Senior Director, Applied AI, Design & Innovation

Role Description

The Sr. Director, Applied AI will be responsible for leading the cross-functional design delivery team and is ultimately accountable for the overall operational strategy and study/site feasibility processes, systems, and people that support the entire portfolio across our three therapeutic areas of Virology, Oncology, and Inflammation.

This role is also responsible for project leadership of Development level AI initiatives that aim to continue the development of our AI capabilities within the Design & Innovation scope and beyond to also include priority deliverables for Clinical Operations.

This leader will serve as a strategic integrator across Clinical Operations, Clinical Development, Clinical Data Science, Regulatory, Medical Affairs, Commercial, and IT translating complex operational and clinical needs into coherent, realistic, and trackable innovation and AI strategies.

Core Responsibilities

• Enterprise AI Strategy & Capability Leadership
  • Define and own the multi-year Applied AI roadmap for Clinical Development & Operations, aligned to Gilead's enterprise AI strategy and portfolio priorities.
  • Build, scale, and lead a center-of-excellence team spanning data science, ML engineering, GenAI product development, and AI delivery management.
  • Establish governance, prioritization frameworks, KPIs, and ROI/value-realization models that quantify AI's impact at the trial, program, and portfolio level.
  • Serve as the executive voice of Applied AI to Senior Leadership, R&D governance forums, and external partners.
• Clinical Trial Forecasting & Enrollment Modeling
  • Lead development of predictive enrollment models that improve forecasting accuracy at the country, site, and study level.
  • Build real-time enrollment performance monitoring capabilities to enable earlier, more proactive interventions.
  • Partner with Clinical Operations and Program Management to integrate forecasting outputs into operational planning, resource demand, and budget cycles.
• Trial Design Optimization & Study Feasibility
  • Drive AI/ML-enabled approaches to protocol design optimization, including eligibility criteria simulation, endpoint selection, and protocol complexity scoring.
  • Develop site selection and feasibility models leveraging internal data, external RWD/RWE, and historical performance signals.
  • Partner with Biostatistics and Clinical Development teams to embed AI insights into protocol authoring, design tollgates, and study start-up decisions.
  • Establish, refine, and drive a multi-year AI Innovation strategy aligned to Development and Clinical Operations priorities, operating model evolution, and enterprise AI direction.
  • Lead functional deliverables across Design & Innovation, design delivery, early and late-stage innovation capability development by providing overall operational excellence.
  • Lead the Clinical Intelligence team to support a variety of strategic queries and operational benchmarking for the executive Clinical Operations and Development leadership teams.
  • Shape and manage a portfolio of innovation and AI initiatives aligned to Clinical Operations strategy, business priorities, and value realization goals.
  • Identify, prioritize, and advance high-value innovation and AI use cases that improve clinical program and study design, operational planning, decision support, workflow efficiency, and stakeholder insight generation.
• Real-World Data & Evidence Integration
  • Champion integration of RWD/RWE into trial design, feasibility, and patient identification workflows.
  • Build partnerships with external data platforms and evaluate AI start-ups/vendors to access cutting-edge methodologies.
  • Recommend strategic partnerships, in-licensing, or build-vs-buy decisions to accelerate capability development.
• Cross-Functional Delivery & Change Management
  • Partner with Clinical Operations, Clinical Data Sciences, Biostatistics, Safety, Regulatory, and Digital to ensure AI solutions are designed for adoption, not just deployment.
  • Lead change management, training, and enablement to drive scaled adoption across study teams.
  • Represent Gilead externally with industry consortia, regulators (e.g., FDA), and strategic partners on Applied AI in clinical research.

Qualifications

• Experience leading strategic and complex scientific, operational, and analytical initiatives that support program and study design.
• Demonstrated experience shaping and advancing AI, analytics, digital, or business transformation initiatives in a regulated environment.
• Strong understanding of how to evaluate AI and advanced analytics use cases for business impact, feasibility, scalability, adoption, and operational fit.
• Experience translating business, clinical, and operational needs into scalable technology, analytics, or AI-enabled solutions.
• Experience defining KPI, value, and ROI frameworks for innovation, digital, or AI initiatives.
• Experience leading or supporting portfolio governance, prioritization, and value realization for complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Experience supporting adoption of digital or AI-enabled capabilities through change management, stakeholder engagement, and scalable operating models.
• Understanding of data, platform, and integration considerations required to deploy digital and AI-enabled capabilities in a complex enterprise environment.
• High degree of customer focus and collaboration in a cross-functional team environment.
• Demonstrated planning, organizational, and large-scale budget management skills.
• Inspirational leadership style with the ability to attract talent, build high-performing teams, and influence across a complex matrix.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to lead, coach, and mentor staff and align multifunctional teams around informed risk-taking and data-driven decision-making.
• Advanced capabilities in change management and business transformation.
• Experience leading high-complexity cross-functional initiatives in life sciences.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex problems requiring strong judgment related to domestic and global regulations, guidelines, investigator interactions, and timelines.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including experience presenting scientific, operational, and strategic concepts to executive audiences.
• Experience applying GDPR, HIPAA, information security, privacy, and vendor assessment requirements in the evaluation and implementation of new capabilities and technologies.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree and Fourteen Years' Experience OR Master's degree and Twelve Years' Experience OR PhD and Twelve Years' Experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 14+ years of relevant scientific discipline such as Life Sciences, Information Technology, Computer Science, Pharmacy, Data Science, Business or related field OR 12+ years of relevant experience with an advanced degree or higher.
• Extensive working knowledge of drug development and global clinical trial conduct.
• Prior experience leading organizational transformation and designing or executing large global programs and studies.
• Extensive line management experience, which may include managing other people leaders.
• Experience leading AI initiatives across multiple therapeutic areas (Oncology, Virology, Inflammation a plus).
• Familiarity with MLOps, CI/CD, and AI Platform Architecture in Regulated (GxP) environments.
• Prior engagement with FDA, EMA, or industry consortia on AI/digital innovation/clinical innovation.
• Experience with agentic AI architectures, retrieval-augmented generation, and human-in-the-loop design patterns.
• Track record of published thought leadership or external speaking on AI in clinical research.

Benefits

• The salary range for this position is: $221,000.00 - $286,000.00.
• This position may also be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, discretionary stock-based long-term incentives, paid time off, and a benefits package.
• Benefits include company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans.