The Associate Director, Operations Lead is a central and critical role in Global R&D Discovery IT that is responsible for providing excellent user experience which relies on stable, consistent, and compliant operations and support.

In this role, the Operations Lead will oversee delivery of a global services portfolio, in partnership with managed services partners, define policy and practice service management, operations and continuous service improvement, in compliance with internal procedures with the goal of exceeding end-user expectations. Serves as a point of escalation for service issues and represents Discovery IT cross-functional IT initiatives. Responsible for defining, measuring, and reporting on overall portfolio performance, inducing managed service providers, to IT and business stakeholders.

Key to successful delivery is leadership of a diverse group of talented and effective people. The Operations Lead is responsible for the guidance, coaching, and development of a team of high-performing technical, service, and support staff. They will define hiring and staffing plans, guide, mentor and develop team members, and reward successes in support of our service excellence model.

Leading Operations for R&D Discovery IT

• Oversees the global R&D Discovery IT Operations team to ensure the best user experience for a suite of critical, domain-specific services (chemistry and biology Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN), informatics, visualization, analytics and Laboratory Information Management (LIMS) solutions) as well as enterprise IT systems (Office 365, Teams, SharePoint).
• Serves as Service Owner for Global Discovery Computational Environment, called DICE. Manage budget and define long-term road map to ensure successful service delivery lifecycle and support.
• Leads the definition of the overall service engineering, delivery, management, and support models. This includes defining skills, competencies, location, capacity and support process.
• Leads the definition of an end-to-end technology-agnostic delivery process which addresses global and functional requirements.
• Collaborates with SaaS vendors to establish a support process which aligns with business expectations and contractual obligations.
• Collaborates with IT BRM and business stakeholders in overseeing service performance provided by SaaS vendors, against SLAs.
• Sponsors and/or leads internal IT or SaaS vendor service process improvement initiative.
• Collaborates with global Infrastructure teams in coordinating and communicating changes, providing feedback from end-users.
• Responsible for effective lifecycle management for complete portfolio dependencies including hardware, software, and service agreements.

Leading Support for R&D Discovery IT

• Lead global management of laboratory systems. Deliver consistent services as a foundation for multi-site delivery of effective and proactive lifecycle management and support.
• Oversee vendor management, ensure effective management of specialized hardware and software assets, services, and support.
• Partner with global security teams to ensure maximized capability while protecting our most valuable resources.
• Define delivery and operational policy, ensure consistent multi-site operations in support of critical discovery process.
• Manage teams providing global Level 2 and Level 3 support by measuring team and individual performance.
• Lead Continuous Service Improvement processes as part of G2D2 IT service delivery lifecycle.
• Ensures the support team is given adequate training on new systems and technology.
• Ensures the support team is trained and in compliance with the IT Change Control process.
• Collaborates with IT regional organizations in coming up with a process that aligns with global business process and local requirements.

Requirements

• BA Degree in computer science, information science, management information systems, business administration, or equivalent experience.
• Minimum of 10 years’ experience working in a biopharma/CRO, preferably in R&D IT.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience:
• Leading and managing onshore and offshore teams.
• Supporting R&D Applications and Lab Computing systems delivery and support in a cloud-centric environment, preferably in AWS.
• Supporting Lab Devices and Computing systems.
• Strong understanding of the overall R&D business process and familiarity with key pre-clinical discovery business functions.
• Extensive application support experience within the applicable functional business area.
• Strong problem-solving ability through insightful solutions which address complex issues.
• Ability to dissect root cause of issues creating the best solution for company considering quality, cost, and speed requirements.
• Self-starter, driven, and ability to come up to speed quickly in a dynamic and fast-paced environment
• Strong relationship management skills and a focus on cross-functional collaboration and customer service.
• Experience in managing application / system changes in accordance with cGxP policies would be a benefit but is not required.