Associate Director, Software Engineering, GenAI & Agentic AI

Job Description The Opportunity Join a global biopharma company with a 130-year legacy and mission to achieve new milestones in healthcare. Be part of technology driven, data-led organization supporting a diversified portfolio of medicines, vaccines and animal health products. Work alongside passionate teams that use data, analytics and insights to drive decisions, and tackle some of the world’s greatest health threats. Our Technology Centers are globally distributed hubs that enable our digital transformation and business outcomes across IT. They bring together diverse teams to collaborate, share best practices, and deliver solutions that save and improve lives. This role is based at our Hyderabad Tech Center and follows a hybrid working model (3 days onsite, 2 days remote). Candidates are expected to reside within commuting distance of the Hyderabad office. Role Overview The Associate Director – Software Engineering, GenAI & Agentic AI will be a hands-on squad lead on end-to-end lifecycle of  enterprise-scale GenAI and Agentic AI products. This role will drive software engineering, solution architecture,  DevOps, and AI innovation. The successful candidate will partner with cross-functional squads to translate complex business opportunities into scalable, secure, and production-grade technology solutions. The ideal candidate combines deep technical credibility & strong delivery experience. This individual thrives in dynamic environments, is naturally curious, embraces continuous learning, and is passionate about delivering impactful solutions that create meaningful & measurable business outcomes. What will you do in this role Technical Leadership & Solution Architecture • Lead the development of enterprise AI products leveraging LLMs, RAG, AI agents, orchestration frameworks, and intelligent automation capabilities. • Define product requirements that balance user experience, business value, security, scalability, and responsible AI principles. • Engineer and ship agentic workflows (planning/reasoning, tool/function calling, reflection, memory patterns, guardrails) and harden them to into enterprise-grade services. • Evaluate architectural options, technical trade-offs, and implementation approaches to achieve business and technology objectives. • Build and maintain reusable patterns, platform capabilities, and engineering best practices to accelerate delivery and reduce complexity. • Establish data privacy/security by design: access controls, encryption, secure secrets, and collaboration with InfoSec for audits and risk management. • Communicate design strategy, priorities, value, risks, and outcomes to stakeholders at multiple levels of the organization. • Mentor engineers on design reviews, coding standards, coaching, hiring input, & building a high-performing delivery culture. Software Engineering, Delivery & DevOps Excellence • Lead cross-functional squads through the full software development lifecycle, from requirements through production deployment and continuous enhancement. • Collaborate with engineering teams across full-stack development, systems integration, testing, and platform delivery. • Ensure solutions meet enterprise standards for quality, security, performance, reliability, and maintainability. • Deep practical knowledge of RAG: ingestion, chunking, embeddings, vector search, reranking, context assembly & grounding metrics • Establish LLMOps/MLOps operating practices: versioning/registry, automated evaluation, safe rollout/rollback, monitoring, and continuous improvement loops. • Lead successful transition from innovation and development into scalable, production-supported services. • Own observability, tracing across prompt à retrieval/tool calls à response, cost/usage dashboards, incident triage, postmortems, and reliability improvements. • Influence decisions, align priorities, and drive execution across a global matrixed environment. What should you have • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field. • 12+ years of progressive experience across software engineering, digital product delivery, technology leadership, or related technology domains. • Strong foundation in full-stack software engineering, with practical experience across modern applications including GenAI and Agentic AI solutions, scalable  integrations, cloud-native architectures, data-driven applications, and enterprise-scale software delivery. Primary skills (must-have) • Hands-on experience and sound knowledge of applying engineering management principles and best practices across the full lifecycle of software development. • Experience designing and deploying production-grade GenAI and Agentic AI solutions, including agent architectures, RAG, orchestration, and evaluation frameworks. • Experience integrating AI agents, business workflows, enterprise systems, and human-in-the-loop processes into cohesive solutions. • Strong systems thinking and problem-solving capabilities, with cloud-native engineering (containers, CI/CD, infra-automation, reliability practices) & ability to connect product, technology, operational, and business perspectives. • Understanding of AI risk, security, responsible AI, observability, monitoring, and operational controls required for enterprise-scale AI solutions • Sound judgment and decision-making skills, with the ability to balance innovation, risk, speed, quality, and long-term sustainability. • Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to build credibility and drive alignment across diverse stakeholder groups. • Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, simplify complex problems, and convert emerging opportunities into actionable plans and business value. • Strong technical curiosity and learning agility, with a consistent track record of adopting new technologies, approaches, and ways of working in rapidly evolving environments. • A growth mindset characterized by ownership, resilience, continuous improvement, and a passion for delivering meaningful outcomes through technology. • Solid knowledge of SDLC processes & Agile project delivery environments including requirements, design, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance. Secondary skills (nice to have) • Experience scaling development team productivity and velocity with AI-assisted development tools and methodologies. • Familiarity with evolving interoperability standards, protocols, and integration frameworks that enable enterprise agent ecosystems. • Experience with incorporating agentic solutions in Corporate Functions (such as but not limited to Finance, Legal, HR) • Knowledge of one or more enterprise software capabilities such as ServiceNow, SAP, Workday, Microsoft Copilot • Experience delivering technology solutions within regulated industries such as healthcare, life sciences, financial services, or manufacturing. • Advanced education or relevant certifications in Cloud Technologies, DevOps, AI/ML, GenAI, or Enterprise Architecture. • Active participation in technology communities, innovation initiatives, open-source ecosystems, or continuous professional learning programs. Who we are We are known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada and MSD everywhere else. For more than a century, we have been bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Today, our company continues to be at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions and advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world. What we look for Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who pursue and bring hope to countless people who are battling some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are among the intellectually curious, join us—and start making your impact today. Required Skills: Application Integrations, Application Integrations, Architectural Design, Architectural Review, Business Informatics, Computer Science, Data Engineering, Data Visualization, Design Applications, Enterprise Application, Implementation Methodologies, Information Technology Management, Managing Ambiguity, Product Requirements, Retention Strategies, Software Configurations, Software Development, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Software Development Management, Software Implementations, Software Interoperability, Software Product Management, Solution Architecture, System Designs, System Integration {+ 2 more} Preferred Skills: Current Employees apply HERE Current Contingent Workers apply HERE Secondary Language(s) Job Description: #MSDHYDIT Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails. Employee Status: Regular Relocation: Domestic VISA Sponsorship: No Travel Requirements: No Travel Required Flexible Work Arrangements: Hybrid Shift: Not Indicated Valid Driving License: No Hazardous Material(s): n/a Job Posting End Date: 09/9/2026 *A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE  the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.