Director, Research & Development Support

Role Summary

The R&D Support and Services Lead for Clinical and Research is responsible for owning the applications portfolio for Clinical and Research within the R&D Support & Services organization. This role provides oversight for all service management functions, including availability, performance, and business continuity, and ensures SLAs are met by Application Support & Maintenance providers while interfacing with infrastructure and Digital teams to maintain a stable portfolio essential for advancing drug candidates.

Responsibilities

• Lead the support for clinical and research portfolios.
• People Management: Build, mentor, and empower a high-performing team, cultivating a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous learning.
• Define and manage SLAs and OLAs for the R&D applications with Business, Digital Creation Center, Shared Service teams, and vendor partners, ensuring compliant service delivery and reporting to stakeholders.
• Apply automation thinking to identify, design, and implement automation opportunities, including self-service and GenAI capabilities.
• Change Management: Assess impact and value of changes, manage approvals, and ensure maintenance requests stay within contracted volume.
• Life Cycle Management: Develop upgrade plans and technology roadmaps to create a three-year lifecycle plan for applications.
• Performance Analysis: Monitor application performance and take corrective actions to meet SLAs and customer requirements.
• License Management: Partner with Procurement to manage software licenses and optimize license value.
• Incident and Problem Management: Lead these activities when necessary.
• Define and evolve the support model for new applications; support audits and inspections as required.
• Support shared service initiatives representing the needs of the R&D portfolio; ensure disaster recovery compliance and DR testing.
• Collaborate with project teams to develop deployment plans, acceptance of production releases, and go/no-go decisions; ensure production readiness.

Qualifications

• Required: Graduate degree in Information Management, Computer Science, Engineering, Technology Management, Financial Management, or Business Management.
• Required: 7+ years as an information technology professional in roles such as Operations Director, systems engineer, support specialist, technology team lead, or technology manager.
• Required: Experience working in a matrixed organization with relationship-building and effective engagement across teams and business partners; ability to collaborate in virtual teams.
• Required: Ability to influence and coach others and guide work to achieve meaningful business impact.

• Preferred: Prior experience managing application support and services in research and/or clinical settings.

Non-standard Work Schedule, Travel Or Environment Requirements

• Should be able to travel up to 20% of the time.
• Some weekend and off-hours work is expected due to business continuity and operational responsibilities.