Director, AI Program Management & Development Transformation at Nektar Therapeutics

Job description

Director, AI Program Management & Development Transformation Function: Development / Program Management / Scientific Operations Location: Remote Position Summary The Director, AI Program Management & Development Transformation delivers measurable impact through process optimization, intelligent automation, dashboards, reporting solutions, and agent-based workflows. This role will help advance Nektar’s current Microsoft 365 Copilot implementation by identifying practical Development use cases, supporting responsible adoption, and ensuring AI-enabled solutions are implemented in alignment with company governance expectations. Role Purpose • Serve as the Program Management lead for AI-enabled transformation initiatives across Development. • Partner with Clinical Development, Clinical Operations, Biometrics, Regulatory Affairs, Drug Safety, Medical Writing, Medical Affairs, and other Development functions to identify, prioritize, and implement high-impact AI use cases. • Translate complex development workflows into scalable AI-enabled solutions that improve efficiency, quality, visibility, and decision-making. • Drive adoption of AI tools, Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities, dashboards, reporting solutions, and intelligent agents while ensuring alignment with business objectives, responsible AI expectations, and applicable company governance processes. • Support intake, prioritization, and implementation of approved AI use cases across Development in partnership with IT, Quality/GCP QA, Legal/Privacy, and functional business owners. • Act as the interface between business stakeholders, functional subject matter experts, external vendors, and technical resources. Key Responsibilities AI Strategy & Portfolio Management • Lead a portfolio of AI initiatives across Development, ensuring alignment with corporate and functional priorities. • Evaluate and prioritize AI use cases based on operational impact, feasibility, resource requirements, organizational readiness, and alignment with Nektar’s responsible AI governance expectations. • Partner with Nektar’s AI governance stakeholders, IT, Quality/GCP QA, and functional SMEs to ensure AI use cases are appropriately assessed before implementation, particularly where use cases may affect regulated Development processes. • Develop implementation roadmaps, business cases, success metrics, and adoption strategies for AI initiatives. • In collaboration with IT, establish governance processes for AI project intake, prioritization, monitoring, and reporting. Development Process Optimization • Analyze current Development workflows and identify opportunities to improve efficiency through AI-enabled automation and decision support. • Redesign processes to leverage AI while maintaining appropriate quality, compliance, and oversight. • Drive standardization of processes, reporting structures, and operational metrics across Development. AI Solutions, Dashboards, and Agents • Partner with functional stakeholders to design and deploy operational dashboards, reporting solutions, and AI-enabled tools. • Lead development of executive and operational reporting capabilities that integrate data across Development functions. • Identify opportunities for Microsoft 365 Copilot, AI agents, and other AI-enabled tools that streamline routine Development activities such as document review, status reporting, risk assessment support, knowledge retrieval, workflow execution, and operational follow-up. • Translate business requirements into technical specifications for internal or external developers. Change Management & Adoption • Drive adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot and other approved AI tools across Development through training, communication, coaching, stakeholder engagement, and practical use case enablement. • Establish practical best practices, reusable prompts, workflow examples, and adoption playbooks for responsible AI use across Development. • Monitor adoption, user feedback, and business impact of deployed