Lead AI Engineer - AI Reinvent & Engineering

Novo Nordisk; Ballerup; On-site; DKK 743,000 - 1,092,000; Full time

Job summary

Novo Nordisk invites applications for a Lead AI Engineer in Denmark to translate strategic AI use cases into reliable products that create value across Novo Nordisk and for patients. You will guide complex AI deployments, collaborate with product managers and domain experts, and ensure quality through CI/CD and observability practices.

You will work in a cloud-native, cross-functional setup with strong emphasis on responsible AI, data integrity and scalable software delivery.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience building AI/ software products.
• Experience taking AI-centric applications from idea to production in a product or platform team.
• Hands-on experience operating AI in production with evaluation, monitoring, reliability and cost-performance trade-offs.
• A sound foundation in statistical and machine-learning concepts with practical experience of modern AI patterns.
• Strong programming and software engineering skills, including testing, APIs and CI/CD, preferably with GitHub.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools and coding agents as part of software delivery.
• Knowledge of model and tool integrations, MCP and observability approaches.
• Product sense to clarify needs, shape solutions and explain technical choices to diverse audiences.
• Ability to set technical direction across multiple AI deliveries and raise engineering standards through reusable patterns.
• Collaborative mindset, self-motivation and curiosity about evolving AI field.
• An MSc, PhD or similar degree in engineering, computer science, data science, statistics, ML or related field; a BSc with industry experience will be considered.

Responsibilities

• Take AI- and ML-centric use cases from discovery through production in cross-functional product teams across Commercial, Manufacturing & Product Supply and strategic initiatives.
• Engineer the product-specific intelligence layer — data and feature transformations, decision logic, model integrations, knowledge grounding, user-facing services, human-oversight controls and fallback behaviour.
• Partner with product managers and domain experts to frame problems, agree priorities and define meaningful product outcomes.
• Use AI-assisted development tools productively while maintaining high standards for code quality and review.
• Build reliable, scalable, secure and observable solutions with testing, evaluation, documentation and CI/CD practices.
• Apply Responsible AI, data integrity, traceability and auditability in a regulated pharmaceutical environment.
• Collaborate with the AI Foundation team to reuse shared capabilities and turn delivery lessons into reusable components and patterns.

Skills

AI product development

Production ML systems

Statistical ML concepts

Programming & CI/CD

GitHub tooling

AI tooling & agents

Observability patterns

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder alignment

Coaching engineers

Education

MSc/PhD in engineering or related

BSc with relevant industry experience

Tools

Databricks

Snowflake

Azure ML

Unity Catalog

Job description

Department

AI Engineering Solutions, AI Reinvent & Engineering

Enterprise AI

Location

Ballerup, Denmark

Your impact begins here

As Lead AI Engineer, you will turn strategic AI use cases into reliable products that create value across Novo Nordisk and for the people we serve. Working at the intersection of applied AI and software engineering, you will provide technical direction for complex use cases, align stakeholders and help engineers do their best work. Your decisions — whether a problem calls for a predictive model, retrieval-grounded GenAI or an agentic workflow — will shape how AI improves health at scale.

What You'll Bring

• Typically 8+ years of experience building AI or software products; demonstrated scope and capability matter more than tenure alone.
• Experience taking AI-centric applications from idea to production in a product or platform team.
• Hands-on experience operating AI in production, including evaluation, monitoring, reliability and cost-performance trade-offs.
• A sound foundation in statistical and machine-learning concepts with practical experience of modern AI application patterns.
• Strong programming and software engineering skills, including testing, APIs and CI/CD practices, preferably with GitHub.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools and coding agents as part of software delivery.
• Functional knowledge of modern AI interfaces such as model and tool integrations, MCP and observability approaches.
• Product sense and the ability to clarify needs, shape solutions and explain technical choices to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to set technical direction across multiple AI deliveries, resolve cross-team trade-offs and raise engineering standards through coaching and reusable patterns.
• A collaborative mindset, self-motivation and continuous curiosity about the evolving AI field.
• An MSc, PhD or similar degree in engineering, computer science, data science, statistics, machine learning or a related field. A BSc with relevant industry experience will also be considered.

Useful, But Not Essential

• Familiarity with pharma-specific AI domains such as clinical NLP, drug discovery AI, regulatory automation or medical knowledge graphs.
• Experience with Databricks, Snowflake, Azure ML and Unity Catalog in an enterprise data/AI platform context.
• Knowledge of MCP server design and enterprise AI platform architecture patterns.

What You'll Do

• You will take AI- and ML-centric use cases from discovery through production in cross-functional product teams across Commercial, Manufacturing & Product Supply and strategic initiatives.
• Engineer the product-specific intelligence layer — data and feature transformations, decision logic, model integrations, knowledge grounding, user-facing services, human-oversight controls and fallback behaviour.
• Partner with product managers and domain experts to frame problems, agree priorities and define meaningful product outcomes.
• Use AI-assisted development tools productively while maintaining high standards for code quality and review.
• Build reliable, scalable, secure and observable solutions with appropriate testing, evaluation, documentation and CI/CD practices.
• Apply Responsible AI, data integrity, traceability and auditability requirements in a regulated pharmaceutical environment.
• Collaborate with the AI Foundation team to reuse shared capabilities and turn delivery lessons into reusable components and patterns.

Who You'll Work With

You will join AI Engineering Solutions within AI Reinvent & Engineering, part of Enterprise AI. The team brings together engineers with strengths across statistics, machine learning, AI and software engineering. Your day-to-day work will often happen in cross-functional product teams across Commercial, Manufacturing & Product Supply and other business areas — keeping you close to the problems while maintaining strong links to shared practices and the AI Foundation team.

Your closest collaborators include product managers, data scientists, domain experts and engineers. The team is cloud-native, working across Azure, AWS, Databricks, Snowflake, foundation-model APIs and modern AI application frameworks.

For more information, please reach out to Lead AI Engineer, Tankred Ott ([e-mail]).

What You Can Expect Here

You will work in an environment that values technical rigour, experimentation, direct feedback and continuous learning. The role offers opportunities to build new skills through cross-value-chain experiences, work at the forefront of AI and contribute to products used across a global healthcare company. You will be trusted to take ownership and set direction — and your growth as an engineer will directly support progress for people living with serious chronic diseases.

This position is part of a broader hiring initiative spanning three levels of seniority. We encourage candidates to apply for the role that best matches your experience, skills, and career aspirations. Our evaluation process will ensure alignment between your profile and the level at which you can have the greatest impact.

What We Offer

At Novo Nordisk, you'll join a global healthcare company with a distinct culture and strong results. We offer continuous learning, career development, and benefits tailored to your life and career stage.

Salary: For this role, the Annual Base Salary ranges from 742,600.00 to 1,091,600.00DKK, corresponding to the level of the position. The placement within the salary range will be assessed during the recruitment process based on the candidate’s skills, competencies, knowledge, and relevant experience.

Incentives and Benefits: The salary package may include short-term and/or long-term incentives as well as other employee benefits based on position level, location, functional area and relevant market benchmarks.

Learn more about our Reward Philosophy here.

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.

At Novo Nordisk, we're not chasing quick fixes – we're creating lasting change for long-term health. For over 100 years, we've been driven by a single purpose: to defeat serious chronic diseases and help millions of people live healthier lives. This dedication fuels our constant curiosity and inspires us to push the boundaries of what's possible in healthcare. We embrace diverse perspectives, seek out bold ideas, and build partnerships rooted in shared purpose. Together, we're making healthcare more accessible, treating and preventing diseases, and pioneering solutions that create change spanning generations. When you join us, you become part of something bigger – a legacy of impact that reaches far beyond today.