Director, R&D AI, Insights & Analytics

About Acadia Pharmaceuticals

Acadia is committed to turning scientific promise into meaningful innovation that makes the difference for underserved neurological and rare disease communities around the world. Our commercial portfolio includes the first and only FDA-approved treatments for Parkinson’s disease psychosis and Rett syndrome. We are developing the next wave of therapeutic advancements with a robust and diverse pipeline that includes mid- to late-stage programs in Alzheimer’s disease psychosis and Lewy body dementia psychosis, along with earlier-stage programs that address other underserved patient needs. At Acadia, we’re here to be their difference.

Position Summary

The Director, R&D AI, Insights & Analytics will lead the strategy and execution of data, analytics, artificial intelligence, and insights capabilities across the R&D organization. This highly visible leadership role will drive the transformation of how data is leveraged throughout the drug development lifecycle, enabling faster clinical trial execution, stronger data governance, more informed decision-making, and scalable AI-driven innovation.

Partnering closely with R&D leadership, Enterprise AI, Enterprise IT, and external partners, this leader will shape the future of R&D data and analytics by defining roadmaps, advancing modern data platforms, and delivering measurable business value through data-driven solutions.

Primary Responsibilities

Define and execute the R&D insights, analytics, AI, and data capability roadmap aligned with R&D priorities and enterprise data and AI strategies

Lead the R&D data governance framework, including data ownership, stewardship, ontology, metadata, lineage, business glossary, data quality standards, FAIR data principles, and enterprise-wide semantic consistency

Establish consistent definitions, metrics, semantic standards, and data quality expectations across R&D to improve trust, reuse, and comparability of information

Partner with Enterprise IT and data engineering teams to define business requirements and support the design and implementation of modern R&D data platforms, including data lake, lakehouse, and cloud-based solutions

Provide R&D leadership and subject matter expertise for architecture, platform, technology, and vendor evaluations, ensuring scalability, security, interoperability, and business alignment

Build and operationalize clinical development benchmarking capabilities, including study start-up, patient enrollment, site performance, cycle times, data quality, and other key development metrics

Develop dashboards, predictive analytics, and decision-support capabilities that improve patient enrollment, site selection, trial execution, portfolio oversight, and clinical development performance

Identify, prioritize, and implement opportunities to accelerate clinical trials and R&D processes through AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, intelligent automation, and AI-enabled solutions

Partner with Enterprise AI and Enterprise IT teams to translate R&D use cases into scalable products, define business requirements and success metrics, and support deployment, adoption, and value realization

Lead current-state assessments, process mapping, capability mapping, gap analyses, and future-state roadmap development to support R&D transformation and operating model improvements

Collaborate across Clinical Development, Clinical Operations, Research, Translational Medicine, Data Management, Biostatistics, Regulatory Affairs, Safety, and other R&D functions to identify high-value data and analytics opportunities

Manage external partners, contractors, and vendors to deliver analytics, governance, benchmarking, and transformation initiatives within approved budgets

Present strategies, recommendations, progress, risks, and business outcomes to senior leadership, governance forums, and key stakeholders

Monitor emerging data, analytics, AI, and life sciences technologies and drive innovation and experimentation initiatives that create measurable value across R&D

Other duties as assigned

Education/Experience/Skills

Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Life Sciences, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred

10+ years of progressively responsible experience in R&D analytics, data strategy, clinical development analytics, AI-enabled solutions, digital transformation, or related disciplines

Experience within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or life sciences industry

Strong knowledge of the drug development lifecycle and R&D functions, including Clinical Development, Clinical Operations, Research, Translational Medicine, Data Management, Biostatistics, Regulatory Affairs, and Safety

Experience establishing and leading data governance programs, including data ownership, stewardship, ontology, metadata, lineage, business glossary, data quality standards, and FAIR data practices

Experience defining or supporting data lake, lakehouse, data fabric, or cloud data strategies and partnering with architecture and engineering teams on platform selection and implementation

Working knowledge of Databricks, Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, AWS, Azure, semantic layer technologies, and enterprise metadata or catalog tools

Experience developing clinical performance metrics, external benchmarking programs, operational dashboards, and analytics supporting patient enrollment, site performance, trial acceleration, and portfolio decision-making

Experience applying AI/ML, predictive analytics, intelligent automation, or AI-enabled products to solve R&D business challenges

Experience conducting process mapping, capability assessments, gap analyses, and future-state roadmap development

Ability to translate business requirements into scalable data, analytics, platform, and technology solutions

Experience managing cross-functional initiatives, vendors, external partners, and project resourcesFamiliarity with regulated R&D environments and clinical data standards, including GxP, CDISC, SDTM, ADaM, and FHIR

Ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally as needed

Physical Requirements

This role involves regular standing, walking, sitting, and the use of hands for handling or operating equipment. The employee may also need to reach, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, and maintain visual, verbal, and auditory communication in a standard office environment and while working independently from remote locations. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. This position requires the ability to travel independently overnight and/or work after hours as required by travel schedules or business needs.

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In addition to a competitive base salary, this position is also eligible for discretionary bonus and equity awards based on factors such as individual and organizational performance. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance, and location.

Salary Range

$192,000 — $240,100 USD

What we offer US-based Employees:

Competitive base, bonus, new hire and ongoing equity packages

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Employer-paid life, disability, business travel and EAP coverage

401(k) Plan with a fully vested company match 1:1 up to 5%

Employee Stock Purchase Plan with a 2-year purchase price lock-in

15+ vacation days

13 -15 paid holidays, including office closure between December 24th and January 1st

10 days of paid sick time

Paid parental leave benefit

Tuition assistance

EEO Statement (US-based Employees): Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every one of the qualifications in the exact way they are described in job postings. We are committed to building a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and innovative company, and we are looking for the BES