Vice President/Lead - Cloud Services - AWS

Role Description

The Cloud Infrastructure Services Lead will be responsible for the AWS infrastructure architecture and provisioning/maintenance of all environments for product development, client implementations and production client service. They will act as Chief Cloud Infrastructure architect, ensuring the cloud infrastructure is fit for purpose, optimally architected and fully compliant with relevant information security, GDPR, GxP and other relevant regulations and best practice.

Core Responsibilities

1. Capability Development and Management

2. Chief Infrastructure architect

3. Provisioning and Maintenance of Cloud Environments

4. Operations, Validation and Financial management of all Cloud Environments

5. Knowledge Management, Toolkits and Learning Development

1. Capability Development and Management

- Acts as a mentor for the Cloud Infrastructure Services team, providing expert guidance on relevant cloud infrastructure, technical information security and compliance matters.

- Proactively manages team demand, recruiting in house teams and collaborating with services providers to ensure the Cloud Infrastructure Services team is appropriately sized and staffed with the required skillsets.

- Sets team objectives, performance measurements, standards and results expected to ensure timely and client focused services.

- Embeds a spirit of learning and continuous development within the team to ensure best practices and the continued professionalization of client design services

- Promotes teamwork and collaboration by providing the team with clear direction, objectives and guidance to enable them to perform their duties responsibly, effectively and efficiently.

- Fosters a positive work environment, respectful all genders and nationalities, ensuring that the highest standards of conduct are observed.

2. Chief Infrastructure Architect for Pharma

- Responsible for the specification and architecture of the pharma/Lifesciences Cloud Infrastructure for core product and client customizations

Oversees a team of cloud infrastructure engineers to:

- Ensure the infrastructure architecture (networking, infrastructure and application layers) are appropriately architected, using best practices to meet product and client requirements - securing and leveraging specialist input as needed.

- Provide architectural input to core product engineering, to design and document standard product infrastructure templates

- Provides and oversees architectural input to client projects, to capture, document and implement client specific customizations to standard product infrastructure templates

- Owns the infrastructure requirements, ensuring these are updated in line with relevant information security and regulatory mandates, and act as gate keeper for any change.

- Works with Engineering teams to ensure optimal selection of 3rd party components and cloud services to meet product requirements

3. Provisioning and Maintenance of Cloud Environments

Oversees a team of cloud infrastructure engineers to:

- Define and implement the standard infrastructure template versioning and code management strategy

- Plan and schedule environment builds, deployments and Infosec patching/maintenance

- Ensure required infrastructure documentation (e.g. requirements, designs and IQs) are well documented in line with relevant policies and procedures

- Define and implement automation strategies to expedite and streamline infrastructure provisioning

- Provision new environments for client projects and product engineering

- Deploy new code builds for client projects and product engineering

- Provide Level 2/3 production support for all environments

- Maintains environments to ensure optimal performance and operation within agreed parameters

- Ensures routine back-ups and related contractual maintenance tasks are operationalized and followed

4. Operations, Validation and Financial management of all Cloud Environments

Oversees a team of operations managers to:

- Maintain AWS accounts (e.g. account set-up, billing info etc)

- Produce regular usage reports using tools (e.g. cloudability etc) and tracks spending

- Ensure validation of all the environments and tracks validation status

- License Planning and Management and liaison with PMO to ensure timely procurement

- Environment Access Management

5. Knowledge Management, Toolkits and Learning Development :

- Owns and constantly evaluates infrastructure related policies, procedures, methods, tools and associated systems to ensure utility, applicability and efficacy.

- Recommends new policies and procedures and introduce innovation and best practices in solution design.

- Owns infrastructure related elements of validation toolkit, such as standard URS, configuration guidelines and templates etc.

- Organizes training and ensures awareness of product, develops relevant training assets to build knowledge within own team and wider organization as required.

Required Experience:

- At least 10 years of experience in architecture and management of infrastructure delivery in a tech services setting

- Excellent understanding of AWS, across networking, security, high availability/scalability principles, deployment automation, containerization, distributed systems and large-scale web applications.

- Strong operational background with experience of managing infrastructure for high availability production services

- Conversant with CSV, GXP and another relevant life sciences regulation

- Excellent requirements and design documentation skills in a GxP environment.

- Comfortable with availability out of working hours in the event of a high severity incident.

- Experience of working with clients, understanding challenges, objectives and working through issues.

- Experience in building, retaining and motiving large geographically disperse teams

- Excellent communication, presentation and analytical skills.

- Ability to work in a matrixed environment.

- Must be willing to travel as needed.

- Experienced and comfortable with agile and offshore delivery models.

Preferred :

- Exposure to machine learning techniques and associated technologies.

- A recognized project management qualification