Executive Director of Applied AI

Summary

Location Basel, Switzerland

3 days/week in office

Internal

Job Title:

The Executive Director, Applied AI Lead

Novartis is making a significant long-term investment in becoming an AI-first organization, with sponsorship at the highest levels of the company. This is a rare opportunity to shape how generative AI and agentic systems are engineered, deployed and adopted across a global enterprise whose work ultimately supports patients and healthcare systems worldwide. As Executive Director of Applied AI, you will combine technical depth, product thinking and enterprise influence to turn high-value business challenges into secure, scalable AI products and intelligent workflows.

You will lead a small, globally distributed team of applied AI engineers and work directly with senior business and technology leaders to deliver measurable value at scale.

• Define and lead the applied AI deployment strategy, execution roadmap and business integration model across enterprise business units.
• Act as a forward-deployed AI engineering leader, partnering directly with business teams to translate strategic priorities into deployable products, intelligent workflows and redesigned processes.
• Lead end-to-end implementation, customization, integration and scaling of generative AI, agentic systems and workflow automation solutions in production environments.
• Establish delivery frameworks and engineering standards that support scalability, reliability, security, maintainability and sustained operational adoption.
• Build and lead a small, globally distributed team of applied AI engineers, while coordinating cross-functional product and delivery teams.
• Create reusable AI services, accelerators, evaluation frameworks, blueprints and integration patterns that reduce time to value across business domains.
• Partner with data, infrastructure, information security, architecture, compliance and business teams to align solutions with enterprise priorities and regulated-environment requirements.
• Track solution performance, adoption and business value through monitoring, feedback loops, user analysis and continuous service optimization.
• Guide modernization of existing systems and processes so they can integrate with agentic AI products, applied AI models and enterprise technology platforms.
• Communicate business impact, technical transformation vision, delivery progress, risks and investment needs to senior executives and key stakeholders.

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, data science or a related field.
• At least 15 years of progressive experience in technology leadership, enterprise AI transformation or complex solution delivery, including leadership of senior technical and cross-functional teams.
• Deep, hands-on expertise in applied AI delivery, including taking machine learning, generative AI and agentic solutions from concept through production and enterprise-scale adoption.
• Strong software and product engineering grounding, with experience integrating AI into complex enterprise platforms, data environments and operational workflows.
• Demonstrated success defining and scaling enterprise-level AI initiatives, with measurable business value, automation or performance outcomes.
• Consulting or professional-services experience partnering with senior technology and business leaders on enterprise transformation, operating models or technology strategy.
• Proven people leadership and organizational development capability, including building high-performing teams, developing leaders and establishing effective governance.
• Strong executive communication and cross-functional influence skills, with the ability to align priorities, investment decisions and delivery across a complex matrixed organization.

• Master of Science, engineering postgraduate degree or MBA.
• Experience delivering AI solutions in healthcare, life sciences or another complex regulated environment, or prior zero-to-one startup experience.

At Novartis, we’re committed to reimagining medicine together - and rewarding the people who make it happen.