Associate Director AI & GenAI Engineering

About the role

Novartis is hiring an Associate Director AI & GenAI Engineering (internal title: Associate Director DDIT AI & GenAI Engineering) in Hyderabad, India, on a hybrid basis with relocation support. You will lead the design, engineering and delivery of Generative AI and agentic AI solutions that improve how medicines are discovered, developed and delivered.

Key responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end delivery of enterprise AI and GenAI solutions from concept through production.
• Define scalable AI architectures, platform capabilities, engineering standards and technology roadmaps.
• Partner with business stakeholders to turn workflows into intelligent, AI-enabled experiences.
• Drive rapid prototyping and MVP development for high-value opportunities.
• Provide technical leadership across generative AI, agentic AI, machine learning and semantic search.
• Design and optimise AI platforms, RAG pipelines, APIs and cloud-native applications.
• Establish engineering best practices for automation, observability, CI/CD and responsible AI.
• Manage delivery plans, dependencies, risks, budgets and stakeholder communications.
• Mentor engineering teams and foster a culture of innovation and continuous learning.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI, Engineering or a related field.
• 12+ years of experience in software engineering, AI, machine learning or digital technology.
• Proven experience leading AI engineering teams and complex enterprise delivery programs.
• Strong expertise in generative AI, large language models, RAG and agentic AI.
• Experience managing senior stakeholders, delivery risks, vendors, budgets and cross-functional teams.
• Desirable: Master's degree and professional certifications in cloud, AI, ML or software engineering.

Required skills

• Hands-on Python, APIs, microservices and cloud-native development.
• AWS or Azure AI services and enterprise data platforms.
• Machine learning operations, LLM operations, DevSecOps, CI/CD.