Deputy Director, AI4Science, Center of Digital and Data Excellence Join to apply for the Deputy Director, AI4Science, Center of Digital and Data Excellence role at PATH PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships and with expertise in science, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales up innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing health challenges. The Deputy Director/Lead (appointment based on experience) will work across many initiatives, but with a particular focus (in years 1 & 2) on AI solutions for accelerating biomedical hypothesis generation and validation. The topics you’ll apply your skills to include vaccine development, vector control technologies, and drug development. You will provide in-depth scientific and technical expertise, plan and lead the execution of research programmes, and contribute to the translation of outputs into global public goods. This is a technical role, and you will need to be comfortable leading the technical components of our research, which aims to develop, evaluate, and deploy AI to accelerate biomedical science. Responsibilities

Lead and contribute to research activities across multiple projects (supported by your peers in the AI team leadership, and under the mentorship of the Chief AI Officer), including, for example:

I. Overseeing a programme of work with a frontier lab on how agentic AI workflows can be used to identify novel correlates of protection to accelerate vaccine development. II. Designing programmes of work with an academic lab on therapeutics design spanning AMR, mental health, etc. III. Creating an evaluation framework and benchmarking workflow in the context of open-ended tasks, such as creative hypothesis generation. IV. Academic thought leadership around AI for clinical trials, the regulation of AI in upstream tasks (esp. around dual‑purpose technologies), etc.

Lead the planning around, and where necessary operationalise the use of quantitative research methods (e.g., experimental study design, benchmarking framework design, statistical analysis, etc.) and technical AI methods (e.g., agent architecture design and development, prompt engineering, evaluation method development, etc.) independently and in collaboration with our partners. Lead technical writing of study protocols, reports, and peer‑reviewed publications. Develop collaborations around the portfolio with academic, industry, and other partners. Serve as the responsible party for initiative‑led projects, ensuring compliance with PATH and donor research ethics and data protection standards, as well as the timely delivery of outputs. The deputy director will also be the primary point of contact for donors and partners on initiative‑led projects. Collaborate with project finance managers to ensure day‑to‑day project spending matches the budgeted spend, elevate issues to the Chief AI Officer, and ensure timely inputs to initiative‑wide budgeting exercises. Collaborate with the other AI Deputy Directors (Health and Regulatory Policy), as well as the AI programme manager, and positively contribute to the overall culture and control environment for the initiative.

Management and Mentorship

Matrix manage staff with responsibilities on projects that the DD (AI4Science) is leading. Provide academic mentorship to peers and more junior staff members in the AI initiative to cultivate their skills. By year 2, having partnered with the Chief AI Officer to successfully secure additional funding, hire and manage a dedicated AI4Science team. Contribute to the development of the organisation’s AI4Science strategy. Contribute to, and where appropriate, lead business development activities. As required, stand in for the Chief AI Officer at internal and external meetings. Contribute to PATH’s thought leadership in AI and global health‑relevant product development. Contribute to other AI4Science projects that are not led by the initiative, but where subject matter expertise has been requested by another team at PATH.

Required Skills & Experience

PhD (in a relevant subject) with significant (5+ years) research experience, or industry expertise in a bioscience field. Strong coding skills, as necessary to carry out independent AI research, including experience piloting AI/ML models and agentic workflows. Expertise in one or more of the following areas: natural language processing, AI benchmarking and evaluation, agentic AI architectures, immunology, or AI applied to any biomedical field. Experience managing large, multi‑programme initiatives (>$5m) with demonstrable scientific impact and a public profile. Entrepreneurial mindset: comfortable writing proposals, leveraging internal and external experts, and drawing on donor networks to build a pipeline. Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills to build a shared vision and motivate busy teams to deliver on PATH’s AI goals. Comfortable with uncertainty, willing to take calculated risks based on evidence and persevere when challenges arise. Clear vision for building out the AI4Science team and traction to achieve that vision.

We know great candidates won’t always meet every listed qualification. Research shows that some groups, on average, are more likely to self‑select out if they feel they don’t meet all requirements. If you’re excited about the role and think you’d be a good fit, we encourage you to apply. To be selected, you must have legal authorization to work in the UK. Seniority level

Director

Employment type

Full‑time

Job function

Project Management and Research

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