Data Engineer

Job Description

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.

RequirementsWhat 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.

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.

Full-time

Hybrid remote