Research & Development Analyst – Life Sciences

Who You'll Work WithDriving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work. You are the kind of person who thrives in a high performance/high reward culture - doing hard things, picking yourself up when you stumble, and having the resilience to try another way forward. In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we'll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities you need to become a stronger leader faster than you ever thought possible.

Your colleagues—at all levels—will invest deeply in your development, just as much as they invest in delivering exceptional results for clients. Every day, you'll receive apprenticeship, coaching, and exposure that will accelerate your growth in ways you won’t find anywhere else. When you join us, you will have: Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development.

The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey. A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes. Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions for our clients.

Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences. World-class benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family. Your ImpactYou will join McKinsey’s San José, Costa Rica office as part of our Life Sciences Intelligence (LSi) team. This is a hybrid role, with 2-3 days per week working in-person from McKinsey’s San José office and potential travel to additional McKinsey or client offices based on project needs.

The LSi team is part of McKinsey’s global Client Capabilities Network (CCN) with more than 3,500 colleagues delivering distinctive client impact and fueled by a culture of innovation. The CCN is our platform for innovating our service to Life Sciences clients, building intellectual property, digital assets, and consistent approaches for delivering high-quality client service. Within the CCN, our Life Sciences team is the second largest industry group in the firm, with 100+ professionals across major hubs in Boston, Lisbon, Poland, India, Japan, and China.

In this role, you will have opportunities for high levels of interaction with Life Sciences consultants and the rest of the LSi team. In this role, you will work with McKinsey colleagues and clients on Life Sciences R&D topics, with a specific focus on Clinical Development. Projects may involve topics such as protocol design benchmarking, trial site selection, study startup orchestration, enrollment support, submission excellence, along with other topics in Development. You may also work on projects involving pre-clinical or early development topics, or on broader R&D and portfolio strategy for pharmaceutical companies.

Most projects will be with pharmaceutical companies, but with potential for additional projects with biotech or CRO clients. You will be working with McKinsey colleagues and clients - a multitude of diverse individuals - to scope business questions and understand, disaggregate, and prioritize their information needs in client engagements. You will problem-solve across various international, cross-functional knowledge & intelligence teams to determine the most appropriate solutions to key issues, effectively balancing quality, availability, timelines, and cost factors.

You will also gain experience working with Generative AI models, and build the skills to craft clear, effective, and relevant prompts for Generative AI models. Your day-to-day work will include generating insights through a range of analytical approaches and tools (e. g. , Excel, R, Generative AI tools) from licensed third-party data, proprietary McKinsey data sets, and external data sets (e. g. , ClinicalTrials.

gov), bringing perspectives based on primary and secondary research as well your prior expertise in R&D, and leveraging external and McKinsey-developed Generative AI tools to automate processes and derive insights to help shape the approach to answering key questions. You will then communicate insights and deliver end products to clients and McKinsey consulting teams in a variety of formats, including memos, PowerPoint presentations and tables.

We believe the Life Sciences R&D practice has exciting years ahead, as we expand our portfolio of offerings in clinical development and change the way we work to incorporate new tech-enabled capabilities in our work across R&D. You will be core to this work, and will help to meaningfully develop and advance our portfolio of proprietary analytical and knowledge assets. In addition to working with consulting teams and clients, you will continuously develop your knowledge and skills in Life Sciences R&D.

Together with LSi colleagues and Life Sciences R&D leadership, you will analyze new topics and trends and integrate them into our existing capabilities infrastructure, or potentially develop new offerings. You can expect extensive coaching and further development opportunities. In addition to mentoring from experienced colleagues, you will regularly take part in high-quality internal training. Your Qualifications and SkillsBachelor's degree in a relevant field (e. g.

, biology, public health, biochemistry) with a consistent outstanding academic record is required; master’s degree is a plus and preferred1+ years of experience and strong interest in pharmaceutical R&D topics from a sponsor, CRO, or site perspective such as clinical science, clinical operations, clinical trial execution, pharmacovigilance, regulatory, medical writing, or other development topicsHigh level of proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and data manipulationAbility to accomplish work in a fast paced and dynamic work environment, including balancing multiple priorities or projects at the same timeExcellent problem-solving skills including the ability to structure a problem, disaggregate issues, identify root causes and recommend solutionsPossesses high quality standards, a commitment to completing tasks within deadlines, and the ability to work under pressureProfessional attitude, work standards and service orientation, and strong team orientationSome experience with crafting clear, effective, and relevant prompts for Generative AI models is a plus, but not requiredSolid understanding of financial, economic and general business concepts and terminologyDemonstrated business research experience in an academic or business setting is preferredExcellent written and verbal communications skills in English and Spanish