Business Data Science Lead

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Job Description

About BioLife Plasma Services

BioLife Plasma Services, a subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., is an industry leader in the collection of high-quality plasma that is processed into life-saving plasma-based therapies. Some diseases can only be treated with medicines made with plasma. Since plasma can’t be made synthetically, many people rely on plasma donors to live healthier, happier lives. BioLife operates 230+ state-of-the-art plasma donation centers across the United States. Our employees are committed to improving the quality of life for patients and ensuring that the donation process is safe, easy, and rewarding for donors who want to make a difference.

When you work at BioLife, you’ll feel good knowing what we do helps improve the lives of patients with rare diseases. While you focus on our donors, we’ll support you. We offer a purpose you can believe in, a team you can count on, opportunities for career growth, and a comprehensive benefits program, all in a fast-paced, friendly environment. This position is currently classified as “hybrid” in accordance with Takeda’s Hybrid and Remote Work policy and could be located in either Bannockburn, IL or Cambridge, MA.

OBJECTIVES/PURPOSE

As a Business Data Science Lead on the Forecasting, Pricing, and Analytics (FPA) team, you will be responsible for the structural creation, execution, and management of statistical models and analytics solutions that support and maximize our long-term growth plans. This role has three main responsibilities: (1) hands-on involvement in the execution of FPA models, analyzing outputs, explaining and communicating results, and conducting rapid follow-on analyses, (2) work closely across the business in a consultative and cross-functional capacity to identify and propose ways to improve our use of data, and (3) work across the FPA team to continuously improve process, documentation, and knowledge management. While an end-to-end data science skillset is desirable for this role, as a business data science lead, the emphasis is on ideation (identifying opportunity areas), design (creating functional requirements and proof-of-concept models), and execution (running models in production and communicating about model outputs), as opposed to technical aspects of development, deployment, or scaling.

This role is critically important for the success of the FPA team and reports to the Global Head of Forecasting, Pricing, and Analytics at BioLife, which is within the Plasma-Derived Therapies PDT) business unit at Takeda.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Strategic Leadership

• Improve measurement of business performance through focus on the right metrics, improving metric accuracy, and proposing & creating statistical models to better understand complex dynamics.
• Identify and help implement best practices, create and maintain documentation, improve process, and advance knowledge management across the Forecasting, Pricing, and Analytics (FPA) team.
• Ability to proactively identify and quantify risks & gaps in on-going business processes.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to achieve cost savings and efficiency gains.
• Work with partners, vendors, and consultants on cross-functional projects, which can include developing solution functional requirements, feature prioritization, and aspects of data management/governance.

Applied Data Science

• Hands-on model execution, output management, and communicating results clearly and succinctly.
• Partner with the Data, Digital, and Technology (DD&T) Data Science team and consultants to develop and improve on existing analytical models.
• Complete ad hoc analytics analyses, which can include descriptive analyses and/or predictive modeling.
• Build AI/ML and statistical model prototypes for measuring and understanding key drivers of our business.

Collaboration and Adaptability

• Build strong relationships with cross-functional partners for efficient alignment, coordination, and information sharing across teams.

DIMENSIONS AND ASPECTS

Technical/Functional Expertise

• Expert knowledge of time-series forecasting, survival analysis (a.k.a. time-to-event, duration, event history analysis, etc.), and agent-based modeling.
• Broad general experience across data analysis, data management, and statistical modeling.
• Expert in SQL, Python, and R for data analysis and model development.
• Strong analytical skills with a solid foundation in many of the following statistical and AI/ML methods: regression analysis (continuous, categorical, survival, time-series, and count models, etc.); classification (CART, SVM, Neural Networks, etc.), clustering (k-means/medoid, hierarchical, self-organizing maps, etc.), and other AI/ML techniques; experimental design; and forecasting/sensitivity analysis.
• Comfortable working daily in cloud-based data platforms.
• Expert level MS Excel skills, including advanced functions (e.g., Solver), data analysis, pivot tables, macros, and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), and applicability of these features for developing and managing financial models for business case development and forecasting.
• Experience working with Power BI, Tableau, or other data visualization software.

Communication

• Excellent verbal and written communication. Proven data analysis background with the ability to transform analysis into insights, recommendations, and proposals for senior management.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts simply and succinctly.

Decision-making and Autonomy

• High self-reliance, self-efficacy, initiative, and learning agility.
• Strong at both structured and unstructured problem solving.

Interaction

• Manage and/or partner on projects with vendors and consultants.

EDUCATION, BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS:

Required:

• Ph.D. or master’s degree in any area of social science, statistics, management science, engineering, computer science, or a closely related field; or an undergraduate degree in one of these areas plus relevant work experience.
• Experience with data analytics from end-to-end, i.e., including ideation, proposal creation, getting stakeholder buy-in, designing analytics models/solutions, building prototypes, and working with IT/Data Science teams to deploy and scale solutions.
• 10+ years of experience in advanced analytics and modeling in the areas of business performance analysis, forecasting, pricing, optimization, and/or consumer behavior.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills. Able to communicate effectively to all levels of the organization, including senior leadership.
• Bring a growth mindset, curiosity, positivity, intuitive thinking, and a passion for excellence.

Preferred

• Healthcare or Plasma Industry related experience a plus.
• Management consulting experience a plus.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Domestic travel required (up to 10%).

BioLife Compensation and Benefits Summary

For Location:

U.S. Base Salary Range:

EEO Statement

Takeda is proud in its commitment to creating a diverse workforce and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, parental status, national origin, age, disability, citizenship status, genetic information or characteristics, marital status, status as a Vietnam era veteran, special disabled veteran, or other protected veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws, and any other characteristic protected by law.

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Job Exempt