Associate Director - AI/ML Engineering

Career Category

Job Description

Join Amgen’s Mission of Serving Patients

At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission—to serve patients living with serious illnesses—drives all that we do.

Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas –Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease– we reach millions of patients each year. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives.

Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Associate Director - AI/ML Engineering

What you will do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. We are seeking a Associate Director of ML / AI Engineering to lead Amgen India’s AI engineering practice. This role is integral to developing top-tier talent, setting ML / AI best practices, and evangelizing ML / AI Engineering capabilities across the organization. The Associate Director will be responsible for driving the successful delivery of strategic business initiatives by overseeing the technical architecture, managing talent, and establishing a culture of excellence in ML / AI

The key aspects of this role involve :

(1) prior hands-on experience building ML and AI solutions

(2) management experience in leading ML / AI engineering team and talent development

(3) Delivering AI initiatives at enterprise scale

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Talent Growth & People Leadership: Lead, mentor, and manage a high-performing team of engineers, fostering an environment that encourages learning, collaboration, and innovation. Focus on nurturing future leaders and providing growth opportunities through coaching, training, and mentorship.

• Recruitment & Team Expansion: Develop a comprehensive talent strategy that includes recruitment, retention, onboarding, and career development and build a diverse and inclusive team that drives innovation, aligns with Amgen's culture and values, and delivers business priorities

• Organizational Leadership: Work closely with senior leaders within the function and across the Amgen India site to align engineering goals with broader organizational objectives and demonstrate leadership by contributing to strategic discussions

• Create and implement a strategy for expanding the AI/ML engineering team, including recruitment, onboarding, and talent development.

• Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of AI/ML projects, from concept and design through to deployment and optimization, ensuring timely and successful delivery.

• Ensure adoption of ML-Ops best practices, including model versioning, testing, deployment, and monitoring.

• Collaborate with multi-functional teams, including product, data science, and software engineering, to find opportunities and deliver AI/ML solutions that drive business value.

• Serve as an AI/ML evangelist across the organization, promoting awareness and understanding of the capabilities and value of AI/ML technologies.

• Promote a culture of innovation and continuous learning within the team, encouraging the exploration of new tools, technologies, and methodologies.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship, guiding engineers in implementing scalable and robust AI/ML systems.

• Work closely with collaborators to prioritize AI/ML projects and ensure timely delivery of key initiatives.

• Lead innovation initiatives to explore new AI/ML technologies, platforms, and tools that can drive further advancements in the organization’s AI capabilities.

What we expect of you

We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients.

Basic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree and 12 to 14 years of computer science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning experience OR

• Bachelor’s degree and 14 to 18 years of computer science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning experience OR

• Diploma and 18 to 20 years of computer science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in building AI Platforms & applications at enterprise scale

• Expertise in AI/ML frameworks and libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, etc.

• Hands-on experience with LLMs, Generative AI, and NLP (e.g., GPT, BERT, Llama, Claude, Mistral AI)

• Strong understanding of MLOps processes and tools such as MLflow, Kubeflow, or similar platforms.

• Proficient in programming languages such as Python, R, or Scala.

• Experience deploying AI/ML models in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud).

• Proven track record of managing and delivering AI/ML projects at scale.

• Excellent project management skills, with the ability to lead multi-functional teams and manage multiple priorities.

• Experience in regulated industries, preferably life sciences and pharma

Good-to-Have Skills:

• Experience with natural language processing, computer vision, or reinforcement learning.

• Knowledge of data governance, privacy regulations, and ethical AI considerations.

• Experience with cloud-native AI/ML services (Databricks, AWS, Azure ML, Google AI Platforms)

• Experience with AI Observability

Professional Certifications (Preferred):

• Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer, AWS Certified Machine Learning, or Azure AI Engineer Associate, Databricks Certified Generative AI Engineer Associate

Soft Skills:

• Excellent leadership and communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical collaborators.

• Ability to foster a collaborative and innovative work environment.

• Strong problem-solving abilities and attention to detail.

• High degree of initiative and self-motivation.

• Ability to mentor and develop team members, promoting their growth and success.

What you can expect of us

As we work to develop treatments that take care of others, we also work to care for your professional and personal growth and well-being. From our competitive benefits to our collaborative culture, we’ll support your journey every step of the way.

In addition to the base salary, Amgen offers competitive and comprehensive Total Rewards Plans that are aligned with local industry standards.

Apply now and make a lasting impact with the Amgen team.

careers.amgen.com

As an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people around the world, Amgen fosters an inclusive environment of diverse, ethical, committed and highly accomplished people who respect each other and live the Amgen values to continue advancing science to serve patients. Together, we compete in the fight against serious disease.

Amgen is an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.