Associate Director, AI Development Lead

Jazz Pharmaceuticals; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 154,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401k plan

Flexible paid vacation

Job summary

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. seeks an Associate Director, AI Development Lead to advance enterprise AI capabilities and deliver measurable business value through AI/ML across Jazz.

Leading a small team of AI developers, you will design production-grade solutions, mentor engineers, define standards, collaborate with the DEC hub, and shape governance, tech stack, and policy to scale responsible AI across the organization.

Qualifications

• Leadership experience mentoring developers and leading teams.
• Hands-on production ML/GenAI delivery experience.
• Strong Python and ML framework proficiency.
• Experience with GenAI, RAG, and LLM integrations.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure).
• Experience in pharma or regulated industries preferred.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship end-to-end ML solutions - data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Design and ship end-to-end GenAI solutions - including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems.
• Write production-quality code (Python or related languages/frameworks).
• Design and review architectures that are secure, reusable, and rigorous.
• Debug, profile, and optimize solutions for cost, latency, accuracy, and reliability.
• Support deployment and post-deployment operations (CI/CD, observability, monitoring).
• Establish and refine technical standards for development and reusable components.
• Lead a small team of AI developers across ML and GenAI.

Skills

Leadership & mentoring

Hands-on ML/GenAI

Python coding

ML algorithms & modeling

GenAI concepts (LLMs/RAG)

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Python

TensorFlow

PyTorch

scikit-learn

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Jazz Pharmaceuticals is a global biopharma company whose purpose is to innovate to
transform the lives of patients and their families. We are dedicated to developing
life-changing medicines for people with serious diseases - often with limited or no
therapeutic options. We have a diverse portfolio of marketed medicines, including leading
therapies for sleep disorders and epilepsy, and a growing portfolio of cancer treatments.
Our patient-focused and science-driven approach powers pioneering research and development
advancements across our robust pipeline of innovative therapeutics in oncology and
neuroscience. Jazz is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland with research and development
laboratories, manufacturing facilities and employees in multiple countries committed to
serving patients worldwide. Please visit
www.jazzpharmaceuticals.com
for more information.

Brief Description:

The Associate Director, AI Development Lead is a strategic technical leader responsible for advancing Jazz Pharmaceuticals' enterprise AI capability and driving measurable business value through artificial intelligence and machine learning. Reporting to the Director, Enterprise AI, this role will spend much of its time in delivery - designing systems, writing production-quality code, reviewing colleagues' work, and guiding a small team of AI developers working across traditional data science (AI/ML) and modern Generative AI (GenAI) approaches.

AI development at Jazz follows a hub-and-spoke operating model. Business functions (spokes) own use-case prioritization, stakeholder alignment, early-stage ideation, and some proof-of-concept development. The central Digital Enterprise Capabilities (DEC) team (hub) serves as an advisory partner at any stage and progressively takes on a hands-on development role as solutions mature - ensuring production-grade standards for data readiness, model quality, code maturity, and reliability. The business is accountable for deciding what gets built; DEC owns how it gets built and deployed.

The role will also partner with the Director, Enterprise AI and the VP of Data, AI, and Research to help shape Jazz's enterprise AI strategy - operating model, governance, technology stack, best practices, and policies - and serve as a trusted subject-matter expert to teams across Jazz who are evaluating use cases, prioritizing initiatives, and vetting vendors. As the team and capability mature, the balance of the role will naturally evolve toward broader technical oversight and a larger share of strategic work, while continuing to direct the most important technical decisions.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

• Build and ship end-to-end ML solutions - data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring - across supervised, unsupervised, and other classical/statistical learning paradigms.

• Design and ship end-to-end GenAI solutions - including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, agentic workflows, vector stores, and integrations with foundation model APIs.

• Across Gen AI and AI/ML, write production-quality code (Python or related languages/frameworks as needed), with attention to readability, modularity, scalability, performance, and maintainability.

• Design and review architectures across Gen AI and AI/ML solutions that are secure, reusable, and rigorous. Work with the Enterprise AI Architect to ensure your designs follow our architectural standards.

• Debug, profile, and optimize solutions - including cost, latency, accuracy, and reliability trade-offs.

• Support deployment and post-deployment operations, including CI/CD, observability, model monitoring, drift detection, and incident response.

• Establish and continuously refine technical standards for development: reference architectures, design patterns, coding conventions, evaluation methodologies, and reusable components.

• Lead a small team of AI developers across traditional ML and Generative AI, setting clear technical direction, priorities, and quality expectations.

• Be accountable for the quality and outcomes of the team's work: solution design, code and model quality, documentation, and delivery.

• Mentor team members through code & design review, both informal and formal feedback; build technical depth and ownership across the team.

• Plan and sequence delivery work in partnership with stakeholders, balancing scope, technical risk, and timelines.

• Help recruit, onboard, and grow AI talent as the team expands.

• Serve as a go-to technical advisor to teams across Jazz, many of them non-technical, helping them: understand how AI works, how to ensure human-in-the-loop review and how to increase and optimize adoption of solutions while maintaining responsible and ethical use.

• Evaluate AI use cases and proposed solutions for technical feasibility, data readiness, value, and risk.

• Use expertise to support business in prioritizing AI initiatives based on business impact, technical feasibility, bandwidth constraints, solution complexity, and scalability. Within agreed upon product priorities, decide resource allocation and development activities for the team.

• Vet AI vendors and platforms in collaboration with our Enterprise AI Architect, as well as Infrastructure and Digital Security teams. Together, conduct technical due diligence on solution feasibility, data handling, security, transparency, and overall operational maturity. During such evaluations, this role will focus on solution fit for the use-case, overall solution practicality, and vendor knowledge of AI's capabilities and limitations.

• Support build-vs-buy decisions with a clear-eyed view of time-to-value, total cost of ownership, extensibility, and vendor risk.

• Partner with the Director, Enterprise AI and the VP of Data, AI, and Research to help shape and execute Jazz's enterprise AI strategy, including operating model, governance, technology stack, best practices, and policies.

• Contribute to the maturation of the AI capability through reference architectures, MLOps practices, evaluation frameworks, and reusable components that make future delivery faster and more reliable.

• Help define and apply Responsible AI practices - explainability, evaluation, privacy, security, and risk management - across the work the team delivers and supports.

• Collaborate with Data Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure, InfoSec, and Compliance to ensure AI solutions meet enterprise standards.

• Build credibility quickly with senior technical and business stakeholders through effective communication and deep expertise.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and be accountable for the technical work of others.

• Demonstrated experience leading offshore or near shore development teams required.

• Hands-on technical depth in building and shipping ML/GenAI solutions to production.

• Proficiency in writing production-quality code and designing AI/ML architecture.

• Strong understanding of core machine learning algorithms and statistical modeling techniques, model evaluation, and real-world deployment considerations.

• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g. Python, R) and ML frameworks (such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn).

• Strong understanding of modern Generative AI concepts and approaches: LLMs, RAG, fine-tuning, agentic patterns, evaluation, and guardrails.

• Significant hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, GCP, or Azure); AWS or GCP preferred.

• Familiarity with AI governance and risk frameworks.

• Excellent communication skills with ability to explain complex technical concepts in clear, non-technical terms, and a demonstrated ability to influence and guide stakeholders across various levels of an organization.

Required/Preferred Education and Licenses

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in a quantitative or technical field required. Advanced degree or equivalent preferred.

• 5-7 years of relevant experience in AI, machine learning, or data science required, 10+ years preferred.

• Experience in pharmaceutical, life sciences, or another regulated industry strongly preferred.

• Experience evaluating and integrating third-party AI/ML solutions and vendor platforms strongly preferred.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any characteristic protected by law.

FOR US BASED CANDIDATES ONLY

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices and we strive to provide employees with total compensation packages that are market competitive. For this role, the full and complete base pay range is: $153,600.00 - $230,400.00

Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, and other pertinent factors. The goal is to ensure fair and competitive compensation aligned with the candidate's expertise and contributions, within the established pay framework and our Total Compensation philosophy. Internal equity considerations will also influence individual base pay decisions. This range will be reviewed on a regular basis.

At Jazz, your base pay is only one part of your total compensation package. The successful candidate may also be eligible for a discretionary annual cash bonus or incentive compensation (depending on the role), in accordance with the terms of the Company's Global Cash Bonus Plan or Incentive Compensation Plan, as well as discretionary equity grants in accordance with Jazz's Long Term Equity Incentive Plan.

The successful candidate will also be eligible to participate in various benefits offerings, including, but not limited to, medical, dental and vision insurance, 401k retirement savings plan, and flexible paid vacation. For more information on our Benefits offerings please click here: https://careers.jazzpharma.com/benefits.html.