Skip to content
AxleAxleRockville, MD

Associate Director of AI and Data

Leads AI/ML strategy and teams for NIH biomedical research, evolving Polus platform, building petabyte-scale pipelines, and supporting federal proposals. Requires PhD and 8+ years AI/data science experience with leadership.

150k – 190k/yr
On-site8+ YOEML Engineering

About the role

Core Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership of the AI/ML Roadmap

  • Architect and execute comprehensive AI/ML strategy aligning with NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science (2025–2030)
  • Define vision for integrating Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), and Agentic Workflows
  • Spearhead evolution of Polus platform into multi-modal research ecosystem using Docker/Kubernetes on AWS/GCP/Azure
  • Establish AI Governance frameworks using NIST AI Risk Management Framework (RMF)

Oversight of Complex Modeling & High-Dimensional Data Pipelines

  • Direct petabyte-scale data pipelines for genomics, proteomics, EHR adhering to FAIR data principles
  • Oversee predictive models for drug discovery using deep learning (molecular targets, Digital Twins)
  • Optimize MLOps and DevSecOps processes for production deployment

Business Development & Federal Growth (Capture Support)

  • Serve as Lead Solution Architect for proposals ($50M+), author technical volumes
  • Build relationships with federal stakeholders (NIH Project Officers, CIOs)

Mentorship of Data Scientists & Engineers

  • Manage and mentor data scientists, bioinformaticians, software engineers
  • Drive Communities of Practice for Graph Neural Networks, Federated Learning
  • Create low-code/no-code AI interfaces for researchers

Required Qualifications

Education

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Data Science (highly preferred)
  • Master's degree with exceptional leadership experience considered

Experience

  • 8–10+ years in data science, AI/ML engineering, computational biology
  • 3–5+ years leadership managing cross-functional teams
  • Federal contracting experience with proposals and capture

Skills

AI/MLGenerative AILLMsKubernetesDockerAWSGCPAzureMLOpsDevSecOpsGraph Neural NetworksFederated LearningDeep LearningPolusNist Rmf

Similar roles

ML Engineering jobs
Pinterest

Director, Machine Learning Engineering – Content & User Understanding

PinterestSan Francisco, CA

Director-level ML leader to define vision and drive execution of Pinterest's foundational content and user understanding models powering homefeed, search, ads and more.

267k – 551k/yr
Hybrid12+ YOEML Engineering
Reddit

Director of Safety ML

RedditUnited States

Lead Reddit’s Safety ML organization to build and deploy large-scale ML systems that detect harmful content and protect users. Drive strategy, manage teams of 25+ ML scientists and engineers, and partner cross-functionally to advance responsible AI for platform safety.

277k – 387k/yr
Remote10+ YOEML Engineering
Crusoe

Senior Director, AI Model LifeCycle

CrusoeSan Francisco, CA +1

Leads AI Model LifeCycle team, building and managing fine-tuning, training pipelines for LLMs using techniques like PEFT, LoRA, RFT, and reinforcement learning. Requires 10+ years AI experience, advanced degree, hands-on LLM expertise, and team leadership skills.

302k – 355k/yr
On-site10+ YOEML Engineering
Astera

Head of Bio AI - Radial

AsteraEmeryville, CA

Leads technical direction for bio AI research programs, architects AI/computational infrastructure, prototypes modeling systems, and builds high-caliber engineering team. Requires deep ML expertise in generative models, large-scale training, and bio applications with hands-on leadership.

400k – 600k/yr
HybridML Engineering
Earnin

Head of Machine Learning

EarninMountain View, CA

Leads and scales machine learning organization at fintech company, defining ML roadmap, productionizing models at scale, and collaborating cross-functionally. Requires 12+ years engineering experience, 7+ years leadership, MS/PhD, deep ML expertise, Python/SQL proficiency.

477k – 583k/yr
Hybrid12+ YOEML Engineering