Amgen

#WeareBiotech

Associate Director, Reinforcement Learning, ML

DirectorDirectorFull TimeRemoteTeam 10,001+Since 1980H1B SponsorCompany SiteLinkedIn

Location

California + 1 moreAll locations: California, Florida

Posted

88 days ago

Salary

Not specified / year

High School3.5 yrs expExperience acceptedEnglishAWSAzureCloudPythonPy TorchTensorflow

Job Description

• Lead Amgen’s strategy and execution for Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and related reinforcement learning approaches across R&D, medical, operations, and commercial use cases. • Design, implement, and scale RLHF systems to solve real-world problems that ultimately help us serve patients better and faster. • Translate complex concepts into clear, actionable strategies for senior leaders and guide teams from idea to impact. • Lead the design and development of RLHF systems including reward modeling, policy optimization, safety and alignment mechanisms, and evaluation frameworks for large language models and other AI systems. • Drive hands-on technical execution, particularly for high-impact projects, reviewing architectures, experimentation plans, and code. • Establish best-practice pipelines for human feedback, partnering closely with internal customer teams to define feedback protocols, annotation quality standards, and governance for RLHF data. • Define and track success metrics for RLHF systems, balancing offline and online evaluation, A/B tests, safety and robustness criteria, and business or scientific outcomes. • Collaborate across Amgen leaders to ensure RLHF solutions are aligned with strategy, compliant with policy, and integrated into real workflows. • Partner with Data, Platform and Technology teams to ensure that RLHF workloads are supported by scalable data platforms, model hosting, experimentation infrastructure, and MLOps best practices. • Champion responsible and compliant AI, working with Legal, Compliance, and Information Security to implement governance around human feedback, data usage, model behavior, transparency, and risk management in a regulated environment. • Communicate insights and influence senior stakeholders, creating clear narratives, roadmaps, and recommendations that help executives understand RLHF trade-offs, risks, and opportunities.

Job Requirements

  • Doctorate degree and 3 years of Computer Science, IT or related field experience
  • Or Master’s degree and 5 years of Computer Science, IT or related field experience
  • Or Bachelor’s degree and 7 years of Computer Science, IT or related field experience
  • Or Associate’s degree and 12 years of Computer Science, IT or related field experience
  • Or High school diploma / GED and 14 years of Computer Science, IT or related field experience
  • Certifications on Reinforcement Learning (AWS AI, Azure AI Engineer, Google Cloud ML, etc.) are a plus.
  • Deep, hands-on expertise in Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and/or advanced reinforcement learning.
  • Demonstrated experience deploying RLHF or RL systems into production for real-world applications (e.g., large language models, recommendation systems, decision support tools, or workflow automation), ideally in healthcare, life sciences, or other regulated domains.
  • Strong background in modern machine learning and deep learning, with practical experience in Python and frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
  • Experience driving sophisticated, cross-functional initiatives, collaborating with non-technical stakeholders (e.g., physicians, scientists, commercial leaders, compliance, legal) and translating needs into impactful AI solutions.
  • Strong ability to communicate complex technical topics simply, tailoring content to senior executives and non-technical audiences.
  • Experience working with large-scale data and cloud ecosystems (e.g., Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, or similar).
  • Demonstrated understanding of responsible AI, safety, and governance, especially in the context of RLHF and LLMs (e.g., bias, robustness, transparency, and guardrail design).
  • Familiarity with pharma/biotech, healthcare, or other regulated industries, including an understanding of compliance, privacy, and consent practices related to patient and HCP data.
  • Strong project management and organizational skills to manage multiple RLHF initiatives in parallel, ensuring work is prioritized against highest-value opportunities and stakeholders are advised on progress and outcomes!

Benefits

  • A comprehensive employee benefits package, including a Retirement and Savings Plan with generous company contributions
  • group medical, dental and vision coverage
  • life and disability insurance
  • flexible spending accounts
  • A discretionary annual bonus program, or for field sales representatives, a sales-based incentive plan
  • Stock-based long-term incentives
  • Award-winning time-off plans
  • Flexible work models where possible.

Related Categories

Related Job Pages

More Director Jobs

Director88 days ago
Full TimeRemoteTeam 11-50Since 2018H1B No Sponsor

Director of Clinical Pharmacology leading early-stage clinical programs at Day One Biopharmaceuticals

United States
$220K - $240K / year

Senior Director, Integration

IonQ

Our mission: to build the world’s best quantum computers to solve the world’s most complex problems.

Director88 days ago
Full TimeRemoteTeam 201-500Since 2015H1B Sponsor

Senior Director of Integration at IonQ leading complex integrations.

United States
$250.8K - $327.1K / year
Full TimeRemoteTeam 1,001-5,000H1B No Sponsor

Talent Strategy Director leading a high-performing recruiting team at GeneDx

United States
$180K - $200K / year

Director, Compensation

Transcarent

We put people in charge of their health and care.

Director88 days ago
Full TimeRemoteTeam 201-500Since 2020H1B Sponsor

Director, Compensation leading strategic compensation initiatives for Transcarent

United States
$180K - $200K / year