Marissa Saunders

About Marissa Saunders

Engineering Executive | AI & Commercial Strategy | Industrialized R&D | Building Enterprise-Grade AII am an engineering and data science leader who transforms experimental AI into scalable, revenue-generating business engines. My background spans Commercial Intelligence (HealthTech) and Industrialized R&D (BioTech/Pharma).Currently, I lead the Customer Value (CV) vertical at Spring, managing the intersection of AI infrastructure, Pricing Strategy, and GenAI Governance. Previously, I spent 5 years at Recursion, rising to Senior Director where I helped scale the data organization to automated maturity, driving partnership strategies and drug discovery programs.Core Leadership Pillars:Industrializing Innovation: Whether automating early drug discovery to 10x throughput (Recursion) or building 0-to-1 GenAI infrastructure (Spring), I build the systems that allow teams to move from \"Proof of Concept\" to \"Production Scale.\"Commercial & Strategic Scope: I operate as a business leader first. I have defined multi-year roadmaps for partnerships (Bayer), managed annual planning for diverse business units, integrating technical roadmaps to meet business strategies focused on expanding reach, increasing medical impact, and improving margins and sustainability.Organizational Design: I build resilient, distributed teams. I have successfully navigated high-growth phases and complex reorganizations, focusing on talent density, mentorship, and creating cultures of psychological safety and high delivery.Governance & Trust: I believe robust governance accelerates innovation. I have led AI Governance Boards, authored white papers on assay stability, and implemented frameworks that unblock access to sensitive data safely.

Experience

1. Director, Ai & Customer Value Engineering

   Spring Health

   Feb 2025 — Present

   Core Focus: Commercial AI Strategy, Intelligence Infrastructure, & Revenue OrchestrationCommercial Engineering & Strategic Leadership:Led the \"Customer Value\" engineering vertical, a critical business unit integrating Commercialization (Pricing, Packaging, Underwriting) with Technical Orchestration.Owned the engineering roadmap for dynamic pricing engines and customer-facing ROI dashboards, directly supporting sales enablement and contract underwriting.Partnered with Finance to implement utilization forecasting models that feed directly into FP & L planning, bridging technical metrics with financial outcomes.AI & Data Intelligence Layer:Built the organization’s foundational \"Intelligence Layer,\" spanning AI/ML Infrastructure, AI Trust & Safety, and high-volume Data Exchange.Modernized the data ingestion pipeline for normalized claims data and customer tooling integrations, ensuring the data foundation for downstream pricing and reporting was robust and scalable.Led the delivery of the enterprise GenAI infrastructure (LLMOps), moving from experimental notebooks to a governed, production-grade system with full observability.Algorithmic Orchestration & Member Personalization:Architected the \"Orchestration\" layer that dynamically adjusts recommendation algorithms based on specific customer pricing bundles and financial constraints.Developed comprehensive member profiling systems to optimize engagement while adhering to strict margin and appointment cost targets.Governance & Cross-Functional Impact:Served as a key voice on the AI Governance Board, aligning Engineering, Security, and Compliance to enable safe access to sensitive data (SLDA) and establish AI Trust protocols.

Education

• University of Utah

  PhD, Physical Chemistry

• Quantic School of Business and Technology

  Executive MBA, Business

• University of Pretoria

  BScHons, Biochemistry

  2003 — 2007

• University of Chicago

  PhD, Physical Chemistry

  2010 — 2012

Skills

• Data Analysis
• Chemistry
• Mathematical Modeling
• Linear Algebra
• Scientific Writing
• Numerical Analysis
• Statistical Mechanics
• Physics
• Data Science
• Science
• Computational Biology
• Computational Chemistry
• Protein Chemistry
• R
• Structural Biology
• Molecular Biology
• Physical Chemistry
• Python
• Latex
• Biophysics
• Statistics
• Statistical Modeling
• Research Design
• Molecular Dynamics
• C++
• Molecular Modeling
• Research Project Design
• Scientific Computing
• Unix
• Biochemistry
• Tcl
• Fortran