AI Model Lead

Bring more to life.

Are you ready to accelerate your potential and make a real difference within life sciences, diagnostics and biotechnology?

At Cepheid, one of Danaher’s 15+ operating companies, our work saves lives—and we’re all united by a shared commitment to innovate for tangible impact. 

You’ll thrive in a culture of belonging where you and your unique viewpoint matter. And by harnessing Danaher’s system of continuous improvement, you help turn ideas into impact – innovating at the speed of life.

At Cepheid, we are passionate about improving health care through fast, accurate, molecular diagnostic systems and tests. As a member of our team, you’ll get to make an immediate, measurable impact on a global scale, within an environment that fosters career growth and development. Our mission drives us to develop groundbreaking solutions for the world’s most complex health challenges. Together, we bring MORE change to the world.

Learn about the Danaher Business System which makes everything possible.

The AI Model Lead is the senior technical owner responsible for architecting and delivering advanced AI models that power mission‑critical products. This role requires deep ML expertise, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to influence strategy across multiple teams. You will lead high‑impact initiatives, mentor senior engineers, and drive innovation in model development, optimization, and deployment.

In this role, you will have the opportunity to:

• Own the end‑to‑end architecture and technical strategy for large‑scale AI/ML models, including LLMs and multimodal systems.
• Lead development, training, and optimization of advanced models using state‑of‑the‑art deep learning and distributed training techniques.
• Drive cross‑org alignment by partnering with product, research, infra, and engineering leaders to shape long‑term AI roadmap and priorities.
• Mentor and elevate senior ML engineers and researchers, setting technical standards and guiding complex design decisions.
• Ensure operational excellence through scalable MLOps pipelines, rigorous evaluation frameworks, and responsible AI practices.

The essential requirements of the job include:

• Bachelor’s degree in data science, Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent experience and 12+ years of experience in ML, deep learning, or applied AI.
• Expert‑level proficiency in PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, or similar frameworks.
• Deep understanding of distributed training, model parallelism, and large‑scale data pipelines.
• Strong ability to influence technical direction across teams and orgs.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring senior engineers or researchers.

It would be a plus if you also possess previous experience in:

• Experience building or fine‑tuning LLMs, multimodal models, or foundation models.
• Publications in top AI/ML conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ACL).
• Experience with cloud‑scale ML infrastructure (Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Background in model safety, responsible AI, or evaluation frameworks.

Travel, Motor Vehicle Record & Physical/Environment Requirements:

• Ability to travel – Around 25%, overnight, some international travel outside of home territory

Cepheid, a Danaher operating company, offers a broad array of comprehensive, competitive benefit programs that add value to our lives. Whether it’s a health care program or paid time off, our programs contribute to life beyond the job. Check out our benefits at danaherbenefitsinfo.com.

The annual salary range for this role is $210,000 - $235,000. This is the range that we in good faith believe is the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting. This range may be modified in the future.

This job is also eligible for bonus/incentive pay.

We offer comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole discretion, consistent with the law.

Join our winning team today. Together, we’ll accelerate the real-life impact of tomorrow’s science and technology. We partner with customers across the globe to help them solve their most complex challenges, architecting solutions that bring the power of science to life.

For more information, visit Danaher Corporation

Danaher Corporation and all Danaher Companies are committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other characteristics protected by law.

Join our winning team today. Together, we’ll accelerate the real-life impact of tomorrow’s science and technology. We partner with customers across the globe to help them solve their most complex challenges, architecting solutions that bring the power of science to life.

For more information, visit www.danaher.com.

Danaher Corporation and all Danaher Companies are committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other characteristics protected by law.

The U.S. EEO posters are available here.

We comply with federal and state disability laws and make reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact:1-202-419-7762 or [email protected].