Associate Director, Automation Lead

Merck Merck · Pharma · Telangana, India

Associate Director leading the Enterprise Architecture AI/ML and automation function, responsible for strategy, execution, and delivery of scalable solutions. This role involves technical and people leadership, building and mentoring teams, and partnering with stakeholders to translate business strategy into technology outcomes. Key responsibilities include designing and building AI/ML pipelines, developing complex automation architectures, and working with generative AI technologies like RAG, LLMs, and vector databases.

What you'd actually do

  1. Design, build, and maintain tools, content, and capabilities for the Enterprise Architecture organization
  2. Develop complex technical architectures for automation solutions, ensuring designs are scalable, secure, maintainable, and aligned with business and enterprise technology standards
  3. Lead significant development work streams as a senior technical contributor who helps uplift engineering maturity through guidance and knowledge sharing
  4. Organize and coordinate a team of engineers providing clear direction, prioritization, and coordination to ensure successful delivery with high-quality standards, timeliness, compliance, and excellent user experience
  5. Work closely with customers, stakeholders. and SMEs to define requirements and translate them into production-ready solutions

Skills

Required

  • Python programming
  • AI/ML
  • SDLC
  • Agile
  • Automation
  • Leadership
  • Prompt optimization
  • RAG systems
  • LLMs
  • Vector databases
  • Generative AI applications
  • Technical architecture design
  • Team leadership
  • Stakeholder management

Nice to have

  • AWS
  • Cloud providers
  • Containerization (Docker)
  • Orchestration tools

What the JD emphasized

  • Strong Python skills and experience building modern AI/ML pipelines
  • Proven track record of contributing to complex, production-grade systems as an senior individual contributor or technical lead
  • Experience with prompt optimization or evaluation frameworks
  • Hands-on experience with RAG systems, LLMs, vector databases, and generative AI applications

Other signals

  • leading automation function
  • building and mentoring teams
  • designing and building AI/ML pipelines
  • developing complex technical architectures for automation solutions
  • experience with prompt optimization or evaluation frameworks
  • hands-on experience with RAG systems, LLMs, vector databases