Associate Director, Software Engineering & AI Lead

At Gilead, we’re creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years, we’ve tackled diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19 and cancer - working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the world’s biggest health challenges, and our mission requires collaboration, determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.

Every member of Gilead’s team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions, and we’re looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future, you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included, developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together.

Job Description

As we build our footprint for our “Next-Gen” Gilead Capabilities Center, we’re looking for innovative IT leaders who will reimagine how we bring medicines to patients. You will accelerate our pipelines and workflows, automate activities, build new technology standards and set a culture of curiosity and excellence. As one of our first people leaders in the GCC, you will be a cornerstone to employee experience, creating an environment where everyone feels included, developed and empowered to make an impact and fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the hands-on design, development, and implementation of scalable software and AI/ML solutions supporting global pharma business and technology priorities
• Ensure the tech teams partner with product, business, and global IT teams to translate requirements into robust technical architectures and solution designs
• Play and active role in technology and toll decisions, actively engaging with product vendors for assessment, make design decisions and influence technology decisions in partnership with other technology teams / roles
• Drive engineering excellence across application development, AI integration, APIs, cloud-native architectures, and data-driven platforms, bring in industry best practices
• Develop and deploy AI/ML, GenAI and custom-built software solutions ensuring scalability, performance, security, and maintainability
• Provide technical leadership through code reviews, architecture guidance, troubleshooting, and mentoring of engineering teams
• Collaborate with DevOps and platform teams to enable automated CI/CD, observability, and reliable production deployments
• Ensure adherence to enterprise standards for security, quality, compliance, and documentation within a regulated environment
• Lead a team of leaders to create a diverse, inclusive and empowered culture that promotes curiosity, innovation and continuous learning

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business, or related field and 12+ years of relevant experience
• OR
• Master's degree in computer science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business, or related field and 10+ years of relevant experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in pharmaceuticals, healthcare or similarly regulated industries, with exposure to digital solutions across R&D, clinical, regulatory or commercial pharma domains strongly preferred
• Familiarity with GenAI frameworks, MLOps, and data engineering ecosystems
• Deep hands-on expertise in modern programming languages, cloud-native application development, APIs, and distributed systems
• Prior experience designing and implementing AI/ML solutions, including deployment into production environments
• Expert understanding of software architecture principles, system integration patterns, and scalable platform design
• Experience working with cloud platforms, containers, CI/CD pipelines, and agile development practices
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder engagement skills within global and matrixed teams. Able to successfully influence technical direction across projects
• Previous people management experience, with a proven track record leading high-performance teams
• Advanced certifications or specialization in cloud, AI/ML, or software architecture desired

People Leader Accountabilities:

• Create Inclusion - knowing the business value of diverse teams, modeling inclusion, and embedding the value of diversity in the way they manage their teams.
• Develop Talent - understand the skills, experience, aspirations and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential. They ensure employees are receiving the feedback and insight needed to grow, develop and realize their purpose.
• Empower Teams - connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives, and holding them to account. They provide the support needed to remove barriers and connect their team to the broader ecosystem.

Gilead Sciences Inc. is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment, and is dedicated to fostering an inclusive work environment comprised of diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Employment decisions regarding recruitment and selection will be made without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression, veteran status, or other non-job related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal, state and local laws.

Our environment respects individual differences and recognizes each employee as an integral member of our company. Our workforce reflects these values and celebrates the individuals who make up our growing team.

Gilead provides a work environment free of harassment and prohibited conduct. We promote and support individual differences and diversity of thoughts and opinion.

For Current Gilead Employees and Contractors:

Please apply via the Internal Career Opportunities portal in Workday.