What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Director, AI and Analytics position at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals?
Overview
We are seeking a Senior Director, AI and Analytics with a passion for architecting solutions, building systems, and delivering real business impact through hands-on contribution. As Senior Director, you will own the enterprise AI capability, leading a small, high-caliber team while staying actively engaged in solving our most complex technical challenges. This role blends strategic leadership with meaningful hands-on work, with approximately 10-20% of your time dedicated to building, reviewing, and advancing production-grade AI/ML systems.This is a role for a deeply technical leader who enjoys staying close to the work. You'll thrive here if you're excited to design and deploy modern ML solutions, collaborate closely with engineers, and regularly engage with Python and frameworks like PyTorch as part of your day-to-day leadership.
What You'll Do
AI Strategy & Technical Leadership
Define and execute enterprise AI strategy across R&D, clinical, manufacturing, and commercial
Architect end-to-end AI/ML solutions from ideation through production
Establish technical standards and governance for regulated environments
Lead evaluation of emerging AI technologies (LLMs, generative AI, foundation models)
Hands-On Engineering
Architect and implement production ML systems using modernMLOpspractices
Write production Python code for ML pipelines, model training, and inference
Build/deploy models usingPyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn on AWS SageMaker or Databricks ML
Own theMLOpsstack and tackle complex technical challenges directly
Team Leadership
Build and mentor 1-3 highly skilled AI engineers
Foster experimentation, scientific rigor, and continuous learning
Recruit world-class talent; lead from the front on hardest problems
Business Partnership
Partner with R&D, Clinical Ops, Manufacturing, and Commercial to translate challenges into AI solutions
Communicate AI concepts and trade-offs to executive stakeholders
Drive adoption and measurable ROI across the organization
AI Education & Community
Lead AI education initiatives across the organization-democratizing AI knowledge at all levels
Regularly explore and demo new AI capabilities and technologies to keep the broader community engaged and skills sharp
Foster a culture of AI literacy and experimentation enterprise-wide
Strategic Vendor Partnerships
Build andmaintaindirect relationships with key AI platform partners including Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, and other leading vendors
Leverage vendor partnerships forearly accessto capabilities, technical support, and strategic roadmap alignment
Serve as primary technical liaison for AI vendor engagements and evaluations
Requirements
10 years building production AI/ML systems; 5 years in leadership
Deep ML expertise: supervised/unsupervised learning, deep learning, NLP, computer vision, time series, causal inference
Expert Python withPyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn,XGBoost
MLOpsexperience:MLflow, Kubeflow, SageMaker, Databricks ML
Strong software engineering: Git, CI/CD, Docker/Kubernetes, API development
LLM/generative AI experience (GPT, Claude, Llama)
Modern data platforms: Snowflake, Databricks, Airflow,dbt, Spark
AWSexpertisepreferred
Business & Leadership (Required)
5 years in biotech, pharma, or data-intensive industry applying AI at scale
AI domain knowledge in at least one area: drug discovery, clinical trials, manufacturing optimization, or commercial analytics
Experience in regulated environments
5 years leading AI/ML teams with hands-on technical mentorship
Track recordtranslating business problems into ML solutions with measurable impact
Matrix organization experience; comfortable with influence over authority
#LI-LN1
About Alnylam:Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALNY) has led the translation of RNA interference (RNAi) into a whole new class of innovative medicines with the potential to transform the lives of people afflicted with rare and more prevalent diseases. Based on Nobel Prize-winning science, RNAi therapeutics represent a powerful, clinically validated approach to treating diseases at their genetic source by "interfering" with mRNA that cause or contribute to disease. Since our founding in 2002, Alnylam has led the RNAi Revolution and continues to turn scientific possibility into reality.
Our culture:Our people-first culture is guided by our core values: fiercely innovative, open culture, purposeful urgency, passion for excellence, and commitment to people, and these values influence how we work and the business decisions we make. Thanks to feedback from our employees over the years, we've been fortunate to be named a top employer around the world. Alnylam is extremely proud to have been recognized as one of Science Magazine's Top Biopharma Employers, one of America's Most Responsible Companies for 2024 by Newsweek, a Fast Company Best Workplace for Innovators, and a Great Place to Work in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and UK - among others.
At Alnylam, we commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equal employment opportunity. We are dedicated to building an environment where employees can feel that they belong, can bring their authentic selves to work, and achieve to their full potential. By empowering employees to embrace their unique differences at work, our business grows stronger with advanced and original thinking, allowing us to bring groundbreaking medicines to patients.
]]>Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is an EEO employer committed to an exciting, diverse, and enriching work environment.