Head of IT — Precision Diagnosis

Job Description

The Head of IT for Precision Diagnosis is the most senior IT leader embedded in Philips’ largest and most technology-intensive business unit. Reporting to the Group CIO with a strong dotted line to the BU CEO, this role owns the end-to-end IT strategy, delivery, and operations for Precision Diagnosis—spanning diagnostic imaging (MR, CT, Ultrasound). The role operates at the intersection of enterprise platform consumption (SAP S/4, Salesforce, Workday), BU-specific digital product engineering, and AI/data capabilities. It demands a leader who can translate clinical and commercial priorities into technology roadmaps, govern a portfolio of Run and Improve initiatives, and drive the business unit’s digital transformation in a regulated health technology environment. This is a Vice President (EL1) position within the Philips IT Leadership Team. In addition, the Head of IT is the designated AI & Data Champion for Precision Diagnosis - the single accountable leader who owns the BU's AI and data agenda end to end: partnering with the business to identify and prioritize high-value AI use cases, building AI solutions, organizing and governing the BU data estate, standing up a dedicated BU-centric AI team, and acting as the connective tissue to the enterprise AI & Data organization and the AI Center of Excellence (COE).

About the Role:

IT Strategy & Business Alignment

• Own and execute the IT strategy for Precision Diagnosis, ensuring full alignment with BU commercial objectives, clinical innovation priorities, and the Group IT three-pillar operating model (AI & Data Factory, Platform Operations, Digital Product Engineering).

• Strategically drive the future IT Strategy around the Services Business IT needs.

• Serve as the primary IT interlocutor to the BU CEO, BU leadership team, and functional stakeholders—translating business needs into prioritised technology investments and delivery commitments.

• Drive adoption of enterprise platforms within the BU, balancing standardisation benefits with BU-specific requirements in areas such as service contracts, installed-base management, and clinical workflow integration.

• Shape the BU’s digital product engineering agenda in partnership with the BU Leaders, ensuring in-product AI/ML capabilities (imaging interpretation, clinical decision support) consume shared AI platform services from the AI & Data Factory.

Delivery & Portfolio Governance

• Govern the BU IT portfolio across Run (operational stability, service levels, incident management) and Improve (transformation programs, platform migrations, capability builds), ensuring disciplined milestone delivery and value realisation.

• Lead the BU’s participation in the SAP S/4 transformation program, owning BU-specific process design, data migration, and change management while coordinating with the central Platform Operations team.

• Manage BU IT budgets under the consumption-based charging model, ensuring transparent cost attribution, investment trade-off decisions, and predictable financial performance.

• Oversee vendor and partner relationships specific to the BU, including clinical IT vendors, imaging platform providers, and systems integrators.

AI & Data Championship, Data & Digital Enablement

• Partner with the AI & Data Factory to prioritise and accelerate AI use cases for Precision Diagnosis – especially GenAI-enabled clinical workflows and for the Services Business.

• Champion data-driven decision making within the BU, ensuring data domains (clinical, commercial, operational) are governed, curated, and available for AI consumption through the enterprise data mesh architecture.

• Drive the adoption of AI-augmented IT operations within the BU, including agentic workflows for incident resolution, automated testing, and intelligent process automation.

• Act as the BU's AI & Data Champion - the visible, accountable owner of the Precision Diagnoses AI agenda - setting the vision, roadmap, and value narrative for AI and data across the business unit and embedding an AI-first mindset into diagnostic and treatment workflows.

• Co-create with business, clinical, commercial, and service stakeholders to identify, qualify, and prioritise high-impact AI value use cases, maintaining a governed use-case pipeline with clear business cases, value-at-stake, and adoption KPIs.

• Build, lead, and develop a dedicated BU-centric AI team - AI product owners, data engineers, ML/GenAI engineers, and use-case translators - that designs, builds, and scales fit-for-purpose AI solutions for Precision Diagnosis.

• Organise, curate, and govern the Precision Diagnosis data estate - establishing productised data assets, data quality, lineage, and stewardship - so clinical, imaging, commercial, and operational data are AI-ready and integrated into the enterprise data mesh.

• Operate in lockstep with the enterprise AI & Data Factory and AI COE, consuming shared platforms, reference architectures, MLOps/LLMops tooling, and responsible-AI guardrails rather than rebuilding them, while feeding BU-specific requirements back into the enterprise roadmap.

• Champion an AI-literate business unit: enable and support the end-user community (clinical, commercial, service) and the developer / citizen-developer community through enablement, reusable patterns, prompt and solution libraries, and hands-on support, backed by the enterprise AI COE.

• Serve as the two-way bridge between the BU and the enterprise AI & Data teams - escalating BU needs, harvesting enterprise capabilities, and ensuring security, privacy, responsible-AI, and regulatory guardrails are engineered in by design.

Regulatory, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure IT delivery and operations within Precision Diagnosis meet FDA, MDR, and other regulatory requirements for AI in medical devices, clinical data handling, and cybersecurity.

• Own the BU IT risk posture, including cybersecurity, business continuity, audit remediation, and compliance with Philips’ enterprise governance framework.

• Collaborate with the AI Safety & Ethics Lead and Regulatory Affairs to ensure clinical AI deployments within the BU meet explainability, auditability, and bias monitoring standards.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing BU IT team, driving the workforce transformation from traditional IT project delivery toward product management, AI operations, and platform engineering capabilities.

• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and Impact with Care—Philips’ leadership commitment to delivering results while caring for people, patients, and communities.

• Attract and retain top technology talent in a competitive market, leveraging Philips’ purpose-driven mission in health technology.

Role Success Measures

• BU IT strategy demonstrably aligned with Precision Diagnosis commercial targets and clinical innovation roadmap, validated by BU CEO and leadership team.

• On-time, on-budget delivery of priority Improve initiatives (including SAP S/4 BU workstream) with measurable business value realisation.

• Stable and improving Run performance against agreed service levels, with declining incident volumes through AI-augmented operations.

• Transparent IT cost attribution under the consumption-based model, with predictable budget performance and clear Run-versus-Invest trade-offs.

• Successful deployment of at least two clinical AI use cases within the BU, progressing through validation pipeline to production.

• Strong talent pipeline with measurable progress on workforce reskilling toward AI, platform engineering, and product management competencies.

• A governed BU AI use-case pipeline stood up, with a target number of high-value use cases identified with the business, prioritised, and progressed from concept to production with measured, attributable business value.

• BU-centric AI team established and productive, with a clear operating model and a tight interlock into the enterprise AI & Data Factory and AI COE.

• Precision Diagnosis data estate curated into AI-ready data products with governance, quality, and enterprise data-mesh integration.

• Active and growing end-user and developer AI community within Precision Diagnosis, with rising adoption, enablement, and reuse metrics.

Role Boundaries & Interfaces This is a business-embedded IT leadership role, not a central IT delivery function. The Head of IT has full accountability for IT strategy, delivery, and operations within Precision Diagnosis, but consumes shared enterprise platform services from the Group CIO’s Platform Operations pillar and AI infrastructure from the AI & Data Factory. The role does not own enterprise platform architecture decisions but has a strong voice in how those platforms are configured and adopted within the BU. Digital product engineering teams embedded in the BU; the Head of IT ensures they consume shared IT services effectively. The role collaborates closely with the CIO, Regional IT Leads, and IT Functional Leads. As the BU AI & Data Champion, the role does not build a parallel enterprise AI stack; it consumes and extends the AI & Data Factory and AI COE capabilities, owning the BU-facing demand, use-case value, data products, and community enablement while the enterprise owns the shared platforms and guardrails.

You're the right fit if:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field. MBA or advanced degree is a strong plus.

• Proven track record as a senior IT leader (CIO, VP IT, or equivalent) in a global, matrixed health technology, medical devices, or life sciences company—ideally with direct experience in diagnostic imaging, clinical informatics, or regulated product environments.

• Deep understanding of enterprise platform ecosystems (SAP, Salesforce) and experience leading large-scale ERP transformations in complex, multi-BU organisations.

• Strong grasp of AI/ML in healthcare—including clinical AI validation, regulatory requirements (FDA, MDR), and the intersection of AI with medical device software.

• Demonstrated ability to operate at the intersection of business and technology, translating commercial and clinical priorities into technology strategy and delivery.

• Experience managing IT budgets in a consumption-based or chargeback model, with strong financial discipline and investment governance capabilities.

• Exceptional stakeholder management and influence skills, comfortable operating in a matrix where success depends on collaboration across BU leadership, central IT, and the Data & AI community.

• Leadership style characterised by accountability, transparency, intellectual rigour, and care for people—aligned with Philips’ Impact with Care values.

• Demonstrated success as an AI & Data champion (or equivalent) - identifying and monetising AI use cases with the business, building and leading AI/data teams, standing up governed data foundations, and partnering with a central AI organisation or COE to scale AI solutions responsibly.

Compensation & benefits Doing meaningful work should come with fair, transparent rewards. In compliance with the EU Pay Transparency Directive, details regarding the compensation framework and salary range for this executive leadership position will be automatically provided to all candidates selected for the initial screening phase prior to their first business interview.

How we work together We believe that we are better together than apart. For our office-based teams, this means working in-person at least 3 days per week.

About Philips Are you ready to do the work of your life to help the lives of others? Learn more about our business, discover our rich and exciting history and learn more about our purpose. If you’re interested in this role and have many, but not all, of the experiences needed, we encourage you to apply. You may still be the right candidate for this or other opportunities at Philips. Learn more about our culture of impact with care.