Head of Technology, Digital Health Services

Bausch+Lomb Companies Inc.•USA - Remote, OR

4d•$275,000 - $300,000•Remote

About The Position

Digital Health Services is a newly formed business unit with a mandate to build a layer of AI-driven tools that improve how patients navigate their care journey, from first diagnosis through treatment and beyond. We are starting with a focused, high-value problem in pre-operative patient education and building from there; our goal is to serve patients and physicians across the full eye care continuum. The Head of Technology, Digital Health Services is a founding role, reporting to the President, Digital Health Services. You will be the first technical hire, and work alongside the Head of Product who is being recruited in parallel. You will set the architecture, help select the technology partners, and build the engineering culture from day one. You will also be expected to get your hands dirty; this is not a role for someone who wants to come in a manage a team on day one; that will come later. Right now, our job is to build. The commercial backing of B+L — its distribution, its clinical relationships, its reach across the eye care ecosystem — gives this product a head start that a standalone startup cannot replicate. The charter of the BU gives it the speed and decision-making autonomy to operate like one.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience, with meaningful time in a senior technical leadership role — CTO, VP Engineering, or Staff/Principal Engineer who has owned architecture end-to-end; first-time CTOs with the right foundation are strongly encouraged to apply
Proven track record of taking a product from early-stage architecture to live, scaling production — you have done this before, not just planned it
Genuine builder mentality — you are comfortable being the only engineer in the room for a period, writing code and making architecture decisions hands-on before the team exists beneath you
Deep experience with AI/ML systems in production — model selection, fine-tuning, evaluation, deployment, and governance
Strong command of modern cloud architecture (AWS, GCP, or Azure), data infrastructure, and API design at scale
Experience building in regulated or compliance-adjacent environments — you understand what it means to ship software that has to be right, and you build accordingly
Comfortable with ambiguity and concentrated technical risk — you make confident architectural decisions before all the information is in, and you own the outcome
Strong communicator and genuine thought partner — able to operate credibly with a GM, a development partner, and clinical stakeholders who are not engineers

Nice To Haves

Background in healthcare technology — digital health, medtech, EHR/HIS, or clinical decision support
Familiarity with HIPAA compliance, BAA frameworks, and healthcare data governance — in practice, not just in theory
Hands-on experience with EHR interoperability and HL7 FHIR standards — you have built against or alongside real EHR systems and understand the practical complexity, not just the specification
Understanding of regulated software pathways and what it takes to build toward them, including quality management systems and software lifecycle standards
Experience with patient-facing digital health products — consumer-grade UX expectations in a clinical context
Experience selecting, structuring, and managing external development partners or engineering firms
Experience at a company in the digital health or eye care space such as Phreesia, Modernizing Medicine, Abridge, Suki, Klara, or similar
Prior experience working alongside a product-led founding team in a startup or independent operating unit within a larger company

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end technical architecture — cloud infrastructure, AI/ML systems, data platform, security, and scalability — and make decisions that balance speed to ship with long-term defensibility
Lead build vs. buy vs. partner evaluations for every core technology component, making clear-eyed decisions about where to invest engineering effort and where to leverage existing solutions
Select and manage the initial development partner — you will play a central role in evaluating, choosing, and structuring the relationship with the firm that executes the first build while the internal team grows; this is a thought-partnership decision, not a solo call
Architect for EHR interoperability and HL7 FHIR compliance from day one, even where active integration is not in the initial scope — the data model and API design must not create future blockers
Design the patient-facing architecture with scalability across the eye care continuum in mind — the initial product is pre-operative, but the platform will expand and the foundations should support it
Own data governance and HIPAA compliance infrastructure from the start, including BAA frameworks, audit logging, and access controls
Build the compliance architecture with regulated software pathways in mind — the right data capture, audit trails, and quality infrastructure from day one, even ahead of formal regulatory requirements
Ensure the platform is instrumented to generate the real-world evidence and performance data that will matter as the product evolves
Partner with B+L’s regulatory and legal resources to stay ahead of the compliance requirements that come with operating in a clinical environment
Own the post-market surveillance architecture — define the technical systems and processes for ongoing safety monitoring, adverse event capture, and real-world performance tracking that a cleared SaMD will require
Partner with the Head of Product on roadmap prioritization, ensuring every technical trade-off is grounded in clinical realities and commercial outcomes
Ensure the product ships reliably and performs in real clinical environments from day one — uptime, latency, and incident response all sit with you
Instrument the platform with the right telemetry and data capture to support continuous improvement and future product decisions
Represent technical credibility externally — with pilot clinicians, with B+L leadership, and with prospective technology and data partners
Lead AI model selection, evaluation, fine-tuning, and deployment — with a clear-eyed view of where foundation models serve the use case and where custom development is required
Build AI governance infrastructure from the start — model explainability, bias evaluation, and audit trails for AI-assisted clinical interactions
Own the data platform strategy, ensuring patient data is handled with the rigor that a clinical environment demands and the architecture supports future analytics and evidence generation
Set the engineering culture from day one — hiring practices, technical standards, and ways of working that will define the team as it scales
Build the engineering team over time as the organization grows — you are the first technical hire, not the last; the team grows around you and your standards