Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) Capability Engineering Team Lead

Job Description

The Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI/ML) Capability Engineering Team Lead supervises a cross-functionally embedded team of AI/ML Engineers and Data Scientists developing innovative AI Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Agentic AI capabilities for therapeutic research and development. Working with partners across the R&D pipeline and software technology stack, you will lead AI initiatives, influence AI strategy, and supervise a team of talented individuals. The models and pipelines that you and your team develop will help solve real-world problems and improve patient outcomes.

A strong candidate would enjoy:

• Building, deploying, and publishing innovative and robust AI methods and agentic workflows that drive impact in areas such as AI machine translation, content generation and document drafting, workflow optimization, large-scale data enrichment, literature mining, target and biomarker prioritization, and representation learning (e.g., molecular design).

• Partnering with stakeholders and product teams to ideate, design, build, and iteratively improve impactful solutions.

• Rigorously evaluating and optimizing machine learning and AI workflows using standard and novel techniques, as well as developing human-in-the-loop AI approaches.

• Having the freedom to propose areas of focus and solutions to explore.

• Collaborating cross-functionally with experts across the R&D pipeline and across modalities of informatics and AI/ML work, including image processing, bioinformatics, representation learning, decision sciences, and more.

• Tracking and helping to adhere to the developing landscape of AI regulations and internal policies, such as for data privacy and risk mitigation.

• Staying up-to-date on the latest innovations in AI/ML and Agentic AI .

• Using AI coding assistants in innovative and responsible ways.

• Presenting plans and results to scientific and IT leadership and providing input on strategic planning.

• Supervising, mentoring, and recruiting talented AI/ML engineers and other personas.

A strong candidate would have:

• Excellent technical and non-technical communication, planning, teamwork, and leadership skills.

• The ability to critically evaluate new problems, as well as AI/ML solution architecture and implementation.

• A strategic mindset, including the ability to envision how AI/ML and software solutions may generalize to new areas of application.

• Deep understanding of modern LLM and Agentic architectures, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), tool calling / Model Context Protocol (MCP), structured extraction, and agent orchestration.

• Fluency in Python programming, version control and collaboration with Git, environment management (e.g., uv, Docker), and at least one ML framework (e.g., Pytorch, vLLM).

• Excellent statistical analysis skills (e.g., a strong understanding of the implications of class imbalance).

• Experience with scalable engineering frameworks such as Apache Spark and orchestrator frameworks such as Airflow.

• Experience with Agentic AI protocols and standards such as MCP, A2A, and A2UI and with building production-ready software and AI solutions.

• Experience with harness optimization approaches (e.g., auto-research).

• Experience with AI/ML model deployment and operations, as well as modern software deployment standards (e.g., DevOps and CI/CD practices).

• Experience with agentic system development (e.g., LangGraph), text processing (e.g., regular expressions, information retrieval, search systems), semantic engineering (e.g., RDF), and/or data engineering.

• Familiarity with enterprise AI governance, data privacy boundaries, validation, fairness, and related ethical AI topics.

• A passion for technology, science, biomedicine, and mentorship.

Minimum Requirements:

• A PhD in data science, AI/ML/LLM/Agentic system engineering, computer science, semantic engineering, a related discipline, or a scientific field and 5 years of relevant industry experience.

• OR M.S. in a similar field with 6 years relevant industry experience.

• OR B.S. in a similar field with 7 years relevant industry experience.

• 5 years of technical leadership experience with AI/ML, NLP, or Agentic AI projects or products.

• 2 years of experience with supervision of team members.

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

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Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below.

The salary range for the primary location of this role is:

This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

Additional location(s): Please note the salary range above applies to the Primary Location of the position. Where a role has other listed locations, different compensation guidelines may apply. You may find the salary ranges for additional locations below. If the salary range is not listed for the location you are applying to, our Talent Acquisition team will provide further information to you relevant to your location.

Additional location(s) Compensation Information:

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

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