Director, AI/ML

AstraZeneca plc; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,500,000 - 7,500,000; Full time

Job summary

AstraZeneca plc is seeking a Director of AI/ML in Bangalore to set the technical bar for AI across our commercial landscape. This senior individual-contributor role focuses on architecture, standards, and strategy, with hands-on expertise and influence across teams in Commercial, Medical and Technology.

You will define production-ready AI systems, lead multi-agent and LLM initiatives, and ensure governance, observability, and cost optimization from day one.

Qualifications

• BS or equivalent in computer science, mathematics, statistics, engineering, physics, computational sciences or related quantitative field.
• Extensive experience (12+ years) building and deploying data science and ML solutions, including recent hands-on with LLM-based and agentic applications in production.
• Demonstrated track record of setting technical direction and leading complex AI delivery through influence.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical vision, roadmap and architecture for traditional ML, Generative AI and agentic AI capabilities.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership, review architectures and code, and remove blockers on sophisticated problems.
• Lead design of multi-agent systems and LLM applications, including tool integration, orchestration and guardrails.

Skills

Technical leadership

AI/ML architecture

LLMs & Generative AI

Agentic AI systems

Model optimization

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Math/Engineering

Master's or PhD preferred

Tools

Python

SQL

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Jupyter

Docker

MLflow

SageMaker/Bedrock

Job description

Job Title: DIRECTOR, AI/ML

GCL: F

Location: Bangalore

Introduction to role:

Are you ready to set the technical bar for AI systems that shape how life-changing therapies reach patients? In this senior individual-contributor role based in Bangalore, you will be the technical authority guiding advanced AI across our commercial landscape—from traditional ML to Generative and agentic AI—turning breakthroughs into measurable outcomes for patients and the business.

You will lead through influence, not headcount, defining architecture, standards and strategy while pairing that with hands‑on expertise. Partnering with colleagues across Commercial, Medical and Technology, you will help transform diverse data—patient, physician, health systems, sales and scientific content—into rigorous, scalable AI that drives better decisions at pace. How would you design resilient AI systems that are trusted, governed and production‑ready from day one?

Accountabilities:

• Technical Vision and Architecture: Define and drive the technical vision, roadmap and architecture for traditional ML, Generative AI and agentic AI capabilities, aligned to enterprise strategy and commercial priorities.
• Multi‑functional Leadership: Provide hands‑on technical leadership to project teams; set design direction, review architectures and code, and remove blockers on sophisticated problems.
• Agentic AI Systems: Lead the design of multi‑agent systems and LLM applications, including orchestration, tool use, memory, guardrails and human‑in‑the‑loop patterns.
• Evaluation Excellence: Establish standards for evaluation, including automated and human‑in‑the‑loop methods, benchmarking, and quality gates pre‑ and post‑release.
• Model Optimization: Drive approaches to fine‑tuning, distillation and reinforcement learning (including RL from feedback) to improve quality, cost and latency over off‑the‑shell models.
• Production Observability: Set standards for telemetry, observability, monitoring, drift detection and cost management for AI systems in production.
• Emerging Tech to Production: Evaluate emerging models, frameworks and methods; run proofs of concept and translate them into robust, production‑grade solutions.
• Enterprise Alignment: Partner with platform, data engineering, architecture, security and responsible‑AI teams to ensure governance, compliance and reuse.
• Partner Communication: Translate complex technical concepts and trade‑offs for senior non‑technical partners and shape compelling use cases for AI investments.
• Talent Uplift and Representation: Mentor senior data scientists and ML engineers, raise the technical bar, and represent our work in internal forums and partner engagements.

Essential Skills/Experience:

Minimum Requirements:

• BS (or equivalent experience) in computer science, mathematics, statistics, engineering, physics, computational sciences or a related quantitative field.
• Extensive experience (typically 12+ years) building and deploying data science and ML solutions, including considerable recent hands‑on experience (typically 2+ years) with LLM‑based and agentic applications in production.
• Demonstrated track record of setting technical direction and leading complex, multi‑functional AI delivery through influence.

Mandatory Technical Skills:

• Generative AI and LLMs: prompt and context engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation, fine‑tuning (including parameter‑efficient methods), distillation, and model selection and cost/latency optimisation.
• Agentic AI: design and delivery of multi‑agent systems using frameworks such as Amazon Bedrock AgentCore (or equivalents such as LangGraph, Strands or AutoGen), including tool integration, orchestration and guardrails.
• Evaluation and observability: LLM and agent evaluation methods and platforms, telemetry, tracing and monitoring of AI systems.
• Machine learning foundations: strong classical ML (supervised and unsupervised methods, statistical modelling) and deep learning, including transformers, using PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Programming and tools: expert Python; SQL; scikit‑learn; Jupyter; Streamlit or similar for rapid prototyping.
• Cloud and MLOps: AWS (SageMaker, Bedrock), CI/CD for ML, MLflow or equivalent experiment and model tracking, containerisation (Docker).

Desirable Skills/Experience:

• Master’s or PhD in machine learning, computer science or a related field. We prioritise demonstrated skills over credentials.
• Hands‑on experience with reinforcement learning, including RLHF, RLAIF or other preference‑optimisation methods.
• Experience with knowledge graphs, NLP, and structured and unstructured data (text and image).
• Experience with data and pipeline tooling such as Airflow, Spark and data‑quality frameworks.
• Pharmaceutical, healthcare or commercial analytics domain experience (for example next‑best‑action, field‑force, marketing or market‑access analytics).
• Publications, patents or open‑source contributions in AI/ML.
• Exceptional technical judgement, balancing innovation with pragmatism, risk and cost.
• Strong written and verbal communication, explaining complex methods to non‑technical audiences.
• Collaborative approach to working with global, multi‑functional teams.
• Curiosity and an aim to keep learning in a fast‑moving field.

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life‑changing medicines. In‑person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That's why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn't mean we're not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

Why AstraZeneca:

Here, your technical leadership meets meaningful scale: we build from the ground up as one team, connecting across the enterprise to convert complex data into practical insights that improve lives. You will collaborate with deep specialists and external partners, access cutting‑edge tooling, and contribute to novel solutions that move from prototype to production with rigor and pace. We value ambition and kindness in equal measure, pair bold experimentation with strong ethics, and bring unexpected teams together to unlock ideas that drive real patient impact—while giving you the room to grow your craft and your profile.

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry‑leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non‑discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.