Location: Hybrid, New York
Medidata follows a hybrid office policy in which employees who are hired for an in-person position are expected to work on site a certain number of days per week following Company policy.
About the Team: At Medidata, we believe the future of clinical development will be powered by intelligent systems that amplify human expertise, accelerate innovation, and help bring life-changing therapies to patients faster. We are seeking a Senior Director of AI & Data Science to help shape that future by creating AI solutions that transform how clinical trials are designed, conducted, and optimized.
This is a rare opportunity to lead at the forefront of AI-native clinical research, solving complex scientific challenges while leveraging one of the industry's richest clinical data ecosystems. You will remain hands-on in tackling high-impact technical problems, applying the latest advances in AI - including large language models, agentic AI, machine learning, and modern data platforms - to deliver intelligent solutions that accelerate every stage of the clinical trial lifecycle, from protocol design and trial simulation to study execution, monitoring, and clinical insights.
As a player-coach, AI architect, and technical leader, you will define the technical vision and architecture for next-generation AI and machine learning systems for clinical trials while leading a world-class team of data scientists, machine learning engineers, and applied AI researchers.
You will foster a culture of technical excellence, rapid innovation, and customer value-centric product development, translating cutting-edge AI capabilities into trusted, scalable solutions used by the world's leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Operating at the intersection of AI, clinical science, product innovation, and software engineering, you will partner closely with leaders across Product, Engineering, Data, and Delivery to build AI capabilities that automate complex workflows, generate actionable insights from clinical data, and enable faster, smarter decisions across clinical development. Your work will directly influence how new therapies are brought to patients - more efficiently, with higher quality, and at greater scale.
Responsibilities: Lead the Next Generation of AI for Clinical Development
- Define the technical vision, architecture, and roadmap for next-generation AI and machine learning capabilities that transform how clinical trials are designed, conducted, and optimized.
- Design and deliver intelligent AI solutions spanning the clinical trial lifecycle, including protocol intelligence, trial simulation, patient and site intelligence, clinical data quality, study execution, operational optimization, and AI-powered decision support.
- Apply state-of-the-art AI technologies-including Large and Small Language Models (LLMs/SLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), agentic AI and multi-agent systems, generative AI, predictive modeling, causal inference, synthetic data generation, and virtual twins - to solve complex clinical and operational challenges.
- Translate scientific, clinical, and business problems into scalable AI architectures and production-ready solutions that deliver measurable value for customers and patients.
Deliver Enterprise-Scale AI Products
- Own the end-to-end AI lifecycle - from opportunity discovery and data strategy through model development, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement.
- Drive AI solutions from concept to production, delivering measurable improvements in clinical trial speed, quality, operational efficiency, and decision-making.
- Partner closely with Product, Engineering and Data teams to build secure, scalable, and reliable AI capabilities that integrate seamlessly into Medidata's platform.
- Establish best practices for data science, AI engineering, evaluation, MLOps, lifecycle management, and Responsible AI to ensure high-quality, trusted AI systems.
Provide Technical Leadership
- Serve as the technical authority for AI architecture, ensuring solutions are scientifically rigorous, clinically meaningful, scalable, secure, and production-ready.
- Lead by example as a hands-on technical leader, contributing to architecture, model development, experimentation, technical design reviews, and the resolution of challenging AI and data science problems.
- Establish and champion data science and AI engineering best practices across model development, data quality, validation, code review, reproducibility, and AI governance to build high-quality, and compliant AI systems.
- Mentor senior technical leaders and provide rigorous technical review of machine learning systems, statistical models, and AI solutions while fostering a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and technical excellence.
Build and Scale a World-Class AI Team
- Recruit, develop, and inspire a high-performing team of data scientists, machine learning engineers, and applied AI researchers.
- Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, rapid experimentation, scientific rigor, and customer impact.
- Build scalable processes and operating models for AI development, deployment, evaluation, governance, and cross-functional execution.
- Balance long-term AI innovation with rapid delivery of customer value and measurable business outcomes.pact.
Minimum Qualifications
- Ph.D. or Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, Bioinformatics, or related quantitative discipline.
- 12+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, or AI.
- 5+ years leading and developing high-performing technical teams.
- Demonstrated track record of building, scaling, and delivering production-grade AI/ML solutions that create measurable value for enterprise customers.
- Experience building AI and machine learning solutions using healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceutical, clinical trial, or biomedical data, with a strong understanding of regulatory, privacy, and quality requirements in environments governed by GxP, HIPAA, GDPR, and related standards.
What We're Looking ForTechnical Leadership
You are an accomplished AI and data science leader who combines deep technical expertise with the ability to build and scale production-grade AI systems that deliver measurable business and customer impact.
You bring: - Proven experience in architecting, developing, and deploying enterprise-scale AI and machine learning solutions.
- Deep hands-on expertise in modern AI technologies, including:
- Large Language Models (LLMs), Small Language Models (SLMs), and foundation models
- Generative AI and agentic AI systems
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and knowledge-grounded AI
- Machine learning, deep learning, predictive modeling, and advanced statistical methods
- Strong software engineering and AI platform experience, including Python, SQL, R, modern ML frameworks, cloud-native architectures, Git, CI/CD, MLOps, model lifecycle management, and production AI systems.
- The technical depth to lead architectural decisions, mentor senior engineers and data scientists, conduct rigorous technical reviews, and remain hands-on when solving the organization's most complex AI challenges.
Clinical Science & Domain Expertise
You understand both the science and the operational realities of clinical development and are passionate about applying AI to improve how new therapies are brought to patients.
You have experience with: - Clinical trial design, execution, operations, or analytics.
- Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, CRO, healthcare technology, or life sciences organizations.
- Clinical trial data standards, clinical data management, and regulatory considerations.
- Clinical trial datasets, healthcare datasets, and longitudinal patient data.
- Statistical methodologies commonly used in clinical development, with the ability to critically evaluate and peer review complex statistical models, machine learning algorithms, and analytical approaches.
Leadership & Collaboration
You are a collaborative and inspiring leader who builds high-performing teams, develops future technical leaders, and creates an environment where innovation and execution thrive.
You demonstrate the ability to: - Lead, mentor, and grow world-class teams of data scientists, machine learning engineers, and applied AI researchers while fostering a culture of technical excellence, ownership, collaboration, continuous learning, and innovation.
- Bring clarity to ambiguity by defining technical direction, aligning cross-functional teams, and driving execution with urgency and focus.
- Connect AI strategy with business objectives, translating emerging technologies into products and capabilities that deliver meaningful customer value.
- Build trusted partnerships across Product, Engineering, Data, Clinical Science, Commercial, and Delivery organizations to define priorities, influence roadmaps, and successfully deliver complex AI initiatives.
- Balance long-term innovation with disciplined execution, proactively managing risks, resolving challenges, and delivering measurable outcomes in a fast-paced environment.
- Foster an inclusive, high-trust culture where diverse perspectives are valued, collaboration is expected, and individuals are empowered to do their best work.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience building AI products or platforms used by external customers.
- Experience with LLM applications, RAG systems, AI agents, or foundation models.
- Experience scaling AI teams and organizations.
- Publications, patents, or recognized contributions in AI, life sciences or healthcare analytics, or computational science.
- Experience partnering with pharmaceutical companies or healthcare organizations.
As with all roles, Medidata sets ranges based on a number of factors including function, level, candidate expertise and experience, and geographic location. Pay ranges for candidates in locations other than New York City, may differ based on the local market data in that region.
The salary range for positions that will be physically based in New York will be $216,000- $288,000.
Base pay is one part of the Total Rewards that Medidata provides to compensate and recognize employees for their work. Most sales positions are eligible for a commission on the terms of applicable plan documents, and many of Medidata's non-sales positions are eligible for annual bonuses. Medidata believes that benefits should connect you to the support you need when it matters most and provides benefits, including medical, dental, life and disability insurance, 401(k) matching, family leave, flexible paid time off; and 10 paid holidays per year.
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We will accept applications on an ongoing basis until we fill the position.
Note: Please be on the lookout for job scams. Medidata recruiters will never ask applicants for monetary compensation, credit card, or banking details.
