Director, Software Engineering - AI & Innovations

Company Information

At Advarra, we are passionate about making a difference in the world of clinical research and advancing human health. With a rich history rooted in ethical review services combined with innovative technology solutions and deep industry expertise, we are at the forefront of industry change. A market leader and pioneer, Advarra breaks the silos that impede clinical research, aligning patients, sites, sponsors, and CROs in a connected ecosystem to accelerate trials.

Company Culture

Our employees are the heart of Advarra. They are the key to our success and the driving force behind our mission and vision. Our values (Patient-Centric, Ethical, Quality Focused, Collaborative) guide our actions and decisions. Knowing the impact of our work on trial participants and patients, we act with urgency and purpose to advance clinical research so that people can live happier, healthier lives.

At Advarra, we seek to foster an inclusive and collaborative environment where everyone is treated with respect and diverse perspectives are embraced. Treating one another, our clients, and clinical trial participants with empathy and care are key tenets of our culture at Advarra; we are committed to creating a workplace where each employee is not only valued but empowered to thrive and make a meaningful impact.

Job Overview Summary

The Director, Software Engineering – AI & Innovations is a hands-on, operationally strong engineering leader responsible for delivering AI-enabled capabilities across Advarra’s Technology portfolio while driving disciplined execution and performance across multiple engineering teams. This is a player-coach leadership role. The Director will actively engage in architectural decisions, AI solution design, and critical technical discussions while also owning delivery predictability, team performance, resource planning, and operational excellence. This leader will advance the integration of AI into customer-facing applications and embed AI assistants and automation into engineering workflows to increase velocity, improve quality, and enhance transparency. The Director partners closely with Product Management, Cloud Engineering, IT, Security, QA, Data, and Operations to ensure scalable, compliant, and customer-centric solutions are delivered with urgency and accountability.

Job Duties & Responsibilities

AI-Enabled Product Development

• Architect and lead implementation of AI-powered features within Product & Technology applications, including LLM integrations, workflow automation, intelligent recommendations, and data-driven insights.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership in system design, model integration strategies, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and AI orchestration patterns.
• Evaluate and guide selection of AI tools, services, and platforms based on performance, scalability, cost, compliance, and long-term maintainability.
• Establish governance standards for responsible AI usage, including data controls, auditability, validation frameworks, and risk management.
• Partner with Product Management to convert AI use cases into executable technical plans with clearly defined scope, timelines, and measurable value.

AI in Engineering Operations

• Lead the implementation of AI assistants and automation across engineering workflows, including code generation, automated testing, documentation creation, incident triage, and knowledge management.
• Define operational guardrails and usage standards to ensure AI-assisted development maintains security, compliance, and code quality standards.
• Track and report measurable improvements in cycle time, defect rates, deployment frequency, documentation quality, and team productivity driven by AI enablement.
• Drive continuous improvement across CI/CD pipelines, observability, release management, and system reliability practices.
• Establish experimentation frameworks for piloting AI capabilities with defined success criteria and controlled rollout plans.

Engineering Delivery & Operational Leadership

• Lead multiple agile engineering teams with clear accountability for roadmap execution, sprint predictability, and high-quality releases.
• Establish and monitor KPIs for delivery performance, system uptime, AI feature adoption, defect trends, and operational effectiveness.
• Partner with the VP of Engineering to develop quarterly and annual execution plans aligned to strategic objectives.
• Own resource planning, capacity forecasting, and team structure to ensure alignment with delivery commitments.
• Contribute to budgeting discussions, vendor evaluations, and cost optimization strategies related to AI tooling and engineering infrastructure.
• Proactively manage risks, dependencies, and cross-team coordination to eliminate delivery friction and bottlenecks.
• Remain technically engaged through architecture reviews, design sessions, and critical code or implementation reviews.

Cross-Functional & External Engagement

• Collaborate closely with Cloud, IT, Security, QA, Data, and Operations to ensure production readiness and operational stability of AI-enabled systems.
• Participate in technical discussions with customers and vendors regarding AI integrations, system capabilities, and architectural decisions.
• Facilitate alignment across Engineering and Product teams to reduce ambiguity, improve prioritization clarity, and maintain delivery momentum.

Talent & Performance Leadership

• Coach and develop engineering managers and senior engineers, building strong succession depth and AI competency within the organization.
• Conduct performance management with clarity, consistency, and high expectations.
• Recruit and retain high-performing engineering and AI talent.
• Reinforce a culture of urgency, ownership, transparency, and disciplined execution.
• Promote continuous learning and responsible innovation in emerging AI technologies.

Location

This role is open to candidates working remotely in the United States.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, Information Technology, or related field or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including 5+ years in engineering leadership roles.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience integrating AI/ML or LLM capabilities into production applications.
• Experience leading agile teams with accountability for delivery predictability and operational performance.
• Strong architectural background in distributed systems, SaaS platforms, APIs, and cloud-native environments.
• Experience implementing AI assistants or automation tools to improve engineering productivity.
• Proven track record managing multi-team delivery in complex, cross-functional environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, or related field.
• Experience in clinical research, healthcare technology, or regulated industries.
• Hands-on experience with LLM integrations, vector databases, embeddings, RAG architectures, and AI model deployment strategies.
• Experience managing budgets, vendor relationships, and cost optimization initiatives.
• Strong understanding of DevOps practices, CI/CD automation, infrastructure-as-code, and observability frameworks.
• Demonstrated success driving operational maturity and engineering performance improvements.
• Strong executive communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• Balanced leadership style combining technical depth, operational rigor, and collaborative partnership.

Physical and Mental Requirements

• Sit or stand for extended periods of time at stationary workstation
• Regularly carry, raise, and lower objects of up to 10 Lbs.
• Learn and comprehend basic instructions
• Focus and attention to tasks and responsibilities
• Verbal communication; listening and understanding, responding, and speaking

Advarra is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and providing a workplace that is free from discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability or genetic information or any other status or characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.  Advarra provides equal employment opportunity to all individuals regardless of these protected characteristics. Further, Advarra takes affirmative action to ensure that applicants and employees are treated without regard to any of these protected characteristics in all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, training, promotion, discipline, compensation, benefits, and separation from employment.

Pay Transparency Statement 

The base salary range for this role is $122,000 - $250,000. Note that salary may vary based on location, skills, and experience and may vary from the amounts listed above. This position may also be eligible for a variable bonus in addition to base salary as well as health coverage, paid holidays, and other benefits.