Associate Director, AI Development Lead

Role Description

The Associate Director, AI Development Lead is a strategic technical leader responsible for advancing Jazz Pharmaceuticals' enterprise AI capability and driving measurable business value through artificial intelligence and machine learning. Reporting to the Director, Enterprise AI, this role will spend much of its time in delivery — designing systems, writing production-quality code, reviewing colleagues’ work, and guiding a small team of AI developers working across traditional data science (AI/ML) and modern Generative AI (GenAI) approaches.

AI development at Jazz follows a hub-and-spoke operating model:

• Business functions (spokes) own use-case prioritization, stakeholder alignment, early-stage ideation, and some proof-of-concept development.
• The central Digital Enterprise Capabilities (DEC) team (hub) serves as an advisory partner and progressively takes on a hands-on development role as solutions mature.

The role will also partner with the Director, Enterprise AI and the VP of Data, AI, and Research to help shape Jazz's enterprise AI strategy.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and be accountable for the technical work of others.
• Demonstrated experience leading offshore or near shore development teams required.
• Hands-on technical depth in building and shipping ML/GenAI solutions to production.
• Proficiency in writing production-quality code and designing AI/ML architecture.
• Strong understanding of core machine learning algorithms and statistical modeling techniques.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g. Python, R) and ML frameworks (such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn).
• Strong understanding of modern Generative AI concepts and approaches.
• Significant hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, GCP, or Azure); AWS or GCP preferred.
• Familiarity with AI governance and risk frameworks.
• Excellent communication skills with ability to explain complex technical concepts in clear, non-technical terms.

Requirements

• Build and ship end-to-end ML solutions — data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Design and ship end-to-end GenAI solutions — including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, agentic workflows, vector stores, and integrations with foundation model APIs.
• Write production-quality code (Python or related languages/frameworks) with attention to readability, modularity, scalability, performance, and maintainability.
• Design and review architectures across Gen AI and AI/ML solutions that are secure, reusable, and rigorous.
• Debug, profile, and optimize solutions — including cost, latency, accuracy, and reliability trade-offs.
• Support deployment and post-deployment operations, including CI/CD, observability, model monitoring, drift detection, and incident response.
• Establish and continuously refine technical standards for development.
• Lead a small team of AI developers across traditional ML and Generative AI.
• Be accountable for the quality and outcomes of the team's work.
• Mentor team members through code & design review.
• Plan and sequence delivery work in partnership with stakeholders.
• Help recruit, onboard, and grow AI talent as the team expands.
• Serve as a go-to technical advisor to teams across Jazz.
• Evaluate AI use cases and proposed solutions for technical feasibility, data readiness, value, and risk.
• Support build-vs-buy decisions with a clear-eyed view of time-to-value, total cost of ownership, extensibility, and vendor risk.
• Partner with the Director, Enterprise AI and the VP of Data, AI, and Research to help shape and execute Jazz's enterprise AI strategy.
• Contribute to the maturation of the AI capability through reference architectures, MLOps practices, evaluation frameworks, and reusable components.
• Help define and apply Responsible AI practices across the work the team delivers and supports.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure, InfoSec, and Compliance to ensure AI solutions meet enterprise standards.
• Build credibility quickly with senior technical and business stakeholders.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401k retirement savings plan.
• Flexible paid vacation.
• Discretionary annual cash bonus or incentive compensation.
• Discretionary equity grants.