Principal Data Scientist, Supply Chain & Operations Research

McKesson is an impact-driven, Fortune 10 company that touches virtually every aspect of healthcare. We are known for delivering insights, products, and services that make quality care more accessible and affordable. Here, we focus on the health, happiness, and well-being of you and those we serve – we care.

What you do at McKesson matters. We foster a culture where you can grow, make an impact, and are empowered to bring new ideas. Together, we thrive as we shape the future of health for patients, our communities, and our people. If you want to be part of tomorrow’s health today, we want to hear from you.

Position Description
 

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Principal Data Scientist to lead initiatives at the intersection of Operations Research, Supply Chain Optimization, and Digital Twin technologies. This role will drive strategic decision-making by developing advanced analytical models to optimize inventory, improve supply chain resiliency, and enable virtual simulation capabilities. You will collaborate with stakeholders across supply chain, engineering, IT, and business leadership to design and deploy transformative, data-driven solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of optimization and simulation models focused on inventory planning, demand forecasting, production scheduling, and logistics.

• Design and implement Digital Twin models of supply chain systems to enable scenario planning, risk mitigation, and real-time operational insights.

• Apply advanced operations research techniques such as linear programming, mixed-integer programming, dynamic programming, queuing theory, and discrete-event simulation.

• Translate complex business challenges into scalable, production-ready analytical models with clear financial and operational impact.

• Partner with business leaders to define use cases, develop prototypes, and guide the integration of analytics into decision-making workflows.

• Develop and maintain robust analytics pipelines that integrate structured and unstructured data from multiple sources.

• Present insights and strategic recommendations to senior executives in a clear and compelling manner.

• Mentor and coach early career data scientists and analysts, fostering a culture of innovation and analytical excellence.

• Stay at the forefront of emerging trends in AI, digital twin technology, and supply chain analytics to continuously enhance organizational capabilities.

Minimum Requirements:

Typically requires 13+ years, with 8+ years, of direct workrelated experience

Critical Skills

• Typically requires 13+ years of relevant experience, including 8+ years in advanced analytics, data science, or operations research, ideally within a supply chain context.

• Fewer years of experience required for candidates with a relevant Master’s or Doctorate, particularly with demonstrated leadership in inventory optimization, simulation modeling, or digital twin implementation.

• Recognized internally and externally as a subject matter expert in operations research and supply chain analytics.

• Deep experience with optimization solvers and modeling tools (e.g., Gurobi, CPLEX, Pyomo).

• Proficiency in Python and relevant libraries (e.g., pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, simpy).

• Experience building and deploying Digital Twins for supply chain or manufacturing environments.

• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms (e.g., Azure) and big data technologies (e.g., Databricks).

Additional Experience

• Proven ability to champion enterprise-level initiatives that shape long-term business strategy and deliver measurable value

• Skilled at building alignment across diverse functional teams and leading through influence in matrixed environments.

• Experience with real-time simulation, system dynamics, agent-based modeling, or reinforcement learning in applied settings.

• Exposure to enterprise supply chain systems (ERP, WMS, APS tools) is a plus.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related field (Master’s or PhD strongly preferred) OR equivalent experience.

Work Environment/Physical Demands:

• General Office Requirements

We are proud to offer a competitive compensation package at McKesson as part of our Total Rewards. This is determined by several factors, including performance, experience and skills, equity, regular job market evaluations, and geogra