Director, Agentic Lab

Role Description

Reporting to the Executive Director, Agentic Architecture & Lab, the Director, Agentic Lab leads the design, prototyping, and validation of next-generation AI agents and autonomous workflows. The role evaluates emerging AI technologies, develops reusable reference implementations, and partners with engineering teams to transition successful innovations into enterprise-scale capabilities.

This position can be based remotely anywhere in the U.S. (there may be some restrictions based on legal entity). Please note that this role would not provide relocation as a result. The expectation of working hours and travel (domestic and/or international) will be defined by the hiring manager. This position will require 10% travel.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 7+ years of experience building AI, machine learning, or software engineering solutions, including technical leadership experience.
• Hands-on expertise with LLMs, agent frameworks, RAG, vector databases, APIs, Python, and cloud-native development.
• Strong software engineering background with experience building production-grade AI applications.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to work across research, engineering, and business teams.

Requirements

• Lead rapid prototyping and technical validation of agentic AI solutions and autonomous workflows.
• Evaluate foundation models, agent frameworks, orchestration technologies, and developer tooling.
• Develop reusable proof-of-concepts, accelerators, and reference implementations for the Agentic Factory.
• Partner with AI Engineering, Platform Engineering, Product, and Architecture teams to productionize successful prototypes.
• Define best practices for prompt engineering, reasoning strategies, memory architectures, evaluation, and observability.
• Contribute to enterprise standards, documentation, and reusable engineering patterns for AI agents.
• Mentor AI engineers and cultivate a culture of experimentation, innovation, and continuous learning.

Benefits

• The salary for this position is expected to range between $194,600 and $361,400 per year.
• The final salary offered is determined based on factors like relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically.
• Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards.
• US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a variety of other benefits.
• Employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.