Associate Director, Senior AI Engineer

*NOTE: This is a Hybrid position based out of Princeton NJ*

We are seeking a hands on Sr. AI Platform Engineer (Associate Director) to collaborate and drive platform aligned AI outcomes across the enterprise. The role provides engineering leadership and AI solution architecture oversight for platform and framework deliverables - reference patterns and guardrails CI/CD & IaC blueprints governance by design controls observability and cost/performance posture - delivered on approved platforms (Dataiku Azure AI AWS Bedrock/AgentCore Snowflake Cortex). Operating in a regulated pharmaceutical environment you will lead small delivery teams and collaborate with Data Science Cloud/Infrastructure and IT to guide use cases onto secure reliable compliant production pathways while building reusable components and agentic enablement patterns adopted across domains.

• Design and Engineer reusable Agentic AI components and multiagent workflows for planning reasoning memory and tool orchestration using LangChain LangGraph AutoGen and Semantic Kernel.
• Apply emerging AI interaction standards including Model Context Protocol (MCP) and A2A (AgenttoAgent) communication to support scalable multiagent systems.
• Lead small platform/ partner teams to deliver framework components : CI/CD blueprints IaC modules prompt/model versioning evaluation harnesses policyascode observability dashboards (telemetry/drift/safety) and incident runbooks.
• Help and drive enablement of the Agentic AI C4E by creating practitioner knowledge articles supporting and leading office hours and engaging on project scoping architecture reviews and governance alignment.
• Contribute and operationalize enterprise AI reference architectures standards and guardrails to align teams on consistent patterns and quality.
• Implement evaluation frameworks for LLMs prompts safety/guardrails hallucination risk and performance metrics; deemphasize RAG where not required.
• Contribute to enhancing internal AI frameworks orchestration templates and reusable components to improve scalability and delivery consistency.
• Collaborate with Platform Engineering to align deployments with enterprise CI/CD observability governance and operational standards; advance reliability for AI workloads (SLOs telemetry incident prevention) with SRE/SecOps.
• Ensure solutions follow Responsible AI practices security requirements privacybydesign and pharma regulatory controls (GxP 21 CFR Part 11); embed securitybydesign and policy enforcement with documentation and traceability.
• Influence technical priorities sequencing and tradeoffs across partner teams; provide inputs to vendor selection and adoption decisions where relevant.
• Guide solution teams onto approved platform pathways (Dataiku automation Azure/AWS AI services Snowflake Cortex) ensuring scalability reliability (SLOs) security and governed delivery in a regulated setting.
• Influence priorities and sequencing unblock delivery risks and communicate progress risks and value to senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 1012 years of handson experience in Platform Engineering AI/ML LLMOps/MLOps DevOps with a proven track record of building and deploying productiongrade AI systems.
• Depth with cloud AI platform services on Azure (OpenAI Azure AI/ML Cognitive Search) and AWS ( Bedrock AgentCore Comprehend SageMaker) with sound buildvsbuy judgment.
• Strong Python engineering skills and proficiency with FastAPI or Flask for building AIpowered services.
• Handson with Dataiku for workflow orchestration automation scenarios model integration or pluginbased extensions.
• Deep familiarity with Agentic AI frameworks - LangChain LangGraph AutoGen Semantic Kernel - with demonstrated experience building multiagent workflows autonomous task orchestration and toolenabled agent systems. (RAG familiarity is valued but not the primary emphasis.)
• Experience with prompt engineering and iterative prompt refinement for internal LLM use cases.
• Working knowledge of containerization (Docker) CI/CD tooling and vector database integrations (e.g. OpenSearch Pinecone).
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work closely with data scientists engineers security/compliance partners and business stakeholders in a regulated environment.
• Effective communication technical storytelling and problemsolving skills; able to influence technical direction across teams.
• Selfmotivated handson and resultsoriented with continuous learning in GenAI Agentic AI and modern orchestration patterns.

Educational Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Information Technology Engineering or related field (or equivalent experience).

• Preferred Certifications (nice to have):

• Cloud/GenAI: AWS or Azure AI / AWS or Azure Developer / AWS Solutions Architect; AWS Bedrock or Generative AI Machine Learning Specialty.
• Agentic/AI Tooling: LangChain / Semantic Kernel badges or equivalent microcredentials.

Competencies
Accountability for Results - Stay focused on key strategic objectives be accountable for high standards of performance and take an active role in leading change.
Strategic Thinking & Problem Solving - Make decisions considering the long-term impact to customers patients employees and the business.
Patient & Customer Centricity - Maintain an ongoing focus on the needs of our customers and/or key stakeholders.
Impactful Communication - Communicate with logic clarity and respect. Influence at all levels to achieve the best results for Otsuka.
Respectful Collaboration - Seek and value others perspectives and strive for diverse partnerships to enhance work toward common goals.
Empowered Development - Play an active role in professional development as a business imperative.

Minimum $169222.00 - Maximum $253000.00 plus incentive opportunity: The range shown represents a typical pay range or starting pay for individuals who are hired in the role to perform in the United States. Other elements may be used to determine actual pay such as the candidates job experience specific skills and comparison to internal incumbents currently in role. Typically actual pay will be positioned within the established range rather than at its minimum or maximum. This information is provided to applicants in accordance with states and local laws.

Application Deadline : This will be posted for a minimum of 5 business days.

Company benefits: Comprehensive medical dental vision prescription drug coverage company provided basic life accidental death & dismemberment short-term and long-term disability insurance tuition reimbursement student loan assistance a generous 401(k) match flexible time off paid holidays and paid leave programs as well as other company provided benefits.

Come discover more about Otsuka and our benefit offerings; Our Talent Community: Stay connected with Otsuka by joining our Talent Community. Tell us about your interests and well notify you about future opportunities that align with your background. job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of the work being performed by the people assigned to this position. It is not intended to include every job duty and responsibility specific to the position. Otsuka reserves the right to amend and change responsibilities to meet business and organizational needs as necessary.

Otsuka is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will be given consideration for employment without regard to race color sex gender identity or gender expression sexual orientation age disability religion national origin veteran status marital status or any other legally protected characteristic.

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Required Experience:

Director