Senior Director, Head of Artificial Intelligence

Immunocore; Oxford; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Immunocore invites a Senior Director, Head of Artificial Intelligence to drive the company-wide AI strategy and governance. You will lead a small team, partner with IT Compliance and Legal, and oversee the AWS agentic platform build (Bedrock/AgentCore) with a focus on safe adoption and value realization across scientific, clinical, and commercial AI opportunities.

You will articulate an enterprise AI operating model, manage vendor relationships, and report to executives on ROI and investment

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in computer science, engineering, computational or life sciences, or related field.
• Typically requires 15+ years of related experience, including years leading AI, data, or digital teams and delivering AI solutions.
• Demonstrated ownership of an enterprise AI strategy and executive-level communication.
• Hands-on depth in LLM applications, cloud AI platforms, and agentic patterns to challenge decisions.

Responsibilities

• Develop Immunocore's enterprise AI strategy and roadmap, aligned with business goals, and lead execution.
• Own the AWS agentic automation platform direction at business/architecture level with unified governance.
• Manage vendor strategy and relationships with partners including AWS, Snowflake, Microsoft, and healthcare vendors.
• Chair AI intake, prioritization, and governance, sequencing use cases across automation, analytics, and science.

Skills

AI strategy

Executive communication

Vendor management

Leadership

Cloud platforms

GenAI/LLMs

Governance

Education

Advanced degree (CS/Engineering/Life sciences)

Tools

AWS Bedrock

AgentCore

Snowflake

Job description

Location of role

Gaithersburg, MD, Conshohocken, PA or Oxford, UK

Department

Information Technology

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Director, Head of Artificial Intelligence is the accountable leader for AI at Immunocore. The role owns the enterprise AI strategy, roadmap, operating model, vendor strategy, and value realization across the company, and leads a small team. The mandate is to build a practical, governed enterprise AI capability: near-term agentic automation of repeatable employee tasks on AWS, broad and safe employee adoption of AI, and readiness for longer-term scientific, clinical, and commercial AI opportunities.

This is a player-coach role. The successful candidate combines business transformation leadership with sufficient hands-on technical depth to credibly challenge implementation partners, AWS, and internal engineering decisions. They will lead the partner-supported build of the AWS agentic platform (Amazon Bedrock / AgentCore) and are accountable for full handover of capability to the internal team, avoiding permanent partner dependency.

The role partners closely with IT Compliance, Legal, Security, Infrastructure, Data, and business functions, and owns executive communication, steering committee reporting, and investment cases. It also carries the scientific and healthcare AI agenda: evaluating foundation-model, research informatics, clinical, and commercial AI opportunities with R&D and business stakeholders, so that the AI capability is not designed narrowly around IT automation.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, own and communicate Immunocore's enterprise AI strategy and roadmap, aligned with business goals and endorsed by the ILT, and lead its execution through two direct reports.
• Own the AWS agentic automation platform direction at the business and architecture level, maintaining one manageable, governed platform rather than multiple overlapping AI stacks.
• Manage vendor strategy and commercial relationships with the implementation partner, AWS, Snowflake, Microsoft, and future healthcare AI vendors, including contractual handover and exit criteria that build internal capability rather than dependency.
• Chair the AI intake, prioritization, and governance forum, sequencing and prioritizing use cases across automation, employee enablement, commercial analytics, and scientific opportunities in line with business priorities.
• Design the responsible AI operating model (risk tiering, approval gates, evaluation, human-in-the-loop rules, auditability) in partnership with IT Compliance and Legal, who own the underlying compliance and legal frameworks.
• Own executive communication: steering committee updates, investment cases, benefits reporting, and ROI of the AI portfolio.
• Ensure measurable value realization from deployed agents (hours saved, cycle-time reduction, quality improvement, adoption, risk reduction).
• Lead assessment of scientific, clinical, and healthcare foundation-model opportunities with R&D, Medical, and Commercial stakeholders, protecting dedicated capacity for this agenda alongside near-term automation.
• Ensure the agentic platform is built domain-agnostic so future scientific, clinical, and commercial use cases can run under the same governance, evaluation, and observability stack.
• Foster safe, productive employee AI adoption and a culture of innovation, positioning the Immunocore Digital team as a strategic partner and change catalyst.
• Recruit, develop, and retain the AI team; define and maintain the boundary between what the AI team owns and what is coordinated through Infrastructure, Security, IT Compliance, Legal, and Data teams.
• Stay abreast of AI, agentic automation, and life-sciences AI trends; build external relationships with partners, vendors, and academia.

Education, Experience and Knowledge

Essential Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in computer science, engineering, computational or life sciences, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Typically requires 15+ years of related experience, including several years leading AI, data, or digital teams and delivering AI solutions into production.
• Demonstrated ownership of an enterprise AI (or comparable technology) strategy, communicated credibly at executive level.
• Sufficient hands-on technical depth in LLM applications, cloud AI platforms, and agentic patterns to challenge vendor and internal architecture decisions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in life sciences, biotech, or pharma, or other regulated environments.
• Experience with AWS AI services (Amazon Bedrock, AgentCore) and governed data platforms such as Snowflake.
• MBA or equivalent commercial experience.

Experience & Knowledge

• Deep understanding of GenAI, LLMs, agentic automation, data platforms, and cloud computing, and their practical enterprise application.
• Proven track record of building and deploying AI solutions at scale in production environments, including partner‑led delivery with internal handover.
• Experience managing system integrators and strategic vendors, including negotiating scope, standards, and exit criteria.
• Working knowledge of responsible AI governance and applicable regulation (e.g., GDPR, GxP, EU AI Act), applied in partnership with compliance and legal functions.
• Strong business acumen; able to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and reconcile multiple senior stakeholder views to drive results.

About the Company

Immunocore (NASDAQ: IMCR) is a pioneering, commercial-stage T cell receptor biotechnology company whose purpose is to develop and commercialize a new generation of transformative medicines which address unmet patient needs in oncology, infectious diseases and autoimmune disease. Our leaders in R&D are internationally recognised as some of the biotech industry’s most successful drug developers. We are creating not just an environment where great minds can interact but an innovation powerhouse answering the big questions.

Focused on delivering first‑in‑class biological therapies to patients, we have developed a highly innovative soluble TCR platform. Our ImmTAX molecules underpin a new generation of precision engineered drugs that harness the immune system to treat a broad spectrum of diseases with high unmet medical need, including oncology, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases.

At Immunocore, we recognize that our employees are our greatest asset. We value the unique contributions each person brings to our team. By embracing Science, Trust, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Entrepreneurship (STRIDE), we create an environment where collaboration thrives, ideas flourish, and transformative changes happen. STRIDE represents more than just letters; it embodies our shared identity and drives our mission. We are dedicated to developing breakthrough therapies that transform patients’ lives, advancing medicine, and supporting one another in these pursuits.

Immunocore is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As such, we are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.