Job Description
Director of AI Incubation
Location: Nashville, TN, United States
schedule Full-time • Work From Home
Job Description:
This position is incentive eligible.
Experience the HCA Healthcare difference where colleagues are trusted, valued members of our healthcare team. Grow your career with an organization committed to delivering respectful, compassionate care, and where the unique and intrinsic worth of each individual is recognized. Submit your application for the opportunity below: Director of AI Incubation
Job Summary and Qualifications
We are seeking a visionary and forward-thinking Director of AI Incubation & Research to lead the exploration, experimentation, and advancement of next-generation AI capabilities across HCA. This role will spearhead early-stage innovation initiatives, evaluate emerging technologies, and incubate high-impact AI solutions with a strong emphasis on Agentic AI and advanced Generative AI systems.
As Director, you will define and drive the AI research and incubation strategy, identifying transformative opportunities that enhance clinical care, operational efficiency, and enterprise productivity. You will lead a multidisciplinary team of AI engineers to prototype, validate, and mature innovative AI concepts into scalable, enterprise-ready solutions.
Core Responsibilities:
Define and lead the AI incubation and research strategy, identifying emerging technologies and high-impact
opportunities that advance clinical, operational, and enterprise outcomes.
Establish and oversee an AI innovation pipeline, from concept exploration and rapid prototyping through validation,
pilot deployment, and transition to scaled production teams.
Lead a multidisciplinary team of AI engineers, researchers, and product leaders, fostering a culture of
experimentation, technical rigor, and responsible innovation.
Evaluate emerging AI technologies and research advancements, including Agentic AI, generative AI, multimodal
systems, and automation frameworks, translating them into actionable enterprise capabilities.
Develop frameworks for AI experimentation and validation, including benchmarking, evaluation methodologies,
safety guardrails, and measurable success criteria.
Partner with clinical, operational, and enterprise stakeholders to identify priority problem spaces and ensure research efforts align with strategic organizational objectives.
Champion responsible and ethical AI practices, ensuring governance, compliance, security, and risk mitigation are embedded early in the incubation lifecycle.
Shape the long-term AI innovation roadmap, influencing investment decisions, capability development, and strategic partnerships to position the organization at the forefront of AI advancement.
Performs other duties as assigned
Practices and adheres to the “Code of Conduct” philosophy and “Mission and Value Statement.”
Typical work week hours can vary depending on workload and project deliverables
Education and Experience:
Bachelor’s degree – Required
Master’s degree – Preferred
PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related technical field – Preferred
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Required
Experience in healthcare, pharmaceutical, or other highly regulated industries, with demonstrated understanding of clinical, privacy, security, and compliance constraints impacting AI research and deployment.
7+ years of progressive experience in AI research, advanced analytics, machine learning, data science, or AI-driven product innovation, including leadership of multidisciplinary technical teams.
Proven experience leading AI incubation or innovation initiatives, from early-stage research and rapid prototyping through validation, pilot deployment, and transition to scaled production teams.
Strong technical foundation in AI/ML and Generative AI systems, including hands-on familiarity with model development, evaluation frameworks, Agentic AI architectures, and emerging research methodologies.
Demonstrated ability to translate emerging AI research into practical, enterprise-ready capabilities, balancing experimentation with governance, scalability, and measurable impact.
Deep expertise in responsible and ethical AI principles, including model risk management, bias mitigation, safety guardrails, transparency, privacy/security, and governance frameworks for AI agents.
Experience designing and implementing experimentation frameworks, including benchmarking, evaluation metrics, hypothesis-driven research, and performance validation in real-world environments.
Preferred
Experience with cloud-based AI platforms and services (e.g. GCP, Azure).
Experience with product management tools such as Jira, Confluence.
Experience with tools and platforms used in citizen data science, automated analytics, and collaborative modeling environments
Benefits
HCA Healthcare offers a total rewards package that supports the health, life, career and retirement of our colleagues. The available plans and programs include:
Comprehensive benefits for medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, behavioral health and telemedicine services
Wellbeing support, including free counseling and referral services
Time away from work programs for paid time off, paid family leave, long- and short-term disability coverage and leaves of absence
Savings and retirement resources, including a 401(k) Plan with a 100% match on 3% to 9% of pay (based on years of service), Employee Stock Purchase Plan, flexible spending accounts, preferred banking partnerships, retirement readiness tools, rollover support and financial wellbeing counseling
Education support through tuition assistance, student loan assistance, certification support, dependent scholarships and a partnership with Galen College of Nursing
Additional benefits for fertility and family building, adoption assistance, life insurance, supplemental health protection plans, auto and home insurance, legal counseling, identity theft protection and consumer discounts
If you find this opportunity compelling, we encourage you to apply for our Director of AI Incubation opening. We promptly review all applications. Highly qualified candidates will be directly contacted by a member of our team. We are interviewing - apply today!
We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
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