Associate Director, Research Technology & Scientific Computing

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. • Boston, MA

7d • $169,222 - $253,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

This role exists to make technology an accelerator for research. Based in Boston, the leader will work closely with Jnana Therapeutics and Research & Development teams across OAPI and OPDC to reduce friction in scientific workflows, shape modern research platforms, and connect local needs to sustainable enterprise capabilities. This role sits at the intersection of scientific discovery, laboratory technology, scientific computing, AI-enabled research, and enterprise platforms. The successful candidate will be a trusted technology partner to scientists and R&D leaders, translating evolving research priorities into roadmaps, capabilities, and measurable outcomes. This includes representing needs in enterprise initiatives involving AI, scientific computing, data platforms, and emerging technology capabilities, ensuring research requirements are clearly articulated and appropriately prioritized. The role will also shape how technology is experienced by specific stakeholder personas, including laboratory scientists, computational researchers, research associates, lab managers, data scientists, and support teams. By connecting their end-to-end journeys across platforms, suppliers, and technology teams, this leader will improve both research outcomes and the way services are delivered.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Life Sciences, Engineering, or a related field
• Eight or more years of progressive experience in Research IT, scientific computing, laboratory technology, platform leadership, infrastructure, or related technology roles in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, or another research-intensive environment.
• Ability to understand scientific workflows and translate them into practical, scalable, supportable technology capabilities and service experiences.
• Experience leading across strategy, delivery, operations, service improvement, and stakeholder engagement in a complex, matrixed environment.
• Working knowledge of wet-lab technology, scientific applications, Linux, cloud and on-premises infrastructure, research data flows, and instrument connectivity.
• Strong relationship leadership and the ability to influence scientists, R&D leaders, technology teams, cybersecurity, compliance partners, vendors, and senior stakeholders.
• Judgment and communication skills that make complex technical, operational, and investment choices understandable and decision-ready.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with computational chemistry or biology, high-performance or high-throughput computing, and platforms such as Benchling, CDD Vault, Posit Connect, or similar technologies.
• Experience with AWS, automation, DevOps, infrastructure as code, R, Python, analytics, metadata, integrations, or AI-enabled research and support capabilities.
• Experience applying personas, journeys, service design, product or platform management, experience measures, service-level objectives, or adoption practices.
• Experience supporting regulated, validated, or research-critical environments and designing for resilience, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
• For Director-level consideration, demonstrated ownership of a broader platform or service portfolio, enterprise influence, and leadership across multiple teams, providers, or major outcomes.
• Experience evaluating, deploying, or supporting enterprise AI solutions and AI-enabled workflows, preferably including large language model (LLM) platforms, AI-assisted development tools, agentic capabilities, or scientific-research use cases.

Responsibilities

• Partner with scientists, laboratory teams, and research leaders to ensure technology enables discovery rather than creates friction. Understand critical workflows and improve how researchers compute, collaborate, access data, use applications, and operate laboratory environments.
• Translate scientific priorities and emerging opportunities into an integrated roadmap for laboratory technology, research applications, scientific computing, cloud and on-premises services, data flows, and supporting infrastructure. Balance speed and innovation with security, compliance, resilience, cost, supportability, and long-term platform health.
• Bring together researchers, IT business partners, architecture, platform engineering, operations, cybersecurity, Data & AI, vendors, and service providers to deliver complete outcomes. Resolve cross-platform dependencies early and ensure new capabilities are usable, observable, supportable, recoverable, and ready for adoption.
• Use stakeholder personas, journeys, feedback, and service measures to identify and remove friction across organizational and technology boundaries. Measure service health through technical performance, experience, adoption, and research impact, not component availability alone.
• Lead the lifecycle, reliability, service health, supplier performance, and continual improvement of Research Technology capabilities. Establish clear ownership, support models, operational readiness, knowledge, communications, training, and early-life support for new and changing services.
• Partner with Data & AI and other enterprise technology teams to influence the adoption of emerging AI capabilities, ensuring research, scientific computing, and laboratory requirements are reflected in enterprise roadmaps and delivery plans. Create reusable approaches for platform roadmaps, service ownership, stakeholder experience, adoption, and cross-platform delivery that can be applied across Infrastructure & Operations. Successful impact can lead to broader platform, service, and leadership responsibilities as Otsuka’s needs evolve.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, prescription drug coverage
• Company provided basic life, accidental death & dismemberment, short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Tuition reimbursement
• Student loan assistance
• A generous 401(k) match
• Flexible time off
• Paid holidays
• Paid leave programs

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior