Senior Director, Data and AI Engineer

Job Summary

Senior Director, Data and AI Engineering will be a visionary and strategic leader responsible for defining and executing the data and AI engineering strategy across the entire R&D value chain with a deep knowledge of AI and R&D Data. This role will empower scientific and business functions—including drug development, clinical trials, real‑world data evidence—by delivering robust, scalable, and compliant data and AI foundations and implementing advanced data, AI and Generative AI (Gen AI) solutions.

• Define and drive the strategic vision and roadmap for data engineering, AI, and Gen AI capabilities within R&D, aligning with overall business objectives and scientific priorities.
• Serve as a key thought leader and trusted advisor to senior R&D leadership on opportunities and risks related to AI and data technologies.
• Evaluate and adopt emerging data and AI technologies, balancing new opportunities with the need for scalability, reliability, and regulatory compliance.

• Deliver leading edge engineering approaches, effective enterprise data strategy (clinical, operational, and real‑world data), robust and responsible AI/ML model development, and fit‑for‑purpose clinical development data stewardship strategies to enable key data insights.
• Lead and deliver the design, development, and deployment of extensible and scalable data engineering for complex R&D data, including structured, unstructured (text, imaging, sensor data, medical devices, digital apps) and real‑time data.
• Oversee the implementation of AI and Gen AI use cases from ideation to production deployment, managing the application life‑cycle.
• Lead and deliver data processing, representations, and AI engineering for applications such as clinical trial optimization, patient recruitment, content authoring automation, asset management, pharmacovigilance, quality, regulatory, and enterprise functions, real‑world data, sensor and medical device data, and omics data.
• Champion engineering best practices, review AI solution architectures, and ensure data & AI observability for technical consistency and governance.
• Architect and scale MLOps practices for in‑house applications to support the entire model lifecycle—from experimentation and deployment to monitoring and retraining—while ensuring automation and reproducibility.
• Drive awareness of AI/ML applications and the importance of a strong Data and AI engineering foundation across the organization.
• Provide technical and engineering support for Data and Information Governance, quality, and FAIR data.

• Build, mentor, and lead a high‑performing, collaborative team of data engineers, AI/ML engineers, and life‑cycle support.
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and accountability within and across the team.
• Effectively manage budget, resource allocation, and project timelines for the data and AI engineering portfolio.

• Ensure that all data and AI initiatives and applications adhere to internal governance standards, data privacy regulations (GxP, HIPAA), and responsible AI principles.
• Collaborate with Legal and Compliance teams to embed auditability and traceability into AI and Gen AI workflows.
• Serve as an AI and Data engineering expert for internal portfolio and organization‑wide initiatives, reviews, and AI committees.
• Establish and manage robust monitoring, alerting, and incident response processes for all AI capabilities.
• Effectively manage and provide oversight on vendors and vendor resources supporting the data and AI engineering portfolio.
• Lead or participate in meetings related to Data or AI, its impact, enablement, governance, and roadmap strategy.

• Work closely with the Data and AI Platform team, leveraging platform capabilities and solutions provided by IT.
• Build strong, trusted relationships with key stakeholders across R&D, scientific and operations AI data science teams, other DnA pillars, IT, and external partners.
• Partner with R&D teams to translate complex scientific challenges into clear, executable data and AI projects.
• Communicate…