AI Program Lead – Agile

Location: Hyderabad

This role requires a proactive leader who can drive cross-functional teams, ensure financial discipline, and deliver innovative AI solutions in a fast-paced environment.

Major Accountabilities

Agile Program Leadership

• Serve as Scrum Master for multiple AI/GenAI workstreams, facilitating sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives, and continuous improvement.
• Champion Agile best practices, coach teams on Scrum principles, and foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and rapid iteration.
• Remove impediments, manage dependencies, and ensure timely delivery of program milestones.

AI/GenAI Project Delivery

• Oversee the end-to-end execution of AI and GenAI projects, ensuring alignment with business objectives and technical feasibility.
• Collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product owners to define requirements, prioritize backlogs, and deliver high-impact solutions.
• Track and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) specific to AI/GenAI adoption, model performance, and business value realization.

Budget & Resource Management

• Develop, manage, and optimize program budgets, forecasts, and resource allocations.
• Monitor actuals vs. planned spend, identify variances, and implement corrective actions to ensure financial targets are met.
• Negotiate contracts and manage vendor relationships related to AI/GenAI initiatives.

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Act as the primary point of contact for program status, risks, and issues, providing clear and concise updates to leadership and stakeholders.
• Facilitate executive reviews, steering committee meetings, and cross-functional communications.
• Maintain comprehensive program documentation, dashboards, and a single source of truth for all artifacts.

Risk, Compliance & Continuous Improvement

• Identify and mitigate risks related to AI/GenAI delivery, including data privacy, security, and regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, GxP).
• Drive post-launch reviews, capture lessons learned, and implement process improvements for future projects.

Minimum Requirements

• Agile/Scrum certification (CSM, PSM, SAFe, etc.).
• Experience with tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence, and Power BI Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 8+ years of program management experience, with at least 4+ years as a Scrum Master or Agile Program Lead.
• Demonstrated experience managing budgets for large-scale technology programs.
• Hands-on experience delivering AI/GenAI projects (e.g., LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, model evaluation).
• Strong understanding of data privacy, security, and compliance in regulated industries (pharma, biotech, life sciences preferred).
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills

Why Novartis?

Our purpose is to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives and our vision is to become the most valued and trusted medicines company in the world. How can we achieve this? With our people. It is our associates that drive us each day to reach our ambitions. Be a part of this mission and join us

Learn more here:

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:

Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams' representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Join our Novartis Network: If this role is not suitable to your experience or career goals but you wish to stay connected to hear more about Novartis and our career opportunities, join the Novartis Network here:

Why Novartis: Helping people with disease and their families takes more than innovative science. It takes a community of smart, passionate people like you. Collaborating, supporting and inspiring each other. Combining to achieve breakthroughs that change patients' lives. Ready to create a brighter future together?

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Benefits and Rewards: Read our handbook to learn about all the ways we'll help you thrive personally and professionally:

Division

Operations

Business Unit

Universal Hierarchy Node

Location

India

Site

Hyderabad (Office)

Company / Legal Entity

IN10 (FCRS = IN010) Novartis Healthcare Private Limited

Functional Area

Technology Transformation

Job Type

Full time

Employment Type

Regular

Shift Work

No