Director, Applied AI
Denali Therapeutics
August 06, 2026
Remote friendly (South San Francisco, CA)
United States
IT
Key Accountabilities / Core Job Responsibilities:
- Serve as a recognized expert on the practical application of AI, setting standards across the company and advising teams and leadership.
- Own and drive Denali’s applied-AI strategy: determine where AI has a role, choose approaches, and set priorities.
- Partner with leaders to identify high-volume, workflow-specific problems beyond individual AI tools.
- Design, prototype, and build AI solutions hands-on, moving from idea to production and working directly with data, models, and workflows.
- Deliver measurable efficiency gains and use results to guide next AI focus areas.
- Present strategy, progress, wins, risks, and tradeoffs to senior leadership to drive investment decisions.
- Work with Legal, Quality, and Regulatory to enable compliant paths to production for safe AI use.
- Drive adoption and establish repeatable methods/playbooks to scale applied AI.
Qualifications / Skills:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a technical field (computer science, AI, data science, engineering) or equivalent experience.
- 10+ years building and delivering solutions with applied AI/ML; fluent in Python and hands-on building generative AI/LLM apps (RAG, fine-tuning, agentic workflows) through to production.
- Direct experience in regulated life sciences (pharma/biotech/medical devices), including GxP; familiarity with ISO/IEC 42001 and NIST AI RMF.
- Demonstrated experience driving cross-functional outcomes as a senior individual.
Benefits:
- Competitive total rewards package including 401k, healthcare coverage, ESPP.
Application Instructions:
- Learn more at https://www.denalitherapeutics.com/careers
- Serve as a recognized expert on the practical application of AI, setting standards across the company and advising teams and leadership.
- Own and drive Denali’s applied-AI strategy: determine where AI has a role, choose approaches, and set priorities.
- Partner with leaders to identify high-volume, workflow-specific problems beyond individual AI tools.
- Design, prototype, and build AI solutions hands-on, moving from idea to production and working directly with data, models, and workflows.
- Deliver measurable efficiency gains and use results to guide next AI focus areas.
- Present strategy, progress, wins, risks, and tradeoffs to senior leadership to drive investment decisions.
- Work with Legal, Quality, and Regulatory to enable compliant paths to production for safe AI use.
- Drive adoption and establish repeatable methods/playbooks to scale applied AI.
Qualifications / Skills:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a technical field (computer science, AI, data science, engineering) or equivalent experience.
- 10+ years building and delivering solutions with applied AI/ML; fluent in Python and hands-on building generative AI/LLM apps (RAG, fine-tuning, agentic workflows) through to production.
- Direct experience in regulated life sciences (pharma/biotech/medical devices), including GxP; familiarity with ISO/IEC 42001 and NIST AI RMF.
- Demonstrated experience driving cross-functional outcomes as a senior individual.
Benefits:
- Competitive total rewards package including 401k, healthcare coverage, ESPP.
Application Instructions:
- Learn more at https://www.denalitherapeutics.com/careers