps United States No $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Senior Director, AI & Digital Transformation, Operations (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI product United States Yes $206,500 to $393,000 a year
    Senior Director, Portfolio Planning & Analytics (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $206,500 to $393,000 a year
    Senior Director, Safety Data Sciences (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Data science United States No $206,500 to $393,000 a year
    Senior Engineer Technology II - SAP Supply Chain Management (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States Yes $109,500 to $208,500 a year
    Senior Manager- AI Governance & Controls Engineering (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie AI governance and validation United States Yes $124,500 to $236,500 a year
    Senior Manager, eQMS Technologies (opens the posting in a new tab) AbbVie Other, AI part of the job United States No $124,500 to $236,500 a year
    Senior Manager, Statistical Innovation (opens the posting in a new tab) (2 postings) AbbVie Data science United States No $124,500 to $236,500 a year

    Country is read from the first location on each posting. Roles open in several countries show only the first.

    How I counted and what is missing

    I counted a role when two reviewers, working separately, both found substantive AI duties in it under six fixed rules, with a third reviewer to reconcile disagreements. Merck & Co. (MSD) and Merck KGaA are counted as separate companies. 40 Merck & Co. roles are in the count. For a hand-reviewed look at what pharma job postings ask for, see my Q4 2026 jobs note.

    • I didn't search LinkedIn, so roles posted only there are missing.
    • Boehringer Ingelheim is likely undercounted because its careers site search caps or narrows the results.
    • I assigned categories and the GxP flag with keyword rules, not by reading each posting in full. The 386 Other roles are the least certain category. The AI governance and validation group also includes some data governance and compliance roles.
    • A one-day snapshot shows who is hiring now, not how hiring is changing. The total is lower than on the November 1 version of this page because I changed which roles count to substantive AI duties only, not because hiring fell.