Director of Data Analytics & AI

Soleno Therapeutics, Inc.•Redwood City, CA

6d•$220,000 - $250,000

About The Position

The Director of Data Analytics & AI will be a senior leader responsible for building and scaling Soleno’s data and AI capabilities across the enterprise. This role will ensure that the right information reaches the right stakeholders at the right time, with data that is curated, harmonized, trusted, and decision-ready. This leader will act as a strategic business partner across Research, Development, CMC, TechOps, Commercial, Medical Affairs, Finance, People, Legal, Compliance, and Security functions—integrating data across these domains to generate actionable, outcome-driven insights. The role combines strategic vision, deep technical expertise, strong governance discipline, and hands-on execution, enabling Soleno to responsibly leverage advanced analytics and AI in a highly regulated environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
10+ years of progressive experience in data strategy, data architecture, analytics, or related fields.
At least 5 years of leadership experience managing teams and enterprise-scale initiatives.
Proven expertise in designing and managing modern data platforms and architectures.
Hands-on experience with cloud-based data ecosystems such as AWS, Azure, Databricks, and Snowflake.
Strong knowledge of data warehousing, data lakes, data integration/ETL tools, and big data processing frameworks.
Experience with analytics, BI, and visualization tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and programmatic analytics using Python and/or R.
Working knowledge of AI/ML frameworks and applied analytics techniques.
Exceptional ability to understand complex business domains and integrate cross-functional data into meaningful insights.
Strong business partnership mindset with the ability to influence, prioritize, and deliver results.
Clear communicator capable of engaging executive, technical, and non-technical stakeholders.
High integrity, strong judgment, and comfort operating in a regulated environment.
Passion for using data and AI to improve patient outcomes and business performance.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or PhD preferred.
Prior experience in biotech, pharmaceutical, healthcare, or life sciences environments strongly preferred.
Demonstrated experience working with regulated data, including clinical, patient, and commercial healthcare data.

Responsibilities

Enterprise Data & Analytics Strategy
Define and execute Soleno’s enterprise data, analytics, and AI strategy aligned with corporate objectives for commercial growth, pipeline expansion, and operational excellence.
Drive the implementation of a single source of truth for critical enterprise data spanning R&D, CMC, TechOps, Commercial, Medical Affairs, and G&A functions (HR, Finance, Legal).
Partner with business leaders to identify, scope, prioritize, and deliver high-impact, outcome-driven analytics and AI use cases.
Business Partnership & Insight Generation
Serve as a trusted advisor to functional leaders, translating business questions into data and analytics solutions.
Design and deliver executive-ready dashboards, reports, and self-service analytics for operational, clinical, commercial, and financial reporting.
Enable timely, data-driven decision-making through harmonized metrics, KPIs, and insight frameworks.
AI & Advanced Analytics Leadership
Lead the responsible adoption of AI and advanced analytics across Soleno, including predictive analytics, machine learning, and generative AI use cases.
Demonstrate strong understanding of AI/ML models, model performance, efficiency, and algorithm explainability.
Establish best practices for prompt engineering, AI usage training, and model governance to ensure safe, effective adoption.
Partner with Legal, Compliance, and Security teams to ensure AI solutions meet regulatory and ethical standards.
Data Architecture & Engineering
Oversee the design, implementation, and evolution of modern data architectures, including data warehouses, data lakes, and data pipelines.
Ensure scalable, reliable, and high-performance data platforms in collaboration with Infrastructure and IT teams.
Evaluate, select, and optimize data management, analytics, and AI technologies and tools.
Governance, Compliance & Trust
Establish and enforce enterprise data governance policies, standards, and best practices.
Ensure strict compliance with applicable healthcare and life sciences regulations, including FDA regulations, GxP, HIPAA, and global privacy standards such as GDPR and CCPA.
Partner with Security and Compliance teams to embed data protection, access controls, lineage, and auditability into all data and AI solutions.
Build organizational trust in data through quality, transparency, and accountability.
Cloud, Security & Cost Optimization
Demonstrate strong understanding of cloud architecture, security best practices, and cost optimization strategies.
Lead data platform implementations across Azure and AWS environments.
Ensure efficient use of cloud resources while maintaining performance, reliability, and regulatory compliance.
Leadership & Team Development
Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing data, analytics, and AI team.
Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Promote data literacy and analytics adoption across the organization.