Senior Leader, AI Systems

We are seeking a senior leader of AI Systems to join a Computational Innovation AI department that will deliver next generation foundational AI capabilities to support the discovery and development of innovative medicines. A core component of the AI department is AI Systems, a team focused on designing, building and deploying versatile biomedical foundation models that, through adaptation, can enhance human understanding of disease biology and help identify potential targets, biomarkers and patient segments for further research.

In this role, you will hire and lead a team of world‑class AI scientists and ML engineers who can design novel architectures that respect the complexity and structure of biomedical data, train models based on these architectures, engineer the most promising models and model components and deploy production‑quality endpoints for adaptation and application to Boehringer Ingelheim’s research and development pipeline. The successful candidate will be part of the senior leadership team and play a key role in shaping the AI strategy and delivering on the mission. This is a unique opportunity to be part of a critical strategic initiative for a pharmaceutical company that invests heavily in research and development to discover and develop innovative therapies that can improve and extend lives in areas of high unmet medical need.

Key Responsibilities

• Grow and lead a team focused on novel foundation model architecture design, self‑supervised learning and representation learning on complex, multi‑modal biomedical data.
• Set the innovation and capability build direction in line with AI department and CI goals.
• Contribute to building and running the AI department, defining AI strategy and ensuring success through delivery of AI Systems capabilities that align with AI department goals and translate to portfolio impact.
• Partner with Director, AI Reasoning to incorporate causal identifiability and inference, explainability and uncertainty quantification into architecture design.
• Evaluate and productionise the most promising models and support Applied Analytics and AI with model adaptation for portfolio application.
• Drive operational excellence across AI Systems initiatives, setting standards for model performance, validation strategies, and uncertainty calibration to support confident decision‑making.
• Build and leverage partnerships with academic and third‑party collaborators as key force multipliers.
• Publish AI Systems research at top‑tier venues to attract and retain top talent while remaining true to the mission of increasing probability of success.

Requirements

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Biology or related field.
• Experience setting AI innovation strategy and translating strategy into execution with the necessary resources in place.
• Experience building high‑performing technical teams.
• Deep expertise at leading AI research and development teams, leading leaders and mentoring junior staff.
• In‑depth understanding of foundation model architectures, large‑scale training and deploying production‑quality endpoints.
• Track record of translating research into impact.
• Ability to explain complex ML concepts to biologists.
• Ability to explain biological problems to ML researchers.
• Ability to convey complex messages to senior leadership.
• Strong writing skills for both papers and internal documentation.
• Comfortable presenting to technical and non‑technical audiences.

Our Company

Boehringer Ingelheim is a biopharmaceutical company active in both human and animal health. As one of the industry’s top investors in research and development, the company focuses on developing innovative therapies that can improve and extend lives in areas of high unmet medical need. Independent since its foundation in 1885, Boehringer takes a long‑term perspective, embedding sustainability along the entire value chain. Our approximately 54,500 employees serve over 130 markets to build a healthier and more sustainable tomorrow.

Why Boehringer Ingelheim?

With us, you can develop your own path in a company with a culture that knows our differences are our strengths – and break new ground in the drive to make millions of lives better. Here, your development is our priority. Supporting you to build a career as part of a workplace that is independent, authentic and bold, while tackling challenging work in a respectful and friendly environment where everyone is valued and welcomed. Alongside, you have access to programmes and groups that ensure your health and wellbeing are looked after – as we make major investments to drive global accessibility to healthcare. By being part of a team that is constantly innovating, you’ll be helping to transform lives for generations.