Head of AI for IT

AstraZeneca • Gaithersburg, MD

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Head of AI for IT leads execution of AstraZeneca’s AI-for-IT strategy, developing, deploying and scaling AI across the global IT function. The role embeds AI into core IT practices, including the project lifecycle, IT operations, cloud migration, software development, quality, observability and service management. It builds and operates foundational AI-for-IT platforms while leveraging enterprise platforms and standards for agent orchestration, knowledge systems and guardrails to deliver secure, reusable and scalable agentic AI.

As AstraZeneca’s recognised internal expert for AI for IT, the role creates a global community that accelerates adoption, sharing and reuse while ensuring measurable value. The position collaborates with the Enterprise AI organisation to use established platforms, standards, patterns and best practices, and contributes to enterprise standards for agentic AI development.

Requirements

• Recognised thought leadership in applied AI, agentic AI or AI-enabled IT transformation.
• Experience with agentic AI, Model Context Protocol, retrieval and enterprise knowledge systems.
• Knowledge of LLMs and associated AI technologies, including their capabilities, applications, ecosystem and regulatory landscape across the US, Europe and China.
• Understanding of retrieval, knowledge graphs, semantic systems and model operations.
• Platform product and engineering leadership.
• Software engineering, IT operations and service-management fluency.
• AI governance, security, compliance and observability knowledge.
• Token economics and consumption optimisation knowledge.
• Product mindset, value-stream thinking and outcome orientation.
• Executive influence, storytelling and organisational change capabilities.
• Community building, knowledge sharing and talent development capabilities.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with AI-native ITSM, AIOps, developer tooling or cloud migration.
• Knowledge of token economics, FinOps or consumption-based AI services.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement the AI-for-IT strategy to maximise speed and value across design, development, delivery, deployment, quality, compliance and operations.
• Use a value-stream approach to identify, prioritise and scale high-value IT use cases; define adoption roadmaps, investment priorities, operating measures and outcomes.
• Influence IT platforms and tooling while leveraging Enterprise AI token management, AI gateway, MCP gateway and agentic orchestration standards.
• Leverage agent orchestration standards, knowledge systems, guardrails and Model Context Protocol platforms for agentic AI.
• Contribute to the enterprise agent catalogue owned by Enterprise AI, ensuring agents are consistently registered and linked to governance, cyber, legal and privacy.
• Embed AI into the project lifecycle, software development lifecycle, testing, quality, compliance, cloud migration and operations.
• Partner on AI-native IT service management, including intelligent ticketing, resolution automation and proactive service management.
• Enable AI-assisted development, code review and testing through build-with and build-for principles.
• Advance AI-driven observability, anomaly detection, predictive incident management and AI Operations.
• Partner with Enterprise AI on token economics for shared Enterprise AI tooling and standards.
• Optimise AI-for-IT value relative to costs by adapting LLM models, usage, architecture and operation.
• Ensure agents are secure, observable, resilient, compliant and cost-effective; define measurable controls for lifecycle management, performance, risk and value realisation.
• Act as a recognised internal expert for AI for IT and create an IT community of practice that shares knowledge, assets, patterns and reusable agents.
• Influence leaders, product teams and practitioners to redesign work and adopt AI safely at scale.
• Collaborate with the Enterprise AI organisation to leverage existing AI platforms, standards, patterns and best practices, and encourage use of and contribute to enterprise standards for agentic AI development.

Benefits

• Eligibility for short-term incentive bonuses.
• Equity-based awards for salaried roles.
• Qualified retirement programs.
• Paid time off, including vacation, holidays and leaves.
• Health coverage.
• Dental coverage.
• Vision coverage.
• An inclusive culture that supports collaboration, lifelong learning, growth and development.
• Individual flexibility alongside an average minimum of three days per week in the office.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed