Associate Director Research Engineering

Working with Us
Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren’t words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You’ll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

Bristol Myers Squibb recognizes the importance of balance and flexibility in our work environment. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives. Read more: careers.bms.com/working-with-us.

Associate Director Research Engineering

Location: Remote, but preference given to candidates within proximity to the Cambridge, Lawrenceville, San Diego, Brisbane, or Seattle Sites (strong preference for Cambridge MA)

Job Description:

The Associate Director is a service-oriented, forward-thinking team leader who is responsible for overseeing the collaborative design and development of scalable, innovative, cloud-based solutions, specifically within the Informatics and Predictive Sciences (IPS) department at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). This pivotal role requires a combination of technical expertise, strategic vision, and collaborative leadership to support LLM-based solutions that drive scientific advancements in drug discovery and development. Experience with LLM technologies will be crucial for developing innovative solutions and driving experimentation in scientific research and drug development. The Associate Director oversees work within the Research Engineering team and works closely with subject matter experts, product managers, and IT teams to ensure that architectural design, resourcing, product development and delivery align with business objectives, scientific needs, and technical best practices.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the hiring, oversight and mentoring of Research Engineering team members
• Drive key architectural decision-making via workshops and brainstorming sessions to solve for end use requirements and use cases
• Develop strategic architectural roadmaps and guidelines for engineers and developers to adopt
• Own the early robust build phase of successful prototypes and lead the transition to iterative development and maintenance
• Navigate and collaborate with multiple IT organizations to gain alignment and clear a path for engineers and developers to proceed with solution build
• Explore and pilot new LLM technologies to assess their potential integration into existing architecture.
• Provide thought leadership on emerging LLM and AI models and capabilities and drive experimentation in service to BMS use cases 
• Perform risk assessments on new or existing cloud architectures to identify cost, scalability, or any other infrastructure management concerns.
• Propose opportunities for enhanced operational support of new or existing infrastructure through cloud-native monitoring and testing suites.
• Engage directly with development teams to provide guidance on appropriate selection of programming languages, LLM evaluation frameworks, testing methodologies, and system scalability strategies.
• Map use cases to leverage existing capabilities and define solutions for new capabilities.
• Pick appropriate technologies for new solutions and ensure integration with enterprise infrastructure.
• Merge technical infrastructure where needed, defining consistent back end and front-end technologies.

Skills:

• Experience building and maintaining cloud-native applications using core AWS services such as IAM, S3, Athena, Lambda, Fargate, Bedrock, OpenSearch, etc.
• Advanced proficiency with Python, SQL, R, database design, and at least one front end development framework (React, Angular, Streamlit, or similar)
• Previous exposure to large-scale scientific systems design and integration patterns, including mapping use cases to best practice architectural and integration patterns
• Ability to deliver performance evaluations, benchmarking, and troubleshooting of AI or LLM-based applications
• Familiarity with containerization (Docker/ECS), Agile methodologies, and cloud-native development patterns.
• Experience building or enhancing a laboratory informatics system (LIMS) specifically in a research or drug development context
• Ability to explore and pilot new technologies, including LLM technologies.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree with a technology focus (IT, Computer Science, or a related field) or a scientific focus (Biology, Chemistry, or a related field) with at least 10 years of programming and architecture experience and 12+ years of academic / industry experience
• or Master's Degree with a technology focus (IT, Computer Science, or a related field) or a scientific focus (Biology, Chemistry, or a related field) with at least 10 years of programming and architecture experience and 10+ years of academic / industry experience
• or PhD with a technology focus (IT, Computer Science, or a related field) or a scientific focus (Biology, Chemistry, or a related field) with at least 10 years of programming and architecture experience.8+ years of academic / industry experience
• 4+ years of leadership experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's, master's or PhD with a technology focus (IT, Computer Science, or a related field) or a scientific focus (Biology, Chemistry, or a related field) with at least 10 years of programming and architecture experience.
• Combined 10+ years' experience with AWS and/or LIMS platform management (Dotmatics, Benchling, Genedata)
• (Preferred) Some experience in a strategic architecture role working with LLM capabilities including use of industry leading models, RAG approaches, agentic frameworks, LLM testing frameworks, etc.
• Excellent communication skills: Demonstrated experience interacting with technical product designers to gather solution architecture requirements, and ability to perform designated tasks in a timely manner.
• Proven track record of successfully managing technical projects and leading cross-functional teams.
• Ability to multitask in a fast-paced research and technical environment.
• Demonstrated capacity for independent thinking and care about the underlying biological questions and advancement of science for patient benefit.

The starting compensation for this job is a range from $184,300 - $223,400 plus incentive cash and stock opportunities (based on eligibility). The starting pay rate takes into account characteristics of the job, such as required skills and where the job is performed. Final, individual compensation will be decided based on demonstrated experience. 

Benefit offerings are subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable plans then in effect and may include the following: Medical, pharmacy, dental and vision care. Wellbeing support such as the BMS Living Life Better program and employee assistance programs (EAP). Financial well-being resources and a 401(K). Financial protection benefits such as short- and long-term disability, life insurance, supplemental health insurance, business travel protection and survivor support. Work-life programs include paid national holidays and optional holidays, Global Shutdown days between Christmas and New Year’s holiday, up to 120 hours of paid vacation, up to two (2) paid days to volunteer, sick time off, and summer hours flexibility. Parental, caregiver, bereavement, and military leave. Family care services such as adoption and surrogacy reimbursement, fertility/infertility benefits, support for traveling mothers, and child, elder and pet care resources. Other perks like tuition reimbursement and a recognition program.  

#LI-Remote

If you come across a role that intrigues you but doesn’t perfectly line up with your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway. You could be one step away from work that will transform your life and career.

Uniquely Interesting Work, Life-changing Careers
With a single vision as inspiring as “Transforming patients’ lives through science™ ”, every BMS employee plays an integral role in work that goes far beyond ordinary. Each of us is empowered to apply our individual talents and unique perspectives in a supportive culture, promoting global participation in clinical trials, while our shared values of passion, innovation, urgency, accountability, inclusion and integrity bring out the highest potential of each of our colleagues.

On-site Protocol

BMS has an occupancy structure that determines where an employee is required to conduct their work. This structure includes site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design jobs. The occupancy type that you are assigned is determined by the nature and responsibilities of your role:

Site-essential roles require 100% of shifts onsite at your assigned facility. Site-by-design roles may be eligible for a hybrid work model with at least 50% onsite at your assigned facility. For these roles, onsite presence is considered an essential job function and is critical to collaboration, innovation, productivity, and a positive Company culture. For field-based and remote-by-design roles the ability to physically travel to visit customers, patients or business partners and to attend meetings on behalf of BMS as directed is an essential job function.

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to [email protected]. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

BMS cares about your well-being and the well-being of our staff, customers, patients, and communities. As a result, the Company strongly recommends that all employees be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 and keep up to date with Covid-19 boosters.

BMS will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/

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