Director, AI and Agentic Engineering

SUMMARY/JOB PURPOSE

The Director, Engineering AI and Agentic leads the strategy, architecture, delivery, and operations of enterprise AI platforms and AI-enabled business solutions. This role combines deep AI engineering leadership with strong product management capabilities to translate business needs into scalable, secure, measurable, and user-centered AI products. The Director, Engineering AI And Agentic is accountable for building reusable AI platform capabilities, delivering production-grade agentic and generative AI solutions, advancing AI-native engineering practices, and partnering across IT, security, data, legal, compliance, and business stakeholders to responsibly scale AI adoption across Exelixis.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Define and execute the AI engineering strategy, roadmap, and operating model for enterprise AI platforms, reusable services, and AI-enabled business solutions.
• Lead the design and delivery of scalable AI platform capabilities, including model access patterns, agent orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation, evaluation frameworks, prompt and artifact management, observability, governance controls, and reusable integration patterns.
• Oversee end-to-end development of production-grade generative AI, agentic AI, and automation solutions that improve productivity, decision support, operational efficiency, and business outcomes across functions.
• Apply strong product management practices, including opportunity assessment, stakeholder discovery, prioritization, roadmap planning, user experience definition, value measurement, adoption planning, and lifecycle management.
• Partner with business leaders, product managers, architects, data teams, cybersecurity, privacy, legal, compliance, and enterprise application teams to translate strategic business needs into secure, governed, and scalable AI solutions.
• Establish AI-native engineering standards and practices, including specification-driven development, agent-assisted software delivery, automated testing, code quality, reusable patterns, DevSecOps, CI/CD, release management, and operational support models.
• Ensure AI solutions are designed for reliability, security, scalability, auditability, explainability, human oversight, measurable autonomy, and responsible AI use consistent with company policies and regulatory expectations.
• Manage platform, and technology decisions across AI providers, cloud services, data platforms, development tools, and open-source components; assess build-versus-buy options and total cost of ownership.
• Create and monitor success metrics for AI platforms and solutions, including adoption, productivity impact, quality, latency, cost, risk reduction, reuse, user satisfaction, and business value realization.
• Lead architecture reviews, prompt and solution reviews, security reviews, model and agent evaluations, release-readiness assessments, and post-production performance monitoring.
• Develop talent, delivery practices, technical documentation, playbooks, reference architectures, and enablement materials that help teams adopt AI-native engineering safely and effectively.
• Performs other duties as assigned
• Complies with all policies and standards

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Recruit staff to meet the unit’s immediate objectives and develop staff to meet longer term objectives.
• Appraise the performance of subordinates and recommend changes regarding job, pay and employment status.
• Assist with operating budgets, and capital budgets if required, and control expenses to adhere to approved budgets.
• Keep informed of company policies and procedures as well as keep current with technical and regulatory developments to ensure compliance.
• Develop policies and procedures or recommend revisions to facilitate the accomplishment of the unit’s objectives.
• Cooperate with management and staff of other organizational units to accomplish overall organizational objectives.
• Provide a safe workplace and ensure employees are aware of and adhere to safety policies and procedures.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS & ABILITIES

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline and 13 years of related experience; or
• Master’s degree in a related discipline and 11 years of related experience; or
• Equivalent combination of education and experience.

Experience

• 5+ years in AI Engineering or Cloud platform Engineering
• Leadership experience, overseeing cross-functional teams
• Experience in full lifecycle system development (design, implementation, validation and support) of cloud based solutions and platforms

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Required:

• Advanced understanding of AI engineering, generative AI, agentic AI patterns, AI platform architecture, software engineering, cloud-native design, enterprise integration, and production operations.
• Strong ability to define platform strategy, product roadmaps, business cases, success metrics, delivery plans, and adoption approaches for enterprise AI capabilities.
• Hands-on technical credibility with modern AI solution patterns, including LLMs, prompt/context engineering, tool use, multi-step workflows, agent orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation, vector search, evaluation, monitoring, and guardrails.
• Experience with cloud AI and data platforms such as AWS, Amazon Bedrock, Databricks Mosaic AI, or equivalent technologies; familiarity with APIs, event-driven architectures, data pipelines, identity, secrets management, and enterprise security patterns.
• Demonstrated ability to lead AI-native engineering practices using coding agents, AI-assisted development tools, specification-driven development, automated testing, CI/CD, DevSecOps, observability, and continuous improvement.
• Strong understanding of responsible AI, data governance, privacy, cybersecurity, model risk, auditability, human-in-the-loop controls, regulatory expectations, and enterprise policy compliance.
• Excellent leadership skills with the ability to recruit, mentor, coach, and develop diverse technical teams while setting clear standards for quality, accountability, innovation, and delivery excellence.
• Strong communication, executive presence, facilitation, stakeholder management, and influencing skills; able to translate complex AI concepts into business implications, risks, tradeoffs, and decisions.
• Ability to work effectively in ambiguous and fast-changing environments, make informed tradeoffs, resolve conflicts, and align cross-functional teams around outcomes.
• Advanced planning, portfolio management, vendor management, financial management, and execution skills with the ability to manage multiple initiatives across a matrixed organization.
• Knowledge of life sciences, biotechnology, clinical, regulatory, GxP, SOX, 21 CFR Part 11, or validated system environments is preferred.

Travel Requirements

• 10% This position will require up to 10% of travel time.

#LI-EZ1

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The base pay range for this position is $215,000 - $306,000 annually. The base pay range may take into account the candidate’s geographic region, which will adjust the pay depending on the specific work location. The base pay offered will take into account the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, experience and internal equity, among other factors.

In addition to the base salary, as part of our Total Rewards program, Exelixis offers comprehensive employee benefits package, including a 401k plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts. Employees are also eligible for a discretionary annual bonus program, or if field sales staff, a sales-based incentive plan. Exelixis also offers employees the opportunity to purchase company stock, and receive long-term incentives, 15 accrued vacation days in their first year, 17 paid holidays including a company-wide winter shutdown in December, and up to 10 sick days throughout the calendar year.

If you have a disability and need an accommodation in relation to the recruiting process, please email us at: [email protected].

WORKING CONDITIONS:

Our office is a modern space that fosters collaboration and creativity. Teams work closely together, sharing ideas and solutions in a supportive atmosphere. We provide all necessary equipment, including dual monitors and ergonomic chairs, to ensure a comfortable workspace.

DISCLAIMER: 
The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification.  It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to the job.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.