Senior Director, AI Risk and Compliance

About this role

Work Schedule Standard (Mon-Fri) Environmental Conditions Office Job Description

At Thermo Fisher’s PPD clinical research group (CRG), we’re using digital innovation, data science, and AI to reimagine how life-changing therapies reach patients. Our teams combine deep scientific expertise with advanced analytics, automation, and digital platforms to make research smarter, faster, and more connected.

About the Team: CRG Digital AI is the engine that translates our digital strategy into scalable, production-ready AI capabilities that drive measurable business impact. Operating in close partnership with Product, Data, and Engineering, the team embeds AI across our digital portfolio to accelerate clinical trial execution, enhance data-driven decision-making, and unlock differentiated value for our customers. Through a combination of centralized platforms, standards, and federated execution, CRG Digital AI enables rapid innovation while ensuring consistency, quality, and responsible AI practices.

About the Position:  Reporting to the VP, Head of Analytics and AI, the Senior Director, AI Risk and Compliance is a leadership position responsible for defining and enforcing CRG’s AI risk, regulatory compliance, and governance frameworks. As an independent function within the Applied AI (AAI) operating model, the Director ensures that all AI-enabled solutions meet enterprise, regulatory, and quality standards while enabling scalable, responsible AI deployment.

This role operates as a peer to AI Engineering, Delivery, and AI Value Realization & Enablement (AVRE), providing independent oversight while partnering closely to embed governance-by-design into AI systems and delivery processes.

Key Responsibilities: AI Risk, Governance & Compliance (Enterprise Accountability) • Define and operationalize a CRG-wide AI risk and governance framework aligned with Thermo Fisher enterprise policies and regulatory expectations  • Translate regulatory and enterprise risk requirements into scalable, reusable governance patterns, templates, and automated controls  • Partner with AI Engineering & Platform to embed compliance into model lifecycle tooling, monitoring systems and audit and traceability infrastructure.  • Minimize reliance on manual review by enabling governance-by-design • Ensure all AI solutions are developed and deployed with governance-by-design, including model transparency and explainability, data privacy and security compliance, bias detection and mitigation and auditability and traceability  • Partner with Legal, Compliance, Privacy, InfoSec, and Quality teams to ensure alignment with global regulatory requirements and internal policies  • Define and operationalize a risk-tiering framework for AI use cases: Low-risk (pre-approved patterns / fast path), Medium-risk (lightweight review), High-risk (formal governance and approval) 

This role does not own workflow transformation or change execution but ensures that all AI-enabled workflows comply with regulatory and risk standards.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Operating Model Integration • Operate as an independent control function within the AAI operating model, with clear authority on regulatory and compliance matters 

Partner with:  • AI Value Realization & Enablement (AVRE) to embed compliance into readiness frameworks and workflow design  • AI Delivery & Governance to integrate risk controls into lifecycle stage gates  • AI Engineering & Platform to ensure compliance is embedded into systems and tooling  • Serve as the primary interface with Legal, Privacy, InfoSec, and Quality organizations

Measures of Success: • Experience designing or implementing scalable governance frameworks in technology or AI contexts • Ability to balance risk management with speed and innovation • Experience embedding compliance into product or platform environments (not just policy) • Establishment of a robust, scalable AI governance and risk framework  • Reduction in AI-related risk exposure (compliance, quality, reputational)  • Development of a differentiated external AI + workflow transformation offering 

Qualifications: • Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred (e.g., business, computer science, digital strategy, or related field)  • 15 years of experience in digital, innovation, strategy, content/knowledge management, or customer-facing leadership roles within clinical research, healthcare, life sciences, or technology-enabled services  • Demonstrated ability to translate complex digital, data, and AI concepts into clear, compelling narratives for both technical and non-technical audiences  • Experience developing high-quality, customer-facing content to support commercial engagements, including bids, proposals, value demonstrations, and executive presentations  • Strong executive presence with the ability to engage credibly in high-stakes customer and leadership interactions  • Proven ability to influence outcomes in highly matrixed environments through alignment, credibility, and sound judgment, without reliance on formal authority

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: • Strategic judgment and systems thinking; ability to synthesize market, customer, and execution signals into actionable insight. • Exceptional executive communication, narrative clarity, and storytelling capability (written, visual, and verbal). • Strong content architecture, knowledge management, editorial, and governance skills (taxonomy, versioning, reuse, and quality control). • Collaborative leadership style with high trust orientation and strong stakeholder management across Digital, Commercial, Operations, Marketing, and Executive leadership. • Comfortable operating in ambiguity and high-stakes situations; high emotional intelligence and discretion in handling strategic information. • Ability to manage and scale work through partners and vendors to accelerate speed-to-market and improve quality without creating unnecessary process burden.

At Thermo Fisher Scie

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