Consulting Principal, Life Sciences – R&D
About The Role
Cognizant Consulting is more than Cognizant’s consulting practice—we’re a global community of 5,000+ experts dedicated to helping clients reimagine their business. Blending our deep industry and technology advisory capability, we create innovative business solutions for Fortune 500 clients. And now, we’re looking for our next colleague who’ll join us in shaping the future of business. Could it be you? As a Consulting Principal, Life Sciences – R&D, you will make an impact by leading strategic transformation engagements across the end-to-end research and development value chain—from preclinical drug discovery and translational research through clinical development—for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and contract research organization clients. You will help clients modernize discovery operating models, accelerate scientific decision-making, and advance promising assets from target identification through candidate selection, IND-enabling studies, and clinical development. You will be a valued member of Cognizant’s Life Sciences Consulting team and will work collaboratively with senior scientific and business stakeholders, account leadership, and cross-functional consulting and technology teams to deliver measurable business outcomes.
Responsibilities
- Lead consulting engagements spanning target identification and validation, assay strategy, screening, hit-to-lead, lead optimization, candidate selection, and IND-enabling development.
- Advise clients on discovery portfolio strategy, translational research, biomarker planning, and evidence-based stage-gate and go/no-go decisions.
- Design future-ready operating models that connect biology, medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, drug