[Hiring] Executive Director, AI and Digital Health Assurance @ECRI

Role Description

ECRI is building the healthcare industry's independent assurance capability for artificial intelligence. The Executive Director, AI and Digital Health Assurance designs, launches, and leads this new client-facing offering: a closed-loop practice that independently tests and validates AI-enabled solutions before deployment, surveils real-world AI safety events, investigates suspected AI-related harm, and monitors deployed systems for drift, degradation, and inequitable performance.

• Scope spans AI-enabled clinical decision support and large language model applications, Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and Software in a Medical Device (SiMD), connected and wearable devices, and EHR-integrated software.
• The Executive Director sets ECRI's AI evaluation strategy and methodology, builds the team and technical infrastructure to execute it at scale, and carries commercial accountability for the design, launch, and growth of the offering.
• The role operates from a position no other organization holds: ECRI's federally listed Patient Safety Organization and its patient safety event corpus, its device hazard and alerts apparatus, and more than five decades of independent, conflict-free technology evaluation.
• Preserving that independence is a core obligation of the role, not an administrative formality.
• The underlying technology moves in months, not years. This role requires continuous, hands-on command of the frontier of AI capability, tooling, adoption patterns, and threats, sustained as an ongoing discipline rather than a body of knowledge fixed at hire.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive experience in healthcare technology evaluation, clinical software quality and validation, medical device or health IT safety, or a closely related discipline.
• 3+ years of hands-on leadership or delivery experience specifically involving AI- or ML-enabled systems, including meaningful direct exposure to generative AI, agentic systems, or large language model applications.
• 5+ years leading teams, with demonstrated success building a function, practice, or program from an early or undefined state rather than inheriting a mature one.
• Demonstrated experience shipping an AI-enabled product or feature into production and operating it post-launch, with direct accountability for real-world performance, user adoption, and iteration.
• Deep and current command of AI and machine learning as applied in healthcare, including the distinct evaluation challenges posed by generative, agentic, and large language model systems.
• Demonstrated experience designing and executing validation or evaluation strategies for clinical software in regulated or highly governed environments.
• Experience building or operating technical infrastructure to exercise and test AI systems and their outputs in a controlled sandbox environment.
• Proven client-facing experience translating provider, payer, and vendor needs into measurable evaluation plans.
• Demonstrated commercial contribution: shaping offerings, scoping and pricing engagements, supporting pursuits, and growing client relationships.
• Established credibility with senior healthcare and industry leaders, evidenced by publication, standards or consensus body participation, or speaking at recognized venues.
• Preferred: working knowledge of patient safety event analysis and root cause methodology.
• Preferred: experience in one or more adjacent domains, such as connected and wearable device validation, EHR-integrated clinical decision support.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required in computer science, biomedical or software engineering, data science, information security, health informatics, or a related technical or scientific field.
• Advanced degree strongly preferred: a master's or doctoral degree in a related technical field, or a clinical doctorate (MD, DO, PharmD, DNP, PhD) paired with substantial informatics, data science, or health technology evaluation experience.
• An equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience will be considered.

Benefits

• Comprehensive healthcare coverage: Medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability coverage, critical illness insurance, and more.
• Retirement savings: Employer-matching Retirement Savings Plan.
• Culture of Belonging: Participate in employee groups to learn from, grow with, and support colleagues in our collective success.
• Purpose beyond the paycheck: 16 paid hours annually through ECRI Cares to volunteer with preapproved charities.