How four IQVIANs landed roles in Healthcare-grade AI™

Explore the unique career journeys of four IQVIANs in Healthcare-grade AI™. Discover how curiosity and innovation drive impactful careers at IQVIA.

By Trudy Stein, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

As I reflect on the ongoing development of IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI™, I see our people at the center of a revolution that promises to transform life sciences, patient care, and public health. While we’ve always needed people with a variety of skills and backgrounds to work at the intersection of technology and human potential, I believe this moment is unique. There’s no “one-size” career roadmap for all the opportunities springing from the recent advances in generative AI. As a result, many IQVIANs working in our AI spaces have come from unexpected quarters.

Let me share four unique career stories that I hope will inspire everyone who wonders if they can build their own career path at IQVIA as their curiosity evolves alongside the changing world.

From circuit boards to clinical solutions

One of our AI engineers in IQVIA’s AI for Healthcare and Medtech group started his career far from AI as an R&D engineer at LG Electronics working on microwave circuit boards. IQVIA gave him the opportunity to switch careers, starting with back-end software development for a patient analytics tool. At the encouragement of his manager, he attended IQVIA’s AI/ML school in India before moving into his current group where he’s become excited about the healthcare-specific possibilities in AI. He has worked on diverse projects, from predicting pulmonary arterial hypertension, to specialty drug purchases for a rare disease, and now a large initiative in Saudi Arabia focused on using AI for disease diagnosis. He enjoys learning about the medical and clinical aspects of diseases from the clinicians who work alongside him, and he credits his managers and his love of learning for his ability to keep growing at IQVIA.

One of the things that stands out is how his manager encouraged him to branch out from software development into AI when he expressed an interest, even when he wondered if the jump was possible. When you’re curious about another direction, your manager can make all the difference – asking you the right questions at the right time, connecting you to new people, and encouraging you to move past any doubts you may have.

An “all-in” commitment to AI

An associate consultant in IQVIA’s Strategy/Life Sciences Consulting group started his career here in a role that balanced strategy consulting with data science, allowing him to engage with clients while honing his technical skills. He saw opportunities to use the technology to overcome previous manual hurdles and speed up results delivery when generative AI as we know it today came onto the scene. After a discussion with his manager, he now devotes most of his time to data science and coding. He is working on various use cases related to unlocking the value of IQVIA’s data to deliver commercial efficiencies for clients and internal teams. He values the collaborative spirit across different IQVIA AI teams, where bi-weekly roundtables encourage knowledge-sharing and collective problem-solving. He’s also come full circle with his consulting experience, as he is now preparing to share his knowledge with consultant colleagues through a training course he developed.

His career trajectory is a prime example of how curiosity and a collaborative spirit can fuel professional growth. By seeking out opportunities that align with his interests and the company’s direction, he has found work he’s passionate about. And he actively collaborates with different teams, contributing to discussions that are helping our AI community at IQVIA innovate together and stay up to date with the latest AI trends and tools.

From AI development to product strategy

One of our AI product managers started his career as a chemist who had always enjoyed working with computers. Now, he turns AI healthcare technology into viable products, translating the science and technology into practical applications that make a difference to patients. His career journey has included drug discovery projects in academia targeting ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and Alzheimer’s, then lending his scientific and computational expertise to a small AI drug discovery startup that later became Benevolent AI. While there he made the career switch to product management leading development of a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering. Bringing those skills to IQVIA, he has built out new products and strategy for AI offerings covering patient analytics, improving disease adherence, and predicting disease progression.

This is a great example of how someone with “multiple careers” can build the interdisciplinary skill set our work at IQVIA often demands. I also think it’s worth noting that he trained as a computational chemist and developed his business acumen along the way. At IQVIA we emphasize learning options outside the traditional classroom so employees can tailor their learning to fit their needs. We even have our own IQVIA Learning Academy that employees can use to build critical business and tech skills for today and in the future.

A leap from clinical to AI

Our strategic operations director for the Applied AI Science group spent her first 12 years at IQVIA in clinical project management, initially managing real world evidence studies directly, then as Evidence Strategy Lead, collaborating with clients and various internal teams on fitting IQVIA solutions to client needs. She loved her work, but in 2022, she was ready for another challenge, and had become curious about the technology side of our business.

With IT experience equivalent to “logging a help desk ticket,” she made a lateral move into the Applied AI Science group. The transition from clinical to AI was a challenge, between the new “acronym soup” and niche technology concepts. But she took the opportunity to expand her skills, completing the IQVIA Generative AI Foundational Learning Path and using other resources in our Tech and Analytics Lab. She also became a certified SCRUM master. She now works in strategic operations and relationship management, where AI applications are transforming healthcare and clinical research, leading to better patient outcomes, more efficient operations, and accelerated innovation.

When I hear stories like this one, I’m reminded of how valuable lateral moves can be to help a person find their next passion. Moving around and doing new things can be both exhilarating to the employee and valuable to IQVIA, where our innovations tend to be interdisciplinary. If you typically think of careers as ladders, lean back and look around. You just might find your next opportunity when you broaden your view.

Charting your own career at IQVIA

I hope these stories illustrate how your next career adventure may just be a conversation or a course away. While each journey into IQVIA AI is as unique as the IQVIAN behind it, these narratives all reflect the courage to embrace change, lean on strong leadership support, and follow the boundless opportunities that arise from curiosity. Whether you’re making a lateral move, diving into a new field, or expanding your skill set, if you’re working at IQVIA, every step you take is a stride towards innovation and impact on healthcare and patient outcomes.