Captain -AI Foundation Platform POD

About Astellas

Astellas is a global life sciences company committed to turning innovative science into VALUE for patients. We provide transformative therapies in disease areas that include oncology, ophthalmology, urology, immunology and women's health. Through our research and development programs, we are pioneering new healthcare solutions for diseases with high unmet medical need. Learn more at Astellas.com (https://www.astellas.com/en) .

Are you driven to make a real difference in the lives of patients?

We're seeking passionate individuals who thrive in dynamic environments, embrace new ideas, and aren't afraid to take intelligent risks. People who act with unwavering integrity and are deeply committed to making a tangible impact.

Purpose and Scope

The AI Foundation Platform POD Captain leads the enterprise AI platform strategy and execution at Astellas, driving innovation and operational excellence across Microsoft Azure, GCP, Databricks, and Microsoft Copilot. This role is accountable for architecting, designing, developing, and operating a scalable, secure, and future-ready AI platform that empowers data science, machine learning, and advanced analytics initiatives. The captain will coordinate cross-functional teams, foster a culture of experimentation and ownership, and ensure seamless integration of AI capabilities within the broader enterprise architecture to accelerate business value from AI

Responsibilities And Accountabilities

The AI Foundation Platform POD Captain is a strategic and technical leader accountable for the successful implementation, scaling, and continuous evolution of Astellas' enterprise AI platform. The role owns the platform vision and roadmap, ensuring scalable, secure and and compliant AI enhancement across the enterprise. within a modern operating model. This role blends hands-on technical expertise with enterprise leadership to drive business value through AI productization, platform enablement, and cross-functional collaboration.

Strategic Leadership & Vision (Accountability: AI Platform & Strategy)

Own and champion the vision for the AI foundation platform, ensuring alignment with Astellas' overall digital and business strategy.
Develop and execute the long-term roadmap supporting diverse AI/ML workloads, data science experimentation, and operationalization.
Evaluate, select and integrate emerging AI technologies and platform capabilities e.g. Microsoft Copilot, generative AI, and MLOps frameworks, with clear value hypotheses.
Act as the senior subject matter expert and evangelist for AI platform best practices, educating stakeholders and promoting an AI-driven culture.

Platform & Enablement (Accountability: Reliable & Scalable AI Platform)

Oversee the architecture, design principles, and operations of the enterprise AI platform, ensuring scalability, security, performance, and cost-efficiency.
Provide tooling, best practices, guidelines, and self-service capabilities to empower domain teams to independently build, deploy, and manage AI solutions.
Drive the implementation of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and automation for platform resources, enabling consistent and efficient provisioning across environments.
Define and monitor platform KPIs (availability, performance, cost efficiency, adoption) and continuously optimize platform health.

AI Product Lifecycle & Marketplace (Accountability: AI Productization & Value Delivery)

Collaborate with domain teams to define and enforce enterprise standards for reusable, interoperable AI products and solutions.
Lead the development and evolution of an enterprise AI marketplace, ensuring discoverability, usability, and consumer-centric access to AI assets.
Define governance processes across the AI product lifecycle, from ideation and development to deployment, versioning, deprecation, and consumption.
Promote architectural patterns and interoperability standards that enable cross-domain consumption and scaling of AI capabilities.

Governance & Compliance (Accountability: Trust, Security & Responsible AI)

Partner with governance teams to embed policies, quality standards, security controls, and compliance requirements directly into the AI platform and product development processes.
Ensure the platform supports full auditability, lineage, and transparency for all AI products, supporting both regulatory readiness and responsible AI principles.
Implement and enforce robust security measures, access controls, and data privacy protocols, adhering to industry best practices and regulatory requirements.

Team Leadership & Collaboration (Accountability: High-Performing POD & Cross-Functional Alignment)

Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing AI Foundation POD, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Serve as the primary technical integrator across data science, engineering, platform, security, and governance teams to ensure seamless integration and stakeholder alignment.
Effectively communicate technical concepts and strategic direction to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, influencing decision-making and driving consensus.
Champion and implement Agile and DevOps (and MLOps) methodologies within the POD and promote their adoption across AI development practices.

Hands-on Technical Expertise (Accountability: Technical Excellence & Problem Solving)

Maintain deep, hands-on expertise with AI platform features and services (e.g., model lifecycle management, orchestration, monitoring, and integration with Copilot).
Provide technical direction on AI/ML architecture, data/model pipelines, and deployment patterns suitable for enterprise-scale AI.
Lead critical problem resolution for high-impact or high-risk AI workloads.
Drive rapid experimentation and lead the development of proofs-of-concept and prototypes for new AI capabilities or architectural patterns.

Required Qualifications

Education & Core Experience

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering,