Associate Director, AI/ML Engineering, Medical Imaging

We're on a mission to change the future of clinical research. At Perceptive, we help the biopharmaceutical industry bring medical treatments to the market, faster. Our mission is to change the world but to do this, we need people like you. What can we offer you? Apart from job satisfaction, we can offer you: YOURSELF • 25 days' holiday (with the option to buy more) HEALTH • Health Cash Plan • Optional private health, dental insurance, and health screens • Cycle to work scheme WEALTH • Generous pension scheme with up to 10% employer contribution • Life assurance • Season ticket loan About the role Job Purpose As Associate Director, AI/ML Engineering, you'll lead the development and integration of cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) solutions into our Imaging platform for clinical trials. Your role will be central to driving the digital transformation of our platform—enhancing data-driven decision-making, accelerating trial execution, and improving outcomes. You'll lead a multidisciplinary team of engineers and scientists, shaping and executing an ambitious AI/ML strategy aligned with our R&D roadmap. You'll be responsible for defining technical architecture, establishing best practices and championing AI/ML capabilities across the organization. An accomplished professional, you'll play an instrumental role in managing talent, fostering innovation and cultivating a culture of technical excellence and collaboration. Key Responsibilities Strategic and Organizational leadership Sets the strategic direction and supports the strategic roadmap for AI/ML adoption and innovation within the organization. Contributes to governance frameworks and recommended protocols for responsible, ethical and sustainable development and use of AI. Contributes to the development of organizational capabilities, policies, standards and guidelines in AI. Collaborates with senior stakeholders to identify high-impact opportunities for AI and drives their implementation. Follows research and industry trends and integrates them into organizational practices. Works closely with senior leaders within RD to align engineering goals with broader organizational objectives and demonstrates leadership by contributing to strategic discussions. Serves as a key thought partner to senior leadership, providing regular updates on AI/ML initiatives, progress, risks, and opportunities. Talent growth and People Leadership Builds a team that drives innovation, aligns with Company culture and values, and delivers business priorities. Develops a comprehensive talent strategy that includes recruitment, retention, onboarding, and career development. Leads, mentors, and manages a high-performing team of engineers, fostering an environment that encourages learning, collaboration, and innovation. Focuses on nurturing future leaders and provides growth opportunities through coaching, training, and mentorship. Cross functional collaborations Serves as an AI/ML evangelist across the organization, promoting awareness and understanding of the capabilities and value of AI/ML technologies. Partners with scientists, domain experts, software engineers and product teams to define requirements. Supports Product Manager to Translate business requirements into technical AI solutions. Communicates complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders. Technical leadership & Mentorship Oversees the end-to-end lifecycle of AI/ML projects, from concept and design through to deployment and optimization, ensuring timely and successful delivery. Provides strategic technical direction for AI/ML initiatives, ensuring alignment with the broader R&D and platform transformation goals. Provides technical leadership and mentorship, guiding engineers in implementing scalable, secure, robust, and high-performing AI/ML systems for clinical trials applications. Leads code and model reviews, ensuring high standards of quality, performance, and documentation. Fosters a collaborative and inclusive team culture that encourages innovation, continuous learning, and knowledge sharing, encouraging the exploration of new tools, technologies, and methodologies. Ensures adoption of ML-Ops best practices, including model versioning, testing, deployment, and monitoring. Supports the team in identifying the state-of-the-art AI technique (ML, Deep Learning, genAI …) and the needed data sets, to solve the business problem. Innovation & Research application Stays current with AI/ML research advances and evaluates their practical applications. Identifies opportunities to improve existing systems with new techniques. Contributes to the company's intellectual property through innovative solutions. Publishes and presents work at conferences. Functional Competencies (Technical knowledge/Skills) Excellent understanding of machine learning algorithms, neural network, and statistical analysis. Strong numerical/statistical background including image processing. Strong source code management skills with git. Strong programming skills in languages such as Python and/or C++. Demonstrable ability to challenge work (such as identifying and adding new custom features with improved timelines). Knowledge of MLOPs tools and practices for continuous integration/deployment of ML models. Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills. A flexible attitude with respect to work assignments and new learning. A self-starter and able to work under own initiative. Ability to plan own work to meet given objectives and processes. Ability to handle production support work. Ability to manage multiple and varied tasks and prioritize workload with attention to detail. Shows initiative and self-confidence, is adaptable and able to manage changing and evolving priorities. Ability to work methodically in a fast-paced, time-sensitive environment. Demonstratable ability to apply critical thinking to problems and tasks. Proactively participates in skills improvement training. Ability to coach and mentor others to succeed enhancing individual and professional development. Sharing knowledge, skills, and expertise to others. Ability to manage a globally distributed and multi disciplined team, including motivating, developing and coordinating team members. Ability to identify the appropriate leadership style to manage the individuals in their team. Strong problem-solving skills and analytical thinking ability. Leadership potential, attention to detail, and passion for innovation. Maintains an up-to-date awareness of trends, tools, technology, techniques and processes that affect technology within the Life sciences domain. Behavioural Competencies Accountability Adaptability Customer focus Robust Decision Making Business Acumen Dealing with ambiguity Organizational agility Building effective teams Experience and Certifications Proven experience in developing and deploying AI/ML solutions in real-world applications with demonstrable experience of productizing AI/ML models. Proven experience in leading and developing AI/ML teams. Expertise in Machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or scikit-learn. Strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and containerization technologies. Strong background in data structures, algorithms, and software engineering principles. Strong experience with medical imaging modalities (such as CT, MRI, PET, or SPECT) and DICOM standard. Experience with feature stores and ML data pipelines. Education Ph.D. or Master's degree in a relevant field (such as Mathematics, Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, etc.). English: Fluent. Come as you are. We're proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, colour, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. At Perceptive, we enable the world's pharmaceutical, biotech, and clinical research organizations to rapidly discover and advance life-changing treatments. Together, our global team delivers unmatched scientific and technological expertise, global operational experience, and end-to-end solutions to help the global research community realize tomorrow's new therapies. To do this, we need people like you. At Perceptive, your work will enable our customers to bring lifesaving and life-improving options to patients around the world. Learn how you can make a difference by joining our team and uniting under our shared goal – serving science to improve people's lives. Join our talent community and receive the latest Perceptive news, and content, and be first in line for new job opportunities. Join our Talent Community