Sr Manager, AI

About Inari Inari is the SEEDesign™ company. We embrace the diversity and complexity of nature in every aspect of our business to drive innovation - to push the boundaries of what is possible. Through our unrivaled technology platform, Inari uses predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing to develop step-change products. We are taking a nature positive approach to unlock the full potential of seeds that will transform the food system. The results will lead to more productive acres delivering value creation for farmers and a more sustainable future for our planet. Our success is dependent on great minds, collaborating to generate bright ideas and deliver exceptional outcomes. We have 200 employees, with research sites in Cambridge, MA (USA) and Ghent (Belgium), as well as a product development site in West Lafayette, IN (USA). We've deliberately built a team that brings diversity of thought to all aspects of our business, to generate new ideas, approaches, and ways of operating. And we've intentionally combined experience with potential, bringing agriculture industry experts with the desire to innovate together with bright minds from academia, human therapeutics, software, and consulting. If you want to be part of a diverse and inclusive team developing unique solutions to feed the world while protecting our planet's natural resources, we'd love to hear from you! About the role The Opportunity Inari is transforming sustainable agriculture through AI-driven predictive design and advanced gene editing, and the team building our AI/ML capabilities is central to that mission. We are looking for an AI/ML leader to set the direction and technical standards for our AI Team - you will help define how artificial intelligence (AI) drives Inari to the next-generation of predictive design while staying close to the work that gets us there. You will own the roadmap for machine learning (ML) systems that serve genomic, phenotypic, and multi-omic predictions to scientists as well as the agentic systems we are building. You will balance delivery of production-ready ML workflows against the exploration of new modeling approaches that advance step-change trait improvement in crops. You will decide where we build versus adopt across foundation models, agentic systems, and third-party platforms. You will be accountable for the delivery, quality, and operability of everything your team ships. This is an opportunity to lead in a highly cross-functional environment, working alongside computational biologists, data engineers, software engineers, and crop scientists. What You'll Do Set and execute the technical direction and standards for Inari's AI Team, and find the right balance between shipping production ML workflows and exploring innovative modeling approaches. Define how models are evaluated and validated against experimental and field outcomes, so scientists can trust what they act on. Partner with computational and crop biologists to contextualize heterogeneous biological data and drive research-critical modeling programs. Drive the delivery of applied AI solutions - including agentic, GenAI, RAGs, and foundation models that advance scientific and business outcomes. Manage, mentor, and develop a high-caliber team of ML engineers, along with focused contractor engagements that help deliver specific capabilities. Remain hands-on, applying your technical expertise to solve complex problems and support the team where your contribution will have the greatest impact. Represent the AI Team in leadership conversations, helping shape and deliver Inari's Data & AI Strategy. What You'll Bring Required MS or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Computational Biology, or a related field (or BS with equivalent experience) and 7+ years of experience in machine learning, AI, or related technical roles, with a track record of models & ML pipelines running in production. Strong hands-on ML depth: advanced Python and the scientific stack, with experience training and deploying neural networks in PyTorch and/or TensorFlow. Proven ability to deploy, maintain, and monitor ML models and pipelines at scale, with practical experience across AWS, SageMaker, Docker, MLflow, and Airflow or equivalents. Experience owning a modeling roadmap end to end, from problem framing and evaluation through delivery. Experience leading a technical team, including setting direction, supporting the growth of the engineers on it, and influencing decisions beyond your own team. Strong grasp and practical experience with modern AI systems, including foundation models, RAG, and agentic workflows, with the judgment to know where they do and don't apply. Strong and clear communication with cross-functional leaders, scientific partners, fellow engineers, and the ability to translate between biological questions and ML framings. Great to have Background in life sciences, biotech, AgTech, or another domain where data and AI are centr #J-18808-Ljbffr Inari