Production AI Architect & Engineering Lead

PharmaEssentia U.S.A.; Burlington (MA); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental & vision

Paid time off

401(k) match

FSA

Cell phone reimbursement

Employee assistance program

Free parking

Job summary

PharmaEssentia USA is seeking an AI Engineering & Architecture Lead in Burlington, MA to own the AI architecture and build an internal AI engineering capability. You will drive end-to-end production AI applications and set governance for responsible deployment, partnering with data, product, and field teams.

The role requires 10+ years in software/ML, strong cloud/data platform experience (Snowflake), and a track record of leading engineers and delivering shipped AI systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; technical degree preferred.
• 10+ years in software or ML engineering, including 3+ years leading engineers.
• Has shipped and operated LLM-based or agentic applications in production — not POCs or pilots.
• Hands‑on ownership of retrieval, orchestration, evaluation harnesses, monitoring, and cost control for AI systems in production.
• Experience architecting applications on a cloud data platform, ideally Snowflake.
• Demonstrated build-versus‑buy decisions, and experience holding a technology vendor to technical account on scope and quality.
• Still technical: able to review code, debug a production system, and set standards by example.

Responsibilities

• Define the AI and application architecture — retrieval, orchestration, agent frameworks, evaluation, observability, and integration patterns — across the GDAI portfolio.
• Make and defend build-versus-buy decisions, retaining enough internal capability to own the architecture rather than depending on vendors for judgment or prioritization.
• Design for the data environment as it is: vendor-delivered raw data in Snowflake, a semantic layer built under internal oversight, and a roadmap to internalize both over time.
• Lead delivery of production AI applications and agents against the Commercial roadmap, from first use case through sustained operation.
• Prioritize engineering capacity with AI Product Strategy & Value so that every major initiative has an owner, a business case, and a measured outcome.
• Replace dashboard search with proactive delivery: systems that detect meaningful signals and push the right insight to the right person at the right time.
• Set standards for evaluation, testing, monitoring, cost control, security, and responsible deployment, and enforce them across internal and outsourced work.
• Establish how AI output destined for field-facing use is reviewed, logged, and kept within promotional, privacy, and medical–commercial separation requirements.
• Evaluate and integrate vendor platforms, and hold vendors to technical account against architecture, security, and quality standards.
• Build and mentor the AI engineering team — one senior engineer in the first wave, a second engineer subject to demonstrated adoption and value.

Skills

LLM-based apps

Retrieval & orchestration

Production AI systems

Cloud data platform

Code review & debugging

Vendor management

Education

Bachelor’s degree

CS/Engineering preferred

Tools

Snowflake

CRM integrations (Veeva/Salesforce)

Job description

PharmaEssentia USA is seeking an AI Engineering & Architecture Lead in Burlington, MA to own the AI architecture and build an internal AI engineering capability. You will drive end-to-end production AI applications and set governance for responsible deployment, partnering with data, product, and field teams.

The role requires 10+ years in software/ML, strong cloud/data platform experience (Snowflake), and a track record of leading engineers and delivering shipped AI systems.