Associate Director, IT Service Operations

Summary

Our Associate Director, Service Operations will plan all aspects of the future operational model (DevOps) for our next generation Statistical Compute Environment (SCE). Upon go-live of the SCE, lead all day-to-day operations, support audit related aspects, manage licenses/vendor relations, operational budget management, ensure compliance, quality and security in all operational aspects of the SCE Data Science Platform.

You will engage and lead service level reviews/measurement review meetings with our business leaders and work with vendors to ensure smooth business operations with proper controls like Disaster Recover and Business Continuity models.

In this role, you’ll engage with global business leaders and leverage the appropriate Digital, Data & IT teams and Functions to deliver timely operational enhancements to the SCE with the necessary quality.

About The Role

Key Responsibilities:

Interact With Various Business Stakeholders, 3rd Party Vendors, Other IT Line Functions Including Quality / ECompliance And Information Security For The Following

• Lead Operational Planning aspects of SCE programs to ensure operational needs and planning are completed effectively, including cost estimation modelling, impact change assessments and fit for purpose implementations.
• Collect operational demands/enhancement requests of the SCE including overall process level understanding /identify process simplification opportunities and implementation.
• Work with SaaS vendors / cloud providers to ensure availability, performance of the SCE and continuously update/review application roadmaps, technology modernization, elimination of unused assets.
• Conduct service review meetings with business/vendors and ensure SLA/KPI adherence, ensure required training materials are up to date and oversee license management, budget management, contract management for various tools/vendors.
• Monitor SCE cloud resource usage metrics, highlighting opportunities for efficiencies to keep cloud usage costs within defined operational budget.
• Manage escalations including crucial or major incidents, overall quality, technical security and user access whilst supporting internal and external audit readiness and adherence to GxP compliance.
• Closely collaborate with the Release Train Engineer (RTE) role, develop operational release DevOps processes, standards, best-practices and working patterns that will bring the highest value to IT teams to improve and sustain platform stability and quality.
• Keep abreast with internal IT systems and documentation requirements, standards (including quality management and IT security), regulatory environments / requirements (if applicable), DDIT Service Portfolio and with industry best practices in leveraging technologies for the business and taking advantage of reusable products, solutions, and services wherever applicable. Additional specification required for testing.
  
  

Key Requirements

• University degree in Informatics, Computer Sciences, Life Sciences or similar
• 10+ years of experience in working in the IT Industry with significant demonstrated expertise in a service operations role
• Solid understanding of managing/supporting Data Science platforms.
• Ability to solve complex business process / information challenges.
• Proficient skills in global teams, collaboration, facilitation, negotiation, working in a matrix environment and conflict resolution.
• Proficiency in English (written & oral).
  
  

Desirable

• Experience in the Pharmaceutical or Life Sciences domain
• Expert understanding of the Clinical Trial Business processes, End to End drug development process, GxP, 21CFR Part 11 and the CSV lifecycle.
• Knowledge of Clinical Data Platforms, Statistical Computing Environments, Clinical Data Management, Cloud Management and/or experience working with SaaS Vendors.
• Data Strategy, data standardization and digital innovation projects/operations.
• Working knowledge of product management, agile methodologies
  
  

Benefits & Rewards: Read our handbook to learn about all the ways we’ll help you thrive personally and professionally: Novartis Life Handbook

Benefits in Spain include Company Pension plan; Life and Accidental Insurance; Meals; Allowance or Canteen in the office; Flexible working hours.

You’ll receive: You can find everything you need to know about our benefits and rewards in the Novartis Life Handbook. https://www.novartis.com/careers/benefits-rewards

Benefits in Spain include Company Pension plan; Life and Accidental Insurance; Meals; Allowance or Canteen in the office; Flexible working hours

Commitment To Diversity & Inclusion

We are committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams representative of the patients and communities we serve.

This role is based in Barcelona, Spain. Novartis is unable to offer relocation support for this role: please only apply if this location is accessible for you

Why Novartis: Helping people with disease and their families takes more than innovative science. It takes a community of smart, passionate people like you. Collaborating, supporting and inspiring each other. Combining to achieve breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. Ready to create a brighter future together? https://www.novartis.com/about/strategy/people-and-culture

Join our Novartis Network: Not the right Novartis role for you? Sign up to our talent community to stay connected and learn about suitable career opportunities as soon as they come up: https://talentnetwork.novartis.com/network

Benefits and Rewards: Read our handbook to learn about all the ways we’ll help you thrive personally and professionally: https://www.novartis.com/careers/benefits-rewards