Natera · 1 month ago
Head of AI/ML Engineering
United States
Full-time
Remote
Director/Executive
$217K/yr - $272K/yr
15+ years expNatera is a global leader in cell-free DNA testing, dedicated to oncology, women’s health, and organ health. The Head of AI/ML Engineering will build and scale the Generative AI and ML Solutions team, responsible for executing the AI engineering strategy and delivering innovative solutions aligned with business goals.
BiotechnologyGeneticsHealth DiagnosticsMedicalWomen's
Responsibilities
Own the end-to-end technical vision for the entire AI/ML platform, from data ingestion, MLOps, model serving, fine-tuning, foundation model training, RAG, and agentic applications
Make the critical "build vs. buy vs. open-source" decisions that balance speed, cost, and long-term defensibility
Recruit, hire, mentor, and retain an elite team of T shaped AI engineers, applied ML engineers, data scientists, and platform engineers
Design a rigorous hiring process to find "unicorn" talent and foster a culture of continuous learning and excellence
Design, build, and scale an AI/ML platform that provides standardized tooling, infrastructure, and workflows for LLM training, fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI orchestration, and deployment
Develop reusable components and services (e.g., vector databases, prompt libraries, agent frameworks, model registries, evaluation pipelines, safety/guardrail modules) to accelerate delivery of AI solutions across product engineering teams
Ensure reliability, scalability, and compliance of the AI/ML platform by implementing robust observability, governance, and cost-optimization strategies tailored for large model serving and API consumption
Partner with business and product owners to identify, design, and implement high-impact AI solutions that drive measurable outcomes, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities
Own the full lifecycle of AI solutions — from prototyping and deployment through ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and enhancements — ensuring solutions remain accurate, performant, and relevant as business needs evolve
Continuously improve deployed AI systems by incorporating feedback, retraining models, and updating components to adapt to changing data, regulatory requirements, and operational realities
Implement robust processes for quality assurance, model governance, and performance monitoring
Drive adoption of a combination of hyper-scaler AI services and specialized cloud native AI solutions to accelerate time-to-market
Lead cost observability and management initiatives to optimize AI infrastructure and usage at scale
Ensure compliance with AI Governance policies
Serve as the primary bridge between business stakeholders and the AI Office
Ensure AI product roadmaps align with Natera’s broader AI vision and business objectives
Champion a culture of responsible AI adoption, ensuring ethical, compliant, and explainable use of AI
Translate business needs into actionable technical requirements for engineering and business teams
Collaborate with security, regulatory, compliance, and legal to ensure solutions meet security and regulatory standards
Partner with AI Governance and Change Enablement leads to ensure trust, fairness, and adoption across the organization
Qualification
Required
15+ years of experience in an engineering leadership role in AI, ML, or data science
Expertise in Generative AI, including LLMs, prompt engineering, RAG, fine-tuning, training, and evaluation methodologies
Proven track record of delivering production-grade AI solutions in customer-facing and internal products especially using LLMs and ML models
Strong understanding of production software engineering best practices, CI/CD, testing, observability, error handling, and security
Experience with AWS based AI services and other specialized AI platforms (e.g., AWS Bedrock, Snowflake AI, Google AI, OpenAI, xAI)
Demonstrated ability to optimize AI model performance and costs for large-scale deployments especially LLMs
Exceptional communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
Excellent stakeholder engagement, prioritization, and communication skills
Preferred
Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Computer Science, AI/ML, engineering or related field
Experience in healthcare, pharma, diagnostics, or other regulated industries
Familiarity with AI governance frameworks, bias detection, explainability, and compliance (e.g., HIPAA, CLIA, FDA)
Benefits
Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life and disability plans for eligible employees and their dependents
Free testing in addition to fertility care benefits
Pregnancy and baby bonding leave
401k benefits
Commuter benefits
Generous employee referral program
Company
Natera
Natera specializes in cell-free DNA testing to provide a more targeted interventions to oncology, women's health, and organ health.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Natera has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (90)
2024 (72)
2023 (37)
2022 (71)
2021 (64)
2020 (40)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$1.16BKey Investors
Sofinnova InvestmentsLightspeed Venture PartnersSequoia Capital
2023-09-07Post Ipo Equity· $250M
2022-11-15Post Ipo Equity· $400.05M
2022-03-16Post Ipo Equity· $5M
Leadership Team
Steve Chapman
CEO
Jonathan Sheena
Co-Founder, Board Member
Recent News
2026-01-16
Company data provided by crunchbase