Director, AI Center of Automation & AI (CoA+)

eClinical Solutions is a global leader in clinical data intelligence, delivering the elluminate® Clinical Data Cloud® the AI-powered platform now powering agentic data review, SDTM automation, and RBQM for 18 of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies worldwide. eClinical is executing its eNOVA AI-First transformation: embedding agentic AI across every pillar of clinical development to compress cycle times, elevate data quality, and redefine how trials operate.

As eClinical scales its AI capabilities internally and commercially, we are building the organizational infrastructure to match our product ambition. The Director of CoA+ is the technical and operational leader of the Center of Automation + AI (CoA+) the internal engine that designs, builds, and scales AI and automation capabilities across the enterprise. This is a technology leadership role: you will architect the CoA+, hire and lead a lean team of AI/automation engineers, drive production-grade AI builds in partnership with R&D, and be the technical counterpart the CTAO relies on to turn AI strategy into shipped capability.

This leader operates at the intersection of technology depth and enterprise impact, fluent in LLMs, agentic systems, and automation tooling, while also capable of running a portfolio of initiatives, managing vendor relationships, and presenting outcomes to SLT.

You will make an impact:

The Director, AI Center of Automation & AI (CoA+) owns the CoA+ as eClinical Solutions' internal AI delivery capability. You will build the team, define the technical standards, architect the toolchain, and personally lead or directly oversee production AI builds that accelerate both internal operations and client-facing outcomes. Your technical depth in agentic AI, LLM orchestration, workflow automation, and cloud AI platforms give you the credibility to engage R&D engineers as a peer, evaluate vendor solutions without being sold to, and close the gap between the AI roadmap on paper and AI capability in production. Beyond building, you operationalize tracking value realization, enforcing quality gates, and ensuring AI investments yield measurable outcomes the CTAO can communicate to the SLT and board.

Accelerate your skills and career within a fast-growing company while impacting the future of healthcare.

Your day to day:

• Center of Automation + AI (CoA+) Leadership & Delivery
  • Establish, lead, and continuously evolve the CoA+ as eClinical Solutions' internal AI and automation delivery center — the team responsible for building, testing, and shipping enterprise AI capabilities
  • Hire and develop a lean, high-output global team of 2–5 AI engineers, automation specialists, and applied ML practitioners; set technical standards, development practices, and quality benchmarks for all CoA+ output
  • Lead or directly contribute to proof-of-concept and production AI builds including LLM-powered workflows, intelligent agents, RPA integrations, and data pipeline automation across Operations, Customer Success, Finance, and other departments
  • Own the CoA+ build roadmap: prioritize use cases in collaboration with the CTAO and department leaders, sequence delivery, manage dependencies, and maintain a portfolio of active, queued, and completed initiatives
  • Create and maintain a library of reusable AI assets, prompt templates, agent frameworks, integration patterns, and lessons learned that accelerate future builds across the organization
  • Partner with the Business Unit leaders and AI Champions to identify enterprise internal AI use cases and bring them to life with extending existing enterprise applications, buy new ai-native tools or custom build automations
• AI Architecture, Toolchain & Technical Standards
  • Own and evolve the enterprise AI architecture blueprint: define reference patterns, integration standards, approved tooling (LLM platforms, orchestration frameworks, vector stores, RPA tools), and security/compliance guardrails for all internal AI development
  • Conduct architecture reviews across CoA+ builds and department-led AI initiatives, ensuring technical consistency, security compliance, and scalability before deployment
  • Stay current on the rapidly evolving AI technology landscape, LLMs, multi-agent systems, workflow automation, cloud AI services and make evidence-based recommendations on when to adopt, integrate, or replace tools in the enterprise stack
  • Define and enforce the AI development lifecycle: from use case scoping and technical feasibility through build, testing, validation, deployment, and ongoing monitoring, in coordination with IT Security, Compliance, and Legal
  • Serve as the technical authority for AI vendor evaluations, RFPs, and platform assessments applying hands-on judgment to evaluate what vendors claim versus what they deliver
• AI Governance & Responsible AI
  • Maintain the enterprise AI Governance Framework covering responsible AI principles, risk management, bias mitigation, data privacy, and regulatory compliance for a life sciences context — including 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA, and ICH/GCP guidelines
  • Enforce quality gates and approval checkpoints across the AI development lifecycle, ensuring all AI initiatives meet ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements before deployment
  • Serve as the enterprise authority on responsible AI, advising the CTAO, department leaders, and AI Champions on governance requirements and risk mitigation strategies
  • Maintain audit-ready documentation of AI systems, model decisions, data lineage, and deployment configurations, consistent with regulated industry requirements
• AI Value Tracking & Reporting (AI Value Office — AIVO)
  • Manage the enterprise AI initiative portfolio: track progress, ROI, and strategic alignment across all CoA+ builds and department AI implementations
  • Maintain the standardized AI business case and value realization framework, ensuring every initiative maps to measurable outcomes, productivity gains, cost savings, cycle time reduction, or client value delivery
  • Produce regular AI performance reporting for the CTAO and SLT, translating technical program outcomes into clear business language with quantified impact
  • Drive accountability from experimentation to sustained adoption: establish operational KPIs for live AI systems and ensure continuous improvement loops are in place
• AI Champions Network & Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Support the CTAO in leading eClinical's network of department AI Champions providing technical guidance, use case scoping support, and escalation pathways for complex implementation challenges
  • Facilitate regular AI Champion forums and cross-departmental sessions to share CoA+ outputs, reusable assets, and lessons learned
  • Partner with department leaders and the CTAO to identify, prioritize, and design AI use cases that are technically feasible, governed, and tied to measurable business outcomes
  • Represent the technology function in SLT planning, providing visibility into build progress, technical risks, and organizational readiness for AI adoption
• Other duties as assigned

Take the first step towards your dream career. Here is what we are looking for in this role.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field required; Master's degree in AI/ML, Information Systems, or MBA strongly preferred
• 8+ years of progressive experience in technology and AI leadership, with a career arc that includes hands-on technical roles building AI systems, designing LLM-powered workflows, or deploying automation capabilities in a professional setting
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with agentic AI systems, LLM orchestration (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen, or equivalent), and workflow automation tooling (e.g., UiPath, n8n, or similar)
• Solid understanding of cloud AI platforms (AWS Bedrock), vector databases, and enterprise integration patterns
• Proven track record leading technical teams’ data engineers, AI/ML engineers, or automation developers with direct accountability for shipping capabilities, not just overseeing programs
• Experience operating or contributing to an AI Center of Excellence, CoA+, or equivalent enterprise AI delivery function
• Demonstrated ability to design and enforce an AI governance and quality framework in a regulated or compliance-sensitive environment
• Strong executive presence: able to translate technical complexity into clear business narratives for SLT and board audiences
• Exceptional cross-functional collaboration skills comfortable influencing without authority across Engineering, Compliance, Legal, Finance, and Operations
• Experience managing AI program portfolios, vendor relationships, and tool evaluation processes
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical field required
• Experience in clinical research, life sciences, or health technology; familiarity with ICH/GCP, 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA, and validated system requirements strongly preferred
• Background in PE-backed, high-growth SaaS companies where AI and automation have been levers for operational scale strongly preferred
• Hands-on experience with CDISC standards, clinical data platforms, or RBQM solutions — enabling credible collaboration with the elluminate R&D team

Accelerate your skills and career within a fast-growing company while impacting the future of healthcare. We have shared our story, now we look forward to learning yours!

eClinical is a winner of the 2025 Top Workplaces USA Award for Remote Work! We have also received numerous Top Workplaces Culture Excellence Awards celebrating our exceptional company vision, values, and work-life balance. See all the details here: https://topworkplaces.com/company/eclinical-solutions/

eClinical Solutions is a people first organization. Our inclusive culture values the contribution that diversity brings to our business. We celebrate individual experiences that connect us and that inspire innovation in our community. Our team seeks out opportunities to learn, grow and continuously improve. Bring your authentic self, you are welcome here!

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer that values diversity. Our management team is committed to the principle that employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, culture fit and business need.