Senior Director, Applied AI Solutions

At Gilead were creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years weve tackled diseases such as HIV viral hepatitis COVID-19 and cancer working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the worlds biggest health challenges and our mission requires collaboration determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.

Every member of Gileads team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions and were looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible together.

Job Description

The Senior Director Applied AI Solutions leads the applied AI function within the AI Research Center (ARC) part of Gileads Clinical Data Science (CDS) organization in Drug Development. As CDSs center of excellence for applied AI this leader is accountable for the technical and product path from a prioritized AI use case defined by CDS functional organizations to a trusted reusable capability in production spanning discovery experimentation technical validation first production release adoption support and measured value.

The ownership model is deliberate. Business ownership of priorities requirements funding process change and workflow outcomes remains with the CDS and Development functions including Clinical Data Engineering & Analytics (CDEA) and Statistical Programming. Enterprise platform services infrastructure and scaled production operations and support remain with Enterprise IT and Development Systems. This role supplies the AI expertise solution engineering and delivery capacity that make both possible and is measured on how effectively it accelerates outcomes owned by others.

The role combines technical depth product-minded execution and people leadership. You will define ARCs applied AI engineering practices model and prompt lifecycle evaluation agent design patterns solution architecture and influence the enterprise engineering and architecture standards owned by IT while remaining close enough to the work to make consequential design decisions and to lead multidisciplinary teams building AI systems for internal CDS and Development users.

Priority domains for AI enablement may include clinical data review and insights study design and operations biomarker and real-world data workflows safety and risk detection regulatory evidence generation and scientific knowledge each of these domains the owning CDS or Development function leads its own workflow and process transformation agenda; this role provides the AI solutions methods and technical expertise that enable it.

Applied AI Solutions favors reusable capabilities over isolated proofs of concept. The team builds on Gileads approved data cloud security privacy and responsible-AI foundations and on the enterprise platform services provided by IT and partners closely with ARCs Product Management & Experiences (PMx) and AI Acceleration (AIx) functional (scientific and operational) teams as well as with Development Systems Enterprise IT Information Security Privacy Legal Quality CDEA Statistical Programming and business stakeholders.

The mandate: turn high-value Clinical Data Science and Development AI problems as prioritized by their business owners into trusted reusable production-grade AI capabilities that improve how Gilead designs conducts analyzes and learns from clinical development.

Key Responsibilities

As the Senior Director of Applied AI Solutions you will:

Applied AI engineering roadmap. In partnership with CDS and Development business owners Enterprise IT and ARC leadership translate prioritized AI demand into a multi-year applied AI engineering and delivery plan tied to CDS and Development outcomes. Business owners decide what to pursue and why; you bring the AI expertise that informs those decisions feasibility solution options effort data readiness reuse potential and technical risk recommend sequencing and supply the evidence that allows owners and governance forums to decide whether to scale redesign or stop an initiative. Anchor on the core high-value Development AI priorities while also enabling CDS priorities beyond DevAI and IT-funded use cases; for those outside the enterprise-funded portfolio CDS functional leaders hold business ownership of the roadmap and requirements and this role builds agents and solutions directly or guides partners to evaluate select and integrate the right third-party capabilities.

• AI solution design and delivery (01). Own the design build evaluation and technical validation of AI services applications agents and shared components through first production -design with Enterprise IT and Development Systems from the outset so that solutions are built for scale then hand over to IT-owned platform and operations for enterprise scaling and sustained run remaining the accountable AI technical partner after transition. Establish reference solutions and workflow designs for model gateways retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) semantic search knowledge graphs multimodal AI tool use workflow orchestration human review and integration with validated enterprise systems.
• Agentic systems and interoperability. Guide the responsible use of agentic patterns for bounded auditable CDS partnership with Enterprise IT Information Security and Privacy use open interoperability protocols such as MCP and A2A where appropriate to connect AI applications and agents to governed data tools and workflows and ensure authorization least-privilege access provenance action controls and human escalation are designed in from the start and that agents are registered in the enterprise agent registry.
• AI engineering excellence. Define and uphold ARCs applied AI engineering practices data contracts model and prompt lifecycle management evaluation harnesses LLMOps/MLOps automated testing and reproducible releases while adopting and contributing to the enterprise standards owned by IT for software engineering infrastructure as code CI/CD and security. Build for reliability latency cost maintainability portability and graceful failure not demonstrations alone.
• Evaluation observability and responsible AI. Make evaluation a first-class engineering discipline. Establish offline and online evals gold-standard datasets task and outcome metrics trace-based observability model and data monitoring adversarial testing and incident response. Partner with Responsible AI enterprise teams and control functions to implement risk-tiered governance privacy security records auditability explainability and GxP or regulatory controls when applicable.
• Adoption and value realization. Co-own product discovery and experience design with PMx and support adoption alongside CDS workflow owners. Operate as an expert partner not a gatekeeper augmenting their workflows while they retain ownership of priorities requirements process change and outcomes. Working from baselines the business defines instrument and report the scientific operational quality and user outcomes AI solutions deliver: cycle-time reduction improved signal detection decision quality reuse reliability and sustained utilization.
• Team and technical leadership. Build lead and develop a high-performing team spanning applied AI machine learning and software and data engineering. Set a high technical bar through technical design reviews design critiques coaching and selective hands-on prototyping. Create clear career paths succession plans and an inclusive culture of scientific rigor learning accountability and responsible experimentation.
• Ecosystem stewardship. Contribute the AI assessment that informs build buy and partner decisions taken jointly with business owners and IT; manage strategic AI vendors within that framework; and assess emerging models frameworks and protocols through evidence-based benchmarks. Represent Gilead in selected external collaborations while protecting confidential data intellectual property and freedom to operate.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• A focused CDS and Development AI portfolio with transparent priorities set by business owners accountable delivery owners measurable outcomes and fewer disconnected pilots.
• Reusable AI capabilities built on the enterprise platform and integration patterns co-designed with IT that shorten the path from a validated use case to a supported production service.
• Several high-value CDS and Development workflows operating in production delivered with ARC and transitioned cleanly to IT-supported operations with appropriate human oversight documented controls reliable performance and sustained user adoption.
• An evaluation and observability system that makes quality safety cost latency data provenance and business impact visible throughout the AI lifecycle.
• A recognized center of excellence for applied AI that raises AI capability across CDS and the broader Development organization and is trusted by scientific clinical technology and governance partners as the AI expert partner of choice.
• Business owners in CDS and Development report that ARC accelerated their prioritized outcomes without displacing their accountability for them.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelors degree with 14 years of relevant experience Masters degree with 13 years or PhD with 12 years in computer science engineering data science computational science bioinformatics or a related quantitative field.
• Meaningful current hands-on experience. Direct recent experience personally developing and maintaining AI systems and applications not solely theoretical knowledge or management oversight. This includes writing and committing code reviewing pull requests debugging and troubleshooting production issues with the depth and currency needed to make sound technical design decisions experiment credibly and stay hands-on as technology evolves.
• Substantial experience leading applied AI ML or data engineering organizations while remaining technically hands-on and personally delivering business-critical systems in complex enterprises.
• Demonstrated delivery of AI products or reusable capabilities from problem framing data and technical design decisions and experimentation through validated release adoption and value measurement working with central platform and IT organizations that own infrastructure and scaled operations.
• Deep working knowledge of modern AI system design including foundation models and LLMs RAG and semantic retrieval agent and tool orchestration model selection and routing structured outputs evaluation guardrails and human-in-the-loop patterns.
• Strong software and platform engineering judgment across APIs distributed systems cloud services data design security CI/CD MLOps/LLMOps observability and production reliability sufficient to design AI solutions that meet enterprise standards and to partner credibly with IT platform and architecture teams.
• Experience implementing AI in environments with rigorous privacy security quality compliance validation or regulatory expectations.
• Track record of hiring developing and retaining multidisciplinary technical teams and coaching senior engineers and technical leaders.
• Executive-level communication and influence with the ability to translate between scientific or business needs product choices technical design tradeoffs risk and investment.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in pharmaceutical biotechnology healthcare or another regulated scientific domain with familiarity across clinical development data and workflows.
• Experience applying AI to clinical data review study design or operations safety biomarkers real-world evidence regulatory evidence or scientific knowledge workflows in support of the functions that own those workflows.
• Practical experience designing or governing MCP servers and clients A2A-enabled systems or comparable open vendor-neutral interoperability patterns.
• Experience with multimodal biomedical data ontologies knowledge graphs privacy-preserving methods causal inference or statistical and ML methods used in clinical research.
• Evidence of external technical leadership through open-source contributions patents peer-reviewed work conference presentations standards participation or substantive industry collaborations.

KEY SKILLS FOR SUCCESS

• Applied AI judgment. Selects fit-for-purpose methods and knows when deterministic software analytics classical ML generative AI or an agentic approach is the right solution and advises business and IT partners so their investment decisions are well informed.
• Technical credibility. Engages deeply in AI solution design and engineering decisions while enabling senior technical leaders to own execution and aligns with IT-owned architecture and platform decisions for scaled systems.
• Scientific partnership. Builds trust with clinical and data science experts; respects evidence uncertainty provenance and reproducibility.
• Product and execution focus. Starts from the workflows and measurable outcomes defined by business owners delivers iteratively and prepares solutions for scaling with IT only when the evidence supports it.
• Responsible innovation. Moves with urgency while treating privacy security patient impact compliance and reliability as design requirements.
• Enterprise partnership. Works across business functions IT Development Systems and control functions to convert ambiguity into clear interfaces shared decisions and explicit accountability respecting where each decision rightly sits.

The salary range for this position is: $243100.00 - $314600.00. Gilead considers a variety of factors when determining base compensation including experience qualifications and geographic location. These considerations mean actual compensation will vary. This position may also be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus discretionary stock-based long-term incentives (eligibility may vary based on role) paid time off and a benefits package. Benefits include company-sponsored medical dental vision and life insurance plans*.

For additional benefits information visit:

Eligible employees may participate in benefit plans subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable plans.

Gilead Sciences Inc. is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and is dedicated to fostering an inclusive work environment comprised of diverse perspectives backgrounds and experiences. Employment decisions regarding recruitment and selection will be made without discrimination based on race color religion national origin sex age sexual orientation physical or mental disabilitygenetic information or characteristic gender identity and expression veteran status or other non-job related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal state and local order to ensure reasonable accommodation for individuals protected by Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Act of 1974 and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 applicants who require accommodation in the job application process may contact for assistance.

For more information about equal employment opportunity protections please view theKnow Your Rights poster.

NOTICE: EMPLOYEE POLYGRAPH PROTECTION ACT
YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Gilead Sciences will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about discussed or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge (b) in furtherance of an investigation proceeding hearing or action including an investigation conducted by the employer (c) consistent with the legal duty to furnish information; or (d) otherwise protected by law.

Our environment respects individual differences and recognizes each employee as an integral member of our company. Our workforce reflects these values and celebrates the individuals who make up our growing team.

Gilead provides a work environment free of harassment and prohibited conduct. We promote and support individual differences and diversity of thoughts and opinion.

Please apply via the Internal Career Opportunities portal in Workday.