Data Engineer - Job ID: 1728

Build the data foundation that powers patient‑centric decisions

Ascendis Pharma is a growth‑stage biopharmaceutical company guided by the core values Patients · Science · Passion. To strengthen our cloud‑native commercial and medical data platform, we are looking for a Data Engineer who combines solid data‑pipeline craftsmanship with a collaborative, product‑oriented mindset. You will join the same agile product team as our analysts, working in rapid product‑discovery cycles to deliver trustworthy data that drives access to life‑changing therapies.

Your four focus areas

1. Data Engineering

• Design, build and maintain scalable ELT pipelines that ingest Patient Support Program, Specialty Pharmacy, Claims, CRM, Marketing, Medical and Financial data.
• Implement automated data‑quality checks, monitoring and alerting.

2. Data Modelling

• Develop canonical data models and dimensional marts in our up-coming Databricks Lakehouse to enable self‑service analytics.
• Apply best‑practice naming, documentation and version control.

3. Collaboration & Facilitation

• Work side‑by‑side with analysts and product owners to translate business questions into robust technical solutions.
• Lead whiteboard sessions and spike explorations during product discovery.

4. DevOps & Continuous Improvement

• Configure CI/CD pipelines for data code, automate testing and promote reusable patterns.
• Keep an eye on performance, cost and security, driving iterative enhancements.

Key responsibilities

• Engineer reliable, end‑to‑end data flows using Spark SQL and Pyspark notebooks in Databricks (nice to have).
• Orchestrate and schedule batch & streaming jobs in Azure Data Factory or similar tools.
• Develop and maintain dbt models (nice to have) to standardise transformations and documentation.
• Implement data‑cataloguing, lineage and governance practices that meet pharma‑compliance requirements.
• Drive alignment with analysts to optimise queries, refine schemas and ensure metrics are consistent across dashboards to ensure stakeholders have a single source of truth for decision-making
• Contribute to agile ceremonies (backlog refinement, sprint reviews, retros) and actively champion a culture of data craftsmanship.

Why Ascendis

• Mission that matters – Our pipelines accelerate insight generation that expands patient access to vital therapies.
• Modern stack – Azure, Databricks, dbt, GitHub Actions – with room to propose new tools.
• End‑to‑end ownership – Influence everything from ingestion to visualisation in a small, empowered team.
• Hybrid flexibility & growth – Work three days onsite, enjoy generous benefits, great snacks and pursue clear technical or leadership paths.

Requirements

What you bring

• Experience – 3–7 years in Data Engineering or Analytics Engineering, ideally in pharma, biotech or another regulated, data‑rich environment.
• Core toolkit – Advanced SQL and Python. Solid experience in dimensional modelling.
• Nice‑to‑have – Hands‑on with Databricks notebooks/Lakehouse and dbt for transformation & testing.
• Product mindset – Comfortable iterating fast, demoing early and measuring impact.
• Communication & teamwork – Able to explain trade‑offs, write clear documentation and collaborate closely with analysts, product managers and business and other stakeholders.
• Quality focus – Passion for clean, maintainable code, automated testing and robust data governance.

The estimated salary range for this position is $140-155K.  Actual salary determination is dependent on a variety of factors some of which include: experience, qualifications, and geographic location.  This position may be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus or an incentive compensation plan (eligibility varies based on role and position level), discretionary stock-based long-term incentives, paid time off, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Benefits

• 401(k) plan with company match
• Medical, dental, and vision plans
• Company-offered Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) insurance
• Company-provided short and long-term disability benefits
• Unique offerings of Pet Insurance and Legal Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Employee Discounts
• Professional Development
• Health Saving Account (HSA)
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Various incentive compensation plans
• Accident, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity Insurance  
• Mental Health resources
• Paid leave benefits for new parents

A note to recruiters:

We do not allow external search party solicitation.  Presentation of candidates without written permission from the Ascendis Pharma Inc Human Resources team (specifically from: Talent Acquisition Partner or Human Resources Director) is not allowed.  If this occurs your ownership of these candidates will not be acknowledged.