Director, Reinforcement Learning (RLHF)

Join Amgen’s Mission of Serving Patients

At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission—to serve patients living with serious illnesses—drives all that we do.

Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas –Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease– we reach millions of patients each year. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives.

Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Director, Reinforcement Learning (RLHF)

What you will do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role the Director of Reinforcement Learning will lead Amgen’s strategy and execution for Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and related reinforcement learning approaches across R&D, medical, operations, and commercial use cases. You will build and lead a high-performing, hands-on technical team that designs, implements, and scales RLHF systems to solve real-world problems that ultimately help us serve patients better and faster.

This role requires deep technical expertise in RLHF and modern machine learning, combined with strong leadership capabilities in stakeholder management, cross-functional collaboration, and organizational influence. You will be expected to translate complex concepts into clear, actionable strategies for senior leaders and guide teams from idea to impact

• Set the RLHF vision and roadmap for Amgen, identifying high-impact opportunities where RLHF can significantly improve decision-making, automation, scientific insight, or patient and HCP experiences.
• Lead the design and development of RLHF systems including reward modeling, policy optimization, safety and alignment mechanisms, and evaluation frameworks for large language models and other AI systems.
• Build and lead a world-class RL team including machine learning engineers, and data scientists; attract, develop, and retain top talent while fostering a culture of excellence, curiosity, and continuous learning.
• Drive hands-on technical execution, particularly for high-impact projects, reviewing architectures, experimentation plans, and code, and helping the team navigate scientific and engineering trade-offs.
• Establish best-practice pipelines for human feedback, partnering closely with internal customer teams to define feedback protocols, annotation quality standards, and governance for RLHF data.
• Define and monitor success metrics for RLHF systems, balancing offline and online evaluation, A/B tests, safety and robustness criteria, and business or scientific outcomes.
• Collaborate across Amgen leaders to ensure RLHF solutions are aligned with strategy, compliant with policy, and integrated into real workflows.
• Partner with Data, Platform and Technology teams to ensure that RLHF workloads are supported by scalable data platforms, model hosting, experimentation infrastructure, and MLOps protocols.
• Champion responsible and compliant AI, working with Legal, Compliance, and Information Security to implement governance around human feedback, data usage, model behavior, transparency, and risk management in a regulated environment.
• Communicate insights and influence senior stakeholders, creating clear narratives, roadmaps, and recommendations that help executives understand RLHF trade-offs, risks, and opportunities.
• Deep RLHF & RL expertise – Consistent track record designing and implementing RLHF / RL systems for real-world applications (not just research).
• Hands-on ML engineering – Strong Python and deep learning skills (e.g., PyTorch/TensorFlow) with experience working on large models (LLMs or similar).
• People leadership – 4+ years leading and developing impactful ML teams, including hiring, coaching, and performance management.
• Technical vision & strategy – Ability to set an RLHF roadmap, make architectural decisions, and align teams and resources to high-impact priorities.
• Stakeholder management – Strong skills partnering with senior business, scientific, and tech leaders; influencing decisions without formal authority.
• Executive communication – Ability to translate complex RLHF topics into clear narratives, trade-offs, and recommendations for non-technical executives.
• Cross-functional execution – Shown success driving multi-team initiatives from concept to production in an ambiguous, fast-moving environment.

What we expect of you

We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients. The dynamic professional we seek is a strong collaborator with these qualifications.

Basic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree with 10-12 + years of experience in Computer Science, IT or related field

Or

• Bachelor’s degree with 12-14 + years of experience in Computer Science, IT or related field

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certifications on Reinforcement Learning (AWS AI, Azure AI Engineer, Google Cloud ML, etc.) are a plus.
• Deep, hands-on expertise in Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and/or advanced reinforcement learning, including reward modeling, policy optimization, exploration strategies, and offline/online evaluation.
• Demonstrated experience deploying RLHF or RL systems into production for real-world applications (e.g., large language models, recommendation systems, decision support tools, or workflow automation), ideally in healthcare, life sciences, or other regulated domains.
• Strong background in modern machine learning and deep learning, with practical experience in Python and frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, and familiarity with LLM ecosystems and tooling.
• Consistent track record of leading technical teams—recruiting, developing, and coaching machine learning scientists and engineers, and creating an inclusive, high-performance culture.
• Experience driving complex, cross-functional initiatives, collaborating with non-technical stakeholders (e.g., physicians, scientists, commercial leaders, compliance, legal) and translating needs into impactful AI solutions.
• Strong ability to communicate complex technical topics simply, tailoring content to senior executives and non-technical audiences; well-versed in data and model storytelling, including risks, assumptions, and limitations.
• Experience working with large-scale data and cloud ecosystems (e.g., Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, or similar), and partnering with data engineering or platform teams to build robust pipelines and experimentation platforms.
• Demonstrated understanding of responsible AI, safety, and governance, especially in the context of RLHF and LLMs (e.g., bias, robustness, clarity, and guardrail design).
• Familiarity with pharma/biotech, healthcare, or other regulated industries, including an understanding of compliance, privacy, and consent practices related to patient and HCP data.
• Strong project management and organizational skills to handle multiple RLHF initiatives in parallel, ensuring work is prioritized against highest-value opportunities and interested parties are informed on progress and outcomes.

What you can expect of us

As we work to develop treatments that take care of others, we also work to care for your professional and personal growth and well-being. From our competitive benefits to our collaborative culture, we’ll support your journey every step of the way.

The expected annual salary range for this role in the U.S. (excluding Puerto Rico) is $243,234 - $327,891USD . Actual salary will vary based on several factors including but not limited to, relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

In addition to the base salary, Amgen offers a Total Rewards Plan, based on eligibility, comprising of health and welfare plans for staff and eligible dependents, financial plans with opportunities to save towards retirement or other goals, work/life balance, and career development opportunities that may include:

• A comprehensive employee benefits package, including a Retirement and Savings Plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts
• A discretionary annual bonus program, or for field sales representatives, a sales-based incentive plan
• Stock-based long-term incentives
• Award-winning time-off plans
• Flexible work models where possible. Refer to the Work Location Type in the job posting to see if this applies.

Apply now and make a lasting impact with the Amgen team.

careers.amgen.com

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Application deadline

Amgen does not have an application deadline for this position; we will continue accepting applications until we receive a sufficient number or select a candidate for the position.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship for this role is not guaranteed.

As an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people around the world, Amgen fosters an inclusive environment of diverse, ethical, committed and highly accomplished people who respect each other and live the Amgen values to continue advancing science to serve patients. Together, we compete in the fight against serious disease.

Amgen is an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.