Director, AI/ML Strategy and Technology Enablement
TakedaAbout the role
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Job Description
Role Summary
Lead the strategy, platform build-out, and adoption of AI/ML across Research for global digital transformation effort, making AI agents, models, and tools a daily, accessible part of wet‑lab and dry‑lab scientists’ workflows. Translate AF priorities into a practical, compliant AI services layer—data foundations, MLOps, agentic assistants, model governance, and change enablement—that shortens time from experiment to insight and elevates decision quality across discovery programs.
Objectives / Purpose
- Define and execute a multi‑year AI/ML roadmap aligned to Research use cases and KPIs.
- Establish an AI‑ready data foundation (FAIR-by-design) and scientist‑facing AI tools embedded in ELN/LIMS/instrument workflows.
- Institutionalize Responsible AI & GxP-aware governance for production models.
- Drive adoption through super-user networks, training, and change management to achieve measurable value and ROI.
Scope / Impact
Global Research scope with cross‑site collaboration (US/EU/JP). Direct impact on data-to-decision latency, assay/analysis reproducibility, and portfolio productivity. Partner with operations, Computational Sciences & Data Strategy, IT, function leads, and platform teams to deliver outcomes at scale.
Accountabilities
Strategy & Roadmap
- Own Research’s AI/ML strategy and sequencing (MVP → scale) across wet‑lab ↔ dry‑lab integration and self‑service tools.
- Align priorities with Research’s KPIs and portfolio goals; establish and monitor achievement of success criteria and milestones.
Platform, Data & Integration
- Guide the development of AI‑ready data foundations (provenance, metadata/ontologies, harmonization) across ELN/LIMS, instruments, imaging, and omics.
- Integrate platforms (e.g., ELN, SDMS & AI Cloud) to liberate, contextualize, and operationalize lab data for AI/ML.
- Stand up modern MLOps (CI/CD, registries, experiment tracking, monitoring) and secure service/APIs embedded in workflows.
Agentic AI & Productization
- Design self-service and user-friendly processes for deployment of AI agents for scientists (literature triage, protocol assist, data QC, analysis pipelines, code helpers).
- Guide engineering efforts to deliver production models (e.g., sequence/structure prediction, assay QC, outlier detection, multimodal analytics).
Adoption & Change Enablement
- Lead adoption via super‑user networks, training, and communications; co‑own readiness plans with NCSP.
- Work with Change Management leads to publish playbooks and guardrails enabling self‑service AI workflows for scientists.
Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Define and Implement Responsible AI and risk‑based governance (ALCOA+, validation mindset, audit trails, XAI, privacy/PII controls).
Impact & Reporting
- Own measurable impact (adoption, latency, reproducibility, ROI) and provide transparent reporting to R&D leadership and key stakeholders.
Qualifications
Required
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, AI/ML, Computational Biology/Chemistry, Bioinformatics, or related; or equivalent industry experience.
- 10+ years in AI/ML for life sciences; 5+ years strategic leadership delivering production AI in scientific environments.
- Proven MLOps platform build and delivery of scientist‑facing AI tools embedded in ELN/LIMS/instrument workflows.
- Expertise in FAIR data, scientific data models/ontologies, and integration across wet‑lab instruments, imaging, and omics.
- Experience with Responsible AI and GxP‑adjacent validation/governance in pharma/biotech R&D.
- Strong stakeholder management; ability to translate complex science/data into usable AI for end users.
Preferred
- Experience working in wet-labs and knowledge of Research and Development workflows and processes in either the biologics and/or small molecule fields
- Agentic AI systems and LLMs for scientific contexts; multimodal ML (text/images/sequences/numerical).
- Knowledge of Research/Pharma Sci common data m
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