Principal Software Engineer, Research Systems

At Gilead, we’re creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years, we’ve tackled diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19 and cancer – working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the world’s biggest health challenges, and our mission requires collaboration, determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.
 

Every member of Gilead’s team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions, and we’re looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.
 

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future, you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included, developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together.

Job Description
 

Gilead's mission is to discover, develop, and deliver therapies that will improve the lives of patients with life-threatening illnesses worldwide. The Principal Software Engineer – Research Systems is a senior individual contributor and domain expert responsible for end-to-end support, configuration, and evolution of Dotmatics project pages and associated research workflows. This role is less focused on enterprise architecture ownership and more on deep partnership with scientists, operational excellence, and service-oriented delivery of high-quality research system experiences.

The individual operates with a high degree of autonomy, serving as a trusted point of contact for scientific users, owning the creation and maintenance of Dotmatics project pages, ensuring data is fit-for-purpose, and providing clear communication on system status, changes, and support requests.

Key Responsibilities:

• Recognized as a subject matter expert for Dotmatics project pages and associated research workflows.

• Operates independently with minimal direction, owning outcomes for user satisfaction and system effectiveness.

• Impact is measured by quality of scientific enablement, user adoption, system reliability, and service responsiveness.

• Serves as a bridge between scientists, IT, and platform teams, ensuring research systems evolve in a controlled, user-centered manner.

Dotmatics Project Page Ownership

• Own the design, creation, configuration, and ongoing maintenance of Dotmatics project pages in close collaboration with scientists and research stakeholders.

• Work directly with scientific users to identify appropriate data, metadata, and structures required to support project goals, ensuring usability, consistency, and scientific relevance.

• Translate scientific workflows and requirements into well-structured Dotmatics project pages that support data capture, analysis, and decision-making.

• Continuously improve existing project pages based on user feedback, evolving scientific needs, and platform capabilities.

Scientific Partnership & Customer Service

• Act as a primary point of contact for scientific users, providing responsive, high-quality customer service in support of Dotmatics and related research systems.

• Respond to email enquiries from users, including troubleshooting issues, answering questions, and providing guidance on best practices.

• Proactively communicate system status, planned changes, incidents, and resolutions to users in a clear, professional, and timely manner.

• Build strong working relationships with scientists, informatics partners, and operational teams based on trust, reliability, and domain expertise.

Training & Enablement

• Develop and deliver training for bespoke logistics and research systems, including Dotmatics-related workflows and integrations.

• Create and maintain training materials such as user guides, walkthroughs, and onboarding documentation.

• Provide hands-on support during onboarding of new users, projects, or capabilities, ensuring successful adoption of systems.

IT Collaboration & Platform Evolution

• Liaise closely with IT and platform teams on Dotmatics implementation, configuration, upgrades, and validation activities.

• Support implementation and upgrade projects, including user acceptance testing, regression testing, and coordination of user communications.

• Help identify risks, dependencies, and user impacts associated with system changes and upgrades.

Request Tracking & Documentation

• Use Jira to log, track, prioritize, and manage user requests, enhancements, defects, and operational tasks.

• Ensure timely updates to Jira tickets, maintaining transparency on progress and resolution.

• Use Confluence to build, maintain, and curate high-quality documentation, including:

  • System and project page documentation

  • User guides and FAQs

  • Training materials

  • Operational and support procedures

• Promote consistent documentation standards to ensure information is easy to find, accurate, and up to date.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree and 8+ years of relevant experience; OR

• Masters' degree and 6+ years of relevant experience; OR

• PhD and 2+ years of relevant experience

​

Preferred Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience supporting, configuring, or developing research, scientific, or enterprise software systems.

• Demonstrated experience working directly with scientists or research users to gather requirements and support real-world scientific workflows.

• Strong hands-on experience with Dotmatics or similar scientific data / ELN / informatics platforms.

• Proven ability to deliver excellent customer service and operational support in a technical environment.

• Experience using Jira for request tracking and Confluence for documentation and knowledge management.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to non-technical users.

Differentiating Qualifications

• Experience supporting bespoke logistics or laboratory systems in a research or regulated environment.

• Familiarity with GLP, data integrity, audit readiness, or validation concepts.

• Experience supporting system implementations, upgrades, and platform transitions.

• Ability to balance multiple concurrent requests while maintaining high service quality.

• Demonstrated track record of building trusted partnerships with scientific and operational stakeholders.

People Leader Accountabilities:

• Create Inclusion - knowing the business value of diverse teams, modeling inclusion, and embedding the value of diversity in the way they manage their teams.

• Develop Talent - understand the skills, experience, aspirations and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential. They ensure employees are receiving the feedback and insight needed to grow, develop and realize their purpose.

• Empower Teams - connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives, and holding them to account. They provide the support needed to remove barriers and connect their team to the broader ecosystem.

 

The salary range for this position is: $169,320.00 - $219,120.00. Gilead considers a variety of factors when determining base compensation, including experience, qualifications, and geographic location. These considerations mean actual compensation will vary. This position may also be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, discretionary stock-based long-term incentives (eligibility may vary based on role), paid time off, and a benefits package. Benefits include company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans*.

For additional benefits information, visit:

https://www.gilead.com/careers/compensation-benefits-and-wellbeing

* Eligible employees may participate in benefit plans, subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable plans.

For jobs in the United States:

Gilead Sciences Inc. is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment, and is dedicated to fostering an inclusive work environment comprised of diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Employment decisions regarding recruitment and selection will be made without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression, veteran status, or other non-job related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal, state and local laws. In order to ensure reasonable accommodation for individuals protected by Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Act of 1974, and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, applicants who require accommodation in the job application process may contact ApplicantAccommodations@gilead.com for assistance.

For more information about equal employment opportunity protections, please view the 'Know Your Rights' poster.

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Gilead Sciences will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, (c) consistent with the  legal duty to furnish information; or (d) otherwise protected by law.
 

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For Current Gilead Employees and Contractors:

Please apply via the Internal Career Opportunities portal in Workday.