Director, Data and AI Product Owner, Research

About the role

As part of our enterprise AI strategy to accelerate discovery and development of life-changing therapies, we are seeking a Director, Data/AI Product Owner (Research) to lead AI/data product strategy across Research and Translation Sciences (Discovery, Preclinical, Translational, and Early Development). In this leadership role, you will define and drive a portfolio-level product vision and strategy, shaping how AI is applied to transform scientific workflows, accelerate decision-making, and improve research productivity. You will serve as a strategic partner to senior scientific and functional leaders.

Serving as the primary liaison between stakeholders and technical teams, you will translate ambiguous and evolving Research needs into a clear, prioritized product roadmap, define success metrics tied to measurable business outcomes, and influence both near-term delivery and longer-range data and AI platform evolution. As the IT product owner, you will own the product vision, roadmap, and stakeholder engagement for AI-enabled reporting, planning, and analytics use cases while understanding the technical architecture required to deliver solutions.

Reporting to the Senior Director, Data & AI, you will oversee a portfolio of AI-enabled products and guide cross-functional teams in delivering high-value solutions. This position is based in Foster City, CA (hybrid-eligible).

Responsibilities

• Define and lead product strategy and multi-year roadmap for AI-enabled research capabilities.
• Partner with senior Research leaders to identify high-impact AI opportunities, pain points, and advanced analytics opportunities, and develop compelling business cases.
• Lead and mentor Product Owners and Product Managers.
• Prioritize the product backlog based on business value, risk, technical feasibility, and alignment with enterprise data and AI strategy.
• Establish and scale product operating model for consistency in delivery.
• Translate business objectives into clear product requirements and backlog items, incorporating data architecture, platform constraints, and scalability considerations.
• Own the end-to-end product vision and multi-year roadmap for a portfolio of AI-enabled capabilities for Research decision-support, balancing enterprise priorities, platform constraints, and value realization.
• Align solutions with data architecture, AI/ML capabilities, and platforms.
• Define and track success metrics such as cost reduction, productivity gains, user adoption, and satisfaction; use insights to guide continuous improvement.
• Drive change management and user adoption, including designing for user experience, stakeholder communications, training strategies, and feedback loops.
• Own the vendor and partner strategy for product support, including external development capacity and AI/LLM capabilities, in coordination with IT and Procurement.
• Identify gaps between current-state capabilities and target-state solutions, influencing Databricks, AWS, and data platform evolution in partnership with technical leaders.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to research leadership, applying strong business and financial acumen to evaluate trade-offs and recommend data- and AI-driven solutions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s with 12+ years or Master’s/PhD with 10+ years in relevant field.
• Deep understanding of drug discovery and development.
• Demonstrated experience as a Product Owner or Product Manager, with a strong track record of translating business needs into scalable data and AI solutions.
• Strong stakeholder management and influence skills, including the ability to operate as a trusted advisor to senior research leaders.
• Demonstrated business and financial acumen with the ability to evaluate ROI, cost-to-value trade-offs, and long-term platform investments.
• Solid understanding of data and AI architecture concepts, with the ability to discuss design options and trade-offs with engineering and data science teams.
• Familiarity with modern data platforms such as Databricks and AWS.
• Proven experience working in Agile/Scrum environments, using metrics-driven approaches to guide prioritization and delivery.

Skills

• Experience with AI/ML in drug discovery (optional differentiator).
• Exposure to generative AI use cases (optional differentiator).
• Familiarity with scientific platforms (ELN, Assay Management, Scientific Research, LIMS, HPC systems) (optional differentiator).

Pay

The salary range for this position is $226,185.00 - $292,710.00. Gilead considers a variety of factors when determining base compensation, including experience, qualifications, and geographic location. These considerations mean actual compensation will vary. This position may also be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, discretionary stock-based long-term incentives (eligibility may vary based on role), paid time off, and a benefits package.

Benefits

• Company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans.
• Eligible employees may participate in additional benefit plans, subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable plans.