Kite Pharma · 13 hours ago
Director, Commercial - AI Acceleration and Innovation
San Francisco Bay Area
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
$226K/yr - $293K/yr
8+ years expKite Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative cancer immunotherapies. The Director, Commercial - AI Acceleration and Innovation will support the commercial strategy for AI initiatives, ensuring that innovation is purposeful and value-driven while leading AI governance and fluency across commercial functions.
BiotechnologyHealth CareMedicalOncologyTherapeutics
Responsibilities
Opportunity Identification and Framing: Collaborate with functions and functional use case champions to frame AI opportunities, outlining business objectives, feasibility, expected value, data needs, and success metrics
Governance Leadership: Establish and lead AI governance structures within Commercial functions, ensuring alignment with Gilead and Kite priorities, data policies, regulatory standards, and ethical principles
Prioritization and Portfolio Oversight: Evaluate and prioritize AI initiatives based on strategic fit, business readiness, and value potential; maintain a living portfolio of AI use cases with defined milestones and KPIs – with inputs from the council
Proof of Concept (PoC) Management: Partner with Gilead IT and functional teams to design, execute, and monitor projects. Document learnings and outcomes to inform go/no-go governance decisions and scaling roadmaps
Value Measurement and Reporting: Develop and track KPIs to assess business impact of AI initiatives; report insights and progress to executive sponsors and governance boards
Leadership Alignment: Support Leadership alignment on Key AI initiatives for the commercial functions including value story and resource alignment
Enterprise Governance Support: Deliver regular updates and recommendations to the Kite AI Governance Board and Gilead/Kite Leadership, highlighting value delivered, risks mitigated, and opportunities for acceleration
AI Literacy and GenAI Enablement: Lead AI literacy programs and promote employee productivity through responsible adoption of Generative AI tools across the enterprise
Innovation and Community Building: Drive a culture of continuous innovation through hackathons, knowledge-sharing sessions, ideation forums, and coordination of an active AI Community of Practice within Kite
Forecasting: Leverage primary and secondary research insights and team inputs to design and build accurate, actionable, and evidenced based forecasting models. The forecaster will also produce analogues, formulate assumptions, and define opportunities and risks associated with the forecast
Performance Tracking: Develop and maintain a dashboard for tracking performance of each product. Develop a mechanism for identifying variations in performance vs. target, and gathering relevant data to help evaluate and determine next steps. Synthesize market dynamics to identify potential drivers impacting performance to inform marketing and sales decisions
Secondary Data Analysis: Define analytical priorities in collaboration with rest of the commercial organization. Ensure successful execution of secondary analytics projects and integrating results with primary market research and latest competitive intelligence into actionable insights
Collaboration: Partner closely with FP&A, supply chain and other corporate functions to design and execute an effective Kite S&OP process, to build and drive quarterly revenue reconciliation
Strategic Projects: Drive analytics for planned and ad hoc strategic projects including scenario analysis to help drive key decisions for the business
Team Management: Hire, manage and develop direct report
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's Degree and Twelve Years' Experience
OR
Masters' Degree and Ten Years' Experience
OR
PhD and Eight Years' Experience
12+ years of relevant experience with Bachelor's Degree
MBA or other related graduate-level degree is a plus
Master's or PhD in Data Science, Computer Science, Business Analytics, or Business fields
6 or more years of work experience in forecasting, marketing sciences, market research, strategic consulting or other analytical work in the biotech / pharmaceutical industries in leadership roles with direct management experience
Previous experience in oncology/hematology is required
Track record of delivering actionable insights through successful execution of forecasting and marketing analytics projects, as well as strategic problem-solving skills
Exceptional ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-moving entrepreneurial environment, with changing priorities and significant time pressures
Strong communication skills (both verbal and written) required
Demonstrated ability to collaborate and work cross-functionally
Ability to develop and maintain strong team, including external partners, relationships while driving for positive results
Possess a willingness and ability to work hands-on and with a sense of urgency
Extensive proficiency with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) and forecasting software (e.g., Crystal ball, Forecast Pro, customized platforms)
Proven experience in AI, data science including 3+ years in strategy, governance and/or enterprise program leadership
Demonstrated experience in identifying, prioritizing, and delivering complex projects within large, matrixed organizations
Proven ability to partner across business, IT, or data teams to operationalize AI solutions
Strong executive presence, communication, and stakeholder management skills
Experience in biopharma or healthcare, with exposure to commercial functions
Proven track record of establishing or leading cross-functional teams
Deep understanding of AI governance, privacy, and compliance frameworks in regulated industries (life sciences preferred)
Create Inclusion - knowing the business value of diverse teams, modeling inclusion, and embedding the value of diversity in the way they manage their teams
Develop Talent - understand the skills, experience, aspirations, and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential
Empower Teams - connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives and holding them to account
Preferred
Experience in oncology/hematology is required
Benefits
Discretionary annual bonus
Discretionary stock-based long-term incentives (eligibility may vary based on role)
Paid time off
Company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans
Company
Kite Pharma
Kite Pharma is a biotechnology company that designs and develops immune-based therapies to treat cancer indications.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Kite Pharma 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 (54)
2024 (47)
2023 (54)
2022 (59)
2021 (53)
2020 (38)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$335.38MKey Investors
Alta Partners
2017-08-28Acquired
2015-12-10Post Ipo Equity· $250.12M
2014-06-20IPO
Leadership Team
Craig Vermeyen
Director, Packaging and Labeling
Mark Jurgens
Executive Director, Head of External Scientific Collaboration
Recent News
BioWorld Financial Watch
2025-12-29
2025-12-07
Company data provided by crunchbase