Dawar Consulting, Inc. is actively recruiting for a Senior Data Scientist (Pharma / Healthcare) role on behalf of a major biotechnology and life sciences client. The position is fully remote, long-term contract, and comes with a clearly stated pay range. Understanding what this role pays, and what surrounds that number, matters before you apply.
The Base Pay Rate
Dawar Consulting lists the pay at $95 to $102 per hour on a W2 basis, depending on experience. That is the headline number. For a standard 40-hour work week, that translates to roughly $3,800 to $4,080 per week.
Annualized over 52 weeks, the role pays approximately $197,600 to $212,160 per year. This assumes full-time hours without gaps. Contract roles can include downtime between extensions, so actual annual income may vary slightly.
The acronym DOE appears in the listing, meaning "Depending on Experience." Candidates with stronger ML backgrounds, pharma domain knowledge, or GenAI expertise can expect offers closer to the $102 ceiling. Those earlier in their senior career may land near the $95 floor.
W2 Contract vs. Full-Time Employment
This is a W2 contract position, not a direct full-time hire. That distinction is important. On W2, Dawar Consulting acts as your employer of record, handling payroll taxes on your behalf.
Unlike a 1099 independent contractor arrangement, W2 contractors do not pay self-employment taxes out of pocket. The employer covers the employer-side of Social Security and Medicare contributions. That is a meaningful financial benefit that raises the effective value of the hourly rate.
Still, W2 contracts differ from full-time salaried roles in one key way. Job security is tied to contract duration and client renewal decisions, not ongoing employment. The listing notes a long-term contract with possibility of further extension, which signals stability but not permanence.
Benefits Included With This Role
Dawar Consulting offers a benefits package alongside the hourly rate. This separates it from many staffing arrangements that offer pay only. The listed benefits include:
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Paid sick leave
- 401(k) retirement plan
Medical, dental, and vision coverage holds real dollar value. Purchasing individual coverage on the open market can easily cost $400 to $700 per month for a single adult. Having it bundled into a contract role reduces that out-of-pocket burden significantly.
The 401(k) inclusion is notable. Many contract staffing firms do not offer retirement plans, especially on shorter engagements. Whether Dawar Consulting offers an employer match is not specified in the posting. That detail is worth asking about directly during the offer process.
Equity and Bonus Structure
The job listing does not mention equity, stock options, or performance bonuses. This is expected for a contract role placed through a staffing firm. Equity compensation typically comes with direct full-time employment, not staffing engagements.
Candidates who prioritize equity upside may find that tradeoff worth evaluating. However, the hourly rate offered here sits high enough to partially offset the absence of equity. A $200,000-plus annualized rate is competitive with many full-time senior data scientist base salaries in pharma.
How This Compares to Industry Standards
Benchmarking this role against the broader market reveals where Dawar Consulting's offer lands. Senior data scientist salaries in pharma and healthcare vary widely depending on employment type, company size, and location.
Full-Time Salaried Benchmarks
According to data from sources including Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time senior data scientists in pharma typically earn between $140,000 and $185,000 in base salary annually. Large biopharma companies like Pfizer, Genentech, and Eli Lilly add bonuses of 10 to 20 percent and equity grants on top of that.
Total compensation for full-time senior data scientists at major pharma companies can reach $200,000 to $280,000 annually when factoring in all components. That ceiling is higher than what this contract offers. However, contract roles eliminate many of the constraints tied to full-time employment.
Contract and Consulting Rate Benchmarks
For contract data scientists in pharma, $85 to $110 per hour on W2 represents the current market range for senior-level work. The Dawar Consulting rate of $95 to $102 falls squarely in the upper-middle portion of that band. It is a competitive rate, not a standout premium and not a below-market offer.
Contractors with specialized GenAI experience and pharma commercial analytics backgrounds command the top of this range. The job description explicitly calls for LLM experience, LangChain or AutoGen familiarity, and Databricks MLOps expertise. That skill set is in high demand and supports rates at or above the listed ceiling.
What the Role Actually Requires
Understanding the pay means understanding what earns it. This role is not an entry-level data science position. The client, described as a world leader in biotechnology and life sciences, expects serious technical depth.
Required qualifications include:
- Master's or PhD in a quantitative field
- 5 to 7 or more years in data science and machine learning
- Pharma commercial analytics experience preferred
- Strong Python, SQL, and ML modeling skills
- Experience with LLMs and GenAI frameworks
- Hands-on work with Databricks, AWS, or Azure ML
- MLOps knowledge including model versioning and CI/CD pipelines
Core responsibilities include building predictive patient event models, scaling Next Best Action engines for HCP engagement, and developing GenAI agents and RAG workflows. These are high-complexity deliverables. The pay reflects that complexity appropriately.
Remote Work and Location Premium
The position is fully remote, which adds meaningful value beyond the stated hourly rate. Remote work eliminates commuting costs, allows geographic flexibility, and often reduces daily living expenses. For candidates outside expensive coastal metros, the effective purchasing power of this rate increases considerably.
Candidates based in lower cost-of-living states earn the same rate as those in San Francisco or New York. That geographic neutrality is a genuine financial benefit in a remote-first role. It is a factor worth including in any total compensation calculation.
Is This Pay Competitive Enough to Consider
For a long-term W2 contract with benefits in pharma data science, the $95 to $102 hourly range is a solid offer. It reflects current market rates for senior ML talent with GenAI and pharma domain expertise. The fully remote setup adds flexibility that many full-time roles still do not provide.
Candidates comparing this to full-time roles should weigh the absence of equity and the contract nature against the strong hourly rate, included benefits, and remote flexibility. For professionals who prefer contract work, or those seeking re-entry into pharma analytics, this role represents a competitive opportunity at a reputable biotechnology client.
Interested candidates can send their updated resume to hr@dawarconsulting.com or lakshmi@dawarconsulting.com. The full job listing is available at Dawar Consulting Senior Data Scientist on Himalayas.
