Sr. Director, Data Science & AI, Orthopedics

About the role

The Sr. Director, Data Science & AI provides strategic and operational leadership for enterprise-wide data science and artificial intelligence capabilities supporting DePuy Synthes. This role is accountable for shaping and executing the Data & AI strategy, translating business priorities into scalable analytics and AI solutions, and enabling data-driven decision-making across the organization. The role partners closely with business, technology, and clinical stakeholders to deliver measurable impact, accelerate innovation, and ensure responsible, compliant use of data and AI technologies.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the enterprise Data Science & AI strategy, roadmap and investment in alignment with business priorities and IT objectives, spanning machine learning, generative AI and agentic AI.
• Build, lead, and develop high-performing Data Science and AI team.
• Hire top talent, define roles and career paths, and establish a culture of rigor, speed, and accountability.
• Serve as a senior Technical voice for AI across the enterprise, translating business problems into AI opportunities and setting realistic expectations grounding into what technology can and cannot do.
• Stand up and operate the enterprise AI hub; Shared platform, reusable patterns. Model registry and delivery accelerators through which all AI use cases are built and deployed.
• Establish standards and reference architectures for generative and agentic AI, orchestration frameworks, retrieval patterns, semantic layers/knowledge graphs, agent action boundaries, observability and Human in the loop controls.
• Evaluate and manage the AI tech stack and vendor ecosystem (cloud ML platforms, GenAI Providers, data science tooling) including build vs buy decisions and commercial negotiations in partnership with procurement.
• Partner with business and functional leaders to identify, prioritize, and deliver high-value analytics and AI use cases.
• Design and operationalize the enterprise AI governance framework; Model risk management, validation standards, explainability, bias and fairness testing, drift monitoring and audit trails.
• Partner with Quality, Regulatory, legal and privacy to ensure AI deployments meet GxP, 21 CFR Part 11, SOX and data privacy obligations.
• Track and evaluate emerging AI capabilities (frontier models, Agentic frameworks, domain specific models) and bring the right one into enterprise.
• Oversee the design, development, and deployment of scalable data science and AI solutions, including predictive and prescriptive analytics.
• Establish governance, standards, and best practices for data science, AI model development, validation, and lifecycle management.
• Collaborate with enterprise data, digital, and IT teams to enable modern data platforms and advanced analytics capabilities.
• Track performance, value realization, and adoption of Data & AI initiatives, continuously driving improvement and innovation.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree required in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field. Master’s degree or PhD preferred.
• Experience and Skills: 12-14 years of relevant work experience, including senior leadership experience in data science, advanced analytics, or AI. Deep current expertise in AI/ML Landscape; classic ML, Deep Learning, generative AI/LLMs and agentic architectures. Demonstrated expertise in MLOps/LLMOps and production AI at enterprise scale. Working fluency with the modern AI/data stack; eg-Databricks/Snowflake/Sagemaker or comparable platforms, vector database orchestration frameworks and GenAI provider ecosystem (Anthropic, openAI, etc.). Demonstrated ability to translate complex data insights into actionable business outcomes. Experience partnering with senior executives and cross-functional stakeholders. Executive level communication, able to set strategy with C-suite audiences, defend technical position and rigor and translate between business and deep technical stakeholders. Strong people leadership, talent development, and change management capabilities.
• Preferred: Experience in healthcare, medical technology, life sciences, or regulated industries. Familiarity with enterprise data platforms, cloud-based analytics, and AI toolsets. Experience establishing AI governance, ethics frameworks, and model risk management. Global or matrixed organizational leadership experience. Strong executive communication and storytelling skills using data and analytics. Proven experience leading enterprise-scale data science and AI teams and initiatives.

Benefits

• Subject to the terms of their respective plans, employees are eligible to participate in the Company’s consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)).
• This position is eligible to participate in the Company’s long-term incentive program.
• Subject To The Terms Of Their Respective Policies And Date Of Hire, Employees Are Eligible For The Following Time Off Benefits:
• Vacation – 120 hours per calendar year
• Sick time – 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Colorado – 48 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington – 56 hours per calendar year
• Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays – 13 days per calendar year
• Work, Personal and Family Time – up to 40 hours per calendar year
• Bereavement Leave – 240 hours for an immediate family member: 40 hours for an extended family member per calendar year
• Caregiver Leave – 80 hours in a 52-week rolling period
• Volunteer Leave – 32 hours per calendar year
• Military Spouse Time-Off – 80 hours per calendar year