Director (IT)

Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland, Ionis has been at work for more than three decades discovering medical breakthroughs that have redefined life for people with serious diseases. We’re pioneers in RNA-targeted medicines, and our platform continues to revolutionize drug discovery and transform lives for patients with unmet needs.  With multiple marketed medicines and a leading pipeline in neurology, cardiology and select areas of high patient needs, we continue to drive innovation in RNA therapies in addition to advancing new approaches in gene editing to provide greater value to patients and are well positioned financially to deliver on our strategic goals.

At Ionis, we pride ourselves on cultivating a challenging, motivating and rewarding environment that fosters innovation and scientific excellence. We know that our success is a direct result of the exceptional talents and dedication of our employees. 

With an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of human health, we look to add diverse individuals, skill sets and perspectives to our exceptional team. We continue to invest time, money and energy into making our onsite, hybrid and remote work environments a place where solid and lasting relationships are built and where our culture and employees can thrive. 

We’re building on our rich history, and we believe our greatest achievements are ahead of us. If you’re passionate about the opportunity to have meaningful impact on patients in need, we invite you to apply and join us. Experience and contribute to our unique culture while you develop and expand your career!

Ioniverse (Data & AI) Platform Owner / Enterprise Solutions Architect

SUMMARY:

Reporting to the VP, Data & Analytics, the Ioniverse (Data & AI) Platform Owner / Enterprise Solutions Architect will serve as the senior technical leader responsible for operationalizing the Ioniverse as an enterprise-scale data and AI platform centered on Databricks and modern cloud engineering practices.
This role owns the platform roadmap, technical direction, architecture standards, and delivery guardrails for the Ioniverse. It establishes reusable engineering patterns and governance controls, enables teams across enterprise domains, and helps move trusted data and AI solutions into production safely, quickly, and consistently.
 

Location: preference is onsite/hybrid but willing to consider remote 

What Success Looks Like:

• Ionis has a clear, enforced, modular, and future-ready architecture for data and AI solutions on the Ioniverse.
• Teams move data and AI solutions from sandbox to production faster with less reinvention, stronger controls, and more consistent delivery practices.
• Trusted data, semantic assets, and solution patterns are discoverable, governed, and reusable, powering AI-driven insights, automation, and business workflows across the enterprise.
• Governance and platform standards support both speed and compliance while reducing fragmentation and strengthening internal capability across enterprise domains.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Own the Ioniverse platform roadmap, technical direction, and architecture standards for enterprise data and AI solutions, with Databricks as the core platform foundation.
• Define and implement target-state patterns for data pipelines, semantic access, AI enablement, observability, security, and production support.
• Lead the design, automation, optimization, and operational support of data engineering environments across development, test, and production.
• Establish onboarding standards, guardrails, and promotion paths that move domain data products from sandbox experimentation to certified, trusted production use.
• Define and enforce standards for data quality, metadata, lineage, certification, stewardship, access control, and reuse in partnership with governance, privacy, compliance, and security stakeholders.
• Build reusable accelerators, templates, reference architectures, playbooks, and shared platform services that improve delivery speed, consistency, scalability and maintainability across teams.
• Implement DevOps best practices for CI/CD, monitoring, cost optimization, and MLOps to support advanced analytics and AI initiatives in production.
• Partner with BRPs, portfolio leads, domain product owners, data stewards, and technical teams to align priorities, intake, definitions, service levels, and certification expectations.
• Assess tools, vendors, and partner recommendations with a bias toward leveraging Ionis investments, reducing fragmentation, and strengthening long-term internal capability.
• Partner across data engineering, data science, AI engineering, data intelligence, and business teams to accelerate delivery of priority data and AI solutions into trusted production use.
• Define interoperable data, workflow, and semantic patterns that enable consistent adoption across Commercial, Research, Development, Finance, and other enterprise domains.
• Experience leading consulting or partner teams and delivering business value in Agile, iterative environments.
• Ensure solution patterns incorporate appropriate security, role-based access, lifecycle controls, fit-for-purpose AI and analytics delivery patterns, and sound cloud cost management.
• Lead consulting and vendor partners while serving as a hands-on platform leader who prototypes, troubleshoots, and helps implement the architecture and patterns they define.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Significant experience in data platform, data engineering, analytics engineering, AI/ML platform, or architecture roles with hands-on delivery responsibility.
• Strong experience with Databricks and cloud-based data platforms in enterprise production environments.
• Proven ability to design and implement production-grade data, analytics, automation, and AI solutions.
• Experience with cloud architecture, pipeline design, data engineering, DevOps, and production support.
• Experience defining standards for data quality, metadata, lineage, governance, access control, and lifecycle management.
• Strong SQL and Python skills, with the ability to work directly with engineers and technical platform teams.
• Ability to translate business priorities into practical architecture, roadmaps, engineering standards, and execution decisions.
• Strong judgment in architecture trade-offs, build-versus-buy decisions, and vendor evaluation.
• Experience in life sciences or another regulated industry, including enterprise data governance, cross-functional data product design, and platform operating models.
• Familiarity with Unity Catalog, MLflow, semantic layers, AI-assisted analytics, and enterprise systems spanning SAP, CRM, ERP, Commercial, and Clinical domains.
• 15 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree or 12 years and a master’s degree.

Please visit our website, http://www.ionis.com for more information about Ionis and to apply for this position; reference requisition #IONIS004049

Ionis offers an excellent benefits package! Follow this link for more details: Ionis Benefits

Full Benefits Link: https://ionis.com/careers#:~:text=Highly%20competitive%20benefits

The pay scale for this position is $159,053-$268,000

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. PRINCIPALS ONLY.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and all its subsidiaries are proud to be EEO employers.