Principal, IT Engineering Enablement - AI Platforms | Onsite San Diego HQ

Who We Are:

Neurocrine Biosciences is a leading biopharmaceutical company with a simple purpose: to relieve suffering for people with great needs. We are dedicated to discovering, developing and commercializing life-changing treatments for patients with under-addressed neurological, psychiatric, endocrine and immunological disorders. The company's diverse portfolio includes FDA-approved treatments for tardive dyskinesia, chorea associated with Huntington's disease, classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia, hyperphagia in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome, endometriosis* and uterine fibroids*, as well as a robust pipeline including multiple compounds in mid- to late-phase clinical development across our core therapeutic areas. For more than three decades, we have applied our unique insight into neuroscience and the interconnections between brain and body systems to treat complex conditions. We relentlessly pursue medicines to ease the burden of debilitating diseases and disorders, because you deserve brave science. For more information, visit neurocrine.com, and follow the company on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and YouTube. (*in collaboration with AbbVie)

About the Role:
The Principal, IT Engineering Enablement - AI leads enterprise-wide initiatives that define, deliver, and mature Neurocrine's core AI and machine learning platforms. This role combines technical program leadership, platform product management, and strategic advisory responsibilities to accelerate enterprise adoption of secure, scalable, and governed AI capabilities. This role partners with Engineering, Data, Cybersecurity, Tech Enablement & Adoption, Compliance and business stakeholders to architect platform strategy, own the AI services roadmap, and orchestrate multi-team execution across complex workstreams. Acting as the organization's primary technical AI subject-matter expert, this role drives evaluation of emerging models and technologies, ensures alignment to Responsible AI principles, and shapes the long-term platform foundation that enables advanced analytics, automation, and AI-powered applications across Neurocrine.

Your Contributions (include, but are not limited to):

AI Platform Leadership & Product Ownership

• Owns the strategy, roadmap, and lifecycle for Neurocrine's AI/ML platforms-including model orchestration, RAG pipelines, embeddings services, prompt governance, vector search, and model performance monitoring.
• Leads evaluation, selection, and integration of foundation models, third-party AI services, and emerging technologies to support enterprise AI use cases.
• Defines platform requirements, success metrics, technical capabilities, and prioritization aligned with business value and risk considerations.
• Develops ROI models for AI use cases and builds executive presentations and updates

Enterprise AI Strategy & Advisory

• Serves as the company's primary AI technical SME, advising leadership and cross-functional teams on AI feasibility, solution patterns, risks, and architectural alignment.
• Partners with business units to shape AI concepts into actionable initiatives, ensuring platform capabilities and governance frameworks are consistently applied.
• Identifies new opportunities for scalable AI adoption across functions, proactively recommending platform enhancements and enterprise best practices.

Responsible AI, Governance & Compliance

• Leads the development and ongoing stewardship of Neurocrine's Responsible AI governance framework, including council facilitation, policy creation, risk assessments, and guardrails for safe and compliant use of AI technologies.
• Partners with Legal, Cybersecurity, Data Privacy, Tech Enablement & Adoption, and Compliance to ensure platform standards meet regulatory, ethical, and organizational requirements.
• Defines operational readiness and auditability criteria for AI-enabled solutions across the enterprise.

Cross-Functional Program Execution

• Drives the end-to-end execution of AI and platform initiatives-requirements, dependency management, engineering coordination, release readiness, and enterprise rollout.
• Orchestrates work across engineering, data, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and product teams to deliver integrated, scalable, and secure platform capabilities.
• Implements and reinforces Agile/Scrum practices to improve transparency, delivery velocity, and alignment across multi-team programs.

• Identifies and mitigates platform bottlenecks or risks related to scalability, security, cost, or developer experience.
• Continuously evaluates industry trends to recommend platform evolutions that improve long-term sustainability and enterprise value.

Platform Health, Telemetry & Continuous Improvement

• Establishes and monitors platform KPIs-including availability, performance, adoption, SLOs, usage patterns, and business impact-to guide roadmap and operational improvements. Key areas include:
  
  • Business impact (time saved, revenue uplift, cycle time reduction, etc.)
  • Quality of Response (Accuracy, hallucination rate, latency, quality, etc.)
  • Management of usage and tokenization optimization
• Identifies and mitigates platform bottlenecks or risks related to scalability, security, cost, or developer experience.
• Continuously evaluates industry trends to recommend platform evolutions that improve long-term sustainability and enterprise value.

Collaboration With Technology Enablement & Adoption

• Partners closely with the Technical Enablement & Adoption Manager to ensure consistent onboarding, training, and communication for new AI capabilities.
• Contributes subject-matter expertise to enablement content, adoption campaigns, and enterprise training-without serving as the primary owner of these functions.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• PMP certification (or in progress) strongly preferred
• 10+ years of relevant experience, including a combination of education and professional experience, in IT or related disciplines, ideally within the pharmaceutical industry or similar regulated environment
• Working knowledge of enterprise AI components:
• RAG pipelines
• Embedding services
• LLM orchestration and evaluation
• Prompt governance
• Model performance monitoring
• Understanding of foundation models, vector databases, third-party AI services, and AI safety/responsible AI concepts
• Experience delivering automation frameworks, integration platforms, and reusable services
• Understanding of telemetry, observability, SLOs, performance tuning, and platform reliability practices
• Familiarity with data privacy, security requirements, and governance frameworks
• Understanding of platform governance models-API lifecycle, versioning, access policies, auditability
• Ability to define platform vision, multi-year roadmaps, and measurable KPIs
• Experience evaluating emerging technologies and making strategic recommendations
• Strong ability to drive complex, multi-team initiatives with clarity and momentum
• Skilled at influencing without authority across engineering, data, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders
• High-quality communication (written, verbal, executive-level summarization)
• Expert in Agile/Scrum delivery, backlog management, milestone tracking, and risk mitigation
• Demonstrated ability to run end-to-end program lifecycles-requirements, prioritization, delivery, rollout, and adoption
• Skilled in structured decision-making and cross-functional alignment
• Ability to translate ambiguous business needs into actionable technical roadmaps
• Strong analytical mindset with a bias toward data-driven decisions
• Comfortable using metrics/telemetry to diagnose issues and measure outcomes
• Experience driving enterprise-wide adoption, onboarding, and training
• Able to facilitate complex discussions, manage competing priorities, and resolve blockers

Neurocrine Biosciences is an EEO/Disability/Vets employer.


We are committed to building a workplace of belonging, respect, and empowerment, and we recognize there are a variety of ways to meet our requirements. We are looking for the best candidate for the job and encourage you to apply even if your experience or qualifications don't line up to exactly what we have outlined in the job description.

The annual base salary we reasonably expect to pay is $132,700.00-$182,000.00. Individual pay decisions depend on various factors, such as primary work location, complexity and responsibility of role, job duties/requirements, and relevant experience and skills. In addition, this position offers an annual bonus with a target of 30% of the earned base salary and eligibility to participate in our equity based long term incentive program. Benefits offered include a retirement savings plan (with company match), paid vacation, holiday and personal days, paid caregiver/parental and medical leave, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans.