EUIT ServiceNow PLATFORM LEAD

EUIT ServiceNow PLATFORM LEAD

Cambridge

Enabling Units IT actively partners with business partners to deliver cutting-edge IT capabilities to fulfil AstraZeneca’s bold ambition of delivering life changing therapies to patients. Our ambition is to provide best-in-class expertise and leadership in technological solutions, BI Analytics and Information Delivery that empowers our Enabling colleagues in the field and accelerates and improves strategic decision-making for a diverse range of partners. The team engages with some of the most exciting business areas within AstraZeneca and is faced with solving for a variety of sophisticated business and IT challenges. 

The Enabling Units IT Platform portfolio is a unique mixture of in-house developed, Commercial Off the Shelf Software (COTS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions.  Alongside the Head of IT, Delivery Managers, Business Relationship Managers, Architects and other IT and business platform partners, the Platform Lead will be working to understand, devise technical solutions, estimate, deliver and run operationally sustainable platform components. The Platform Lead will use a combination of capability service management, technical acuity and business process experience to balance home-grown, COTS and SaaS solutions according to their unique requirements and own all technical lifecycles and roadmaps.  

The Platform Lead drives towards single accountability for platforms and distributed decision making. The primary goal of a Platform Lead is to be 100% accountable for the design, technical delivery and sustainability of a platform. Accountable for the technical, execution strategy and roadmap for the platform to enable capabilities prioritised by the product team as well as the health and incident management of the platform. The Platform lead should be both a technical expert of their platform and a functional expert of the areas which they enable. 

This is a great opportunity to run and transform a critical business platform across AstraZeneca’s global footprint. 

Accountabilites:

• Co-lead a globally distributed team of engineers and support analysts to ensure a high-performing team that consistently and iteratively delivers high-impact, high-quality solutions 

• Collaborate with key business partners to understand business vision, estimate requirements and provide tailored, complete solutions that fit the needs by using technology that best fits the solution in a way that is operationally resilient, stable and sustainable 

• Drive the technical direction of the platform ensuring  we have the right technology to enable business partners to work efficiently, accurately and are able to cope with the fast moving industry and regulatory changes 

• Drive features and functional enhancements within the platform that can support the improvement in value, revenue, profitability and user satisfaction 

• Ensures backlog management and prioritization is occurring and raising issues with backlog management teams 

• Works with the Product Team to agree on prioritization and feasibility of features 

• Engages with Architecture team for major changes and adjustments to platform blueprint 

• Accountable for technology decisions and direction in alignment with Architecture 

• Advocate and advance modern, agile software development practices and help develop and promote great engineering culture  

• Drive CI/CD to improve the software development process and  transform the IT system estate into an ecosystem that delivers great user experiences and excellent IT service to the business 

• Management of all Platform services within the IT portfolio including the roadmap, all end to end service management activities and ensuring that all platform services meet their purpose, deliver in accordance with Service Level Agreements and are maintained in line with evolving business requirements 

• Act as critical escalation point for key service support processes including Incident, Problem and Change

• Work alongside the Delivery Manager to lead the day to day operations, monitoring and maintenance of the platform to ensure reliable, predictable and efficient service 

• Proactively monitor production performance to help guide future development and opportunities, ensuring the platform is scalable and resilient for peak demands 

• Accountable for ensuring platform documentation and knowledge articles are maintain and up to date 

• Improve existing services ensuring that new services are developed and implemented in alignment with cross IT Platform ways of working and business requirements 

• Own the Acceptance to Service (ATS) process of new services into the platform alongside Delivery Manager 

• Work multi-functionally across global teams, IT, business partners, on and offshore support teams and vendors to successfully deliver continuous improvement and value. 

• Build and support your teams through hiring, coaching, mentoring, feedback and hands-on career development that helps drive high quality software demand delivery 

• Run regular Gemba sessions with end users and document results that feed into the appropriate team backlog and provide regular update communication

• Owns platform quality and risk management 

• Platform compliance for GxP/SOx/Data Privacy to ensure control frameworks, testing and overall compliance in platform ways of working  

• Owns platform financial management and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) 

• Owns platform and service performance, health, scorecards and reporting   

• Represents the platform to senior leadership 

• Instil a platform culture unpinned by - build it, own it, run it 

Additional Responsibilities:

• Execution of application lifecycle retirement (decommission, execution and benefits realisation) including where appropriate the waste rationalisation of service components 

• Commercial and operational relationships with internal and external suppliers, serving as the main contractual lead representing AZ to external supplier organizations 

• Continually review and drive supplier performance, ensuring contracts are fit for purpose. 

• Negotiation and agreement of annual maintenance and software licensing contracts  

• Maintain and apply knowledge of application technologies and industry trends external to AZ 

• Hold and run user forums / user sessions to get feedback on challenges.  Document sessions and feed into the appropriate team backlog.  Updates regularly communicated back to users 

• Act as a conduit for platform information that needs to be shared with end users – e.g. Pulse updates, highlights, best practices, patching, releases, major change activities 

Essential Skills & Experience:

• Degree level education in Information Technology or similar (or equivalent experience) 

• Significant experience in service management & IT Support with global teams, delivering and supporting solutions 

• Experience working in a globally distributed team leading 10 to 15 team members

• Hands on software development experience and Solution and Service Delivery. 

• Understanding of software engineering CI/CD processes, with experience in the design and implementation of applications build, release, deployment, containerization and configuration control management 

• Experience running or working in an elevated role within platforms 

• Technically competent and curious with a passion to explore, iterate, fail, and learn 

• Previously experience as a software engineer at a senior level, having developed a team of high performing software engineers responsible for multiple products, particularly a portfolio environment 

• Experience of working in agile teams using SCRUM and SAFe methodologies 

• Experience with Monitoring tools like Splunk and Aternity 

• Customer satisfaction focus with success measured by how well your team is delivering against requirements 

• Know what good looks like and how to get there for a high-performing platform team 

• Confident leading a platform on best practices in technology or  key architectural concepts 

• Understand the importance of sustainability and are comfortable to have trade off conversations around technical debt 

• Highly skilled in modern platforms culture and practices with validated experience of Cloud based environments 

• Ability to interpret & communicate technical information into business language for partner relationship management 

• Ability to work independently and handle sophisticated, ambiguous situations. Solve complex technical problems and work alongside complementary delivery platforms while aligning solutions with IT data strategies 

• Operational IT and high-level business process understanding  

• Experience and exposure working and running a ServiceNow Platform across global teams including the use of SNOW platform modules including Site Ops/WDS, IRM/Risk, Finance CSM, HRSD, ITSM/ITQM 

At AstraZeneca when we see an opportunity for change, we seize it and make it happen because any opportunity no matter how small, can be the start of something big. Delivering life-changing medicines is about being entrepreneurial - finding those moments and recognising their potential. Join us on our journey of building a new kind of organisation to reset expectations of what a bio-pharmaceutical company can be. This means we’re opening new ways to work, pioneering ground breaking methods and bringing unexpected teams together. Our employees are empowered to express different perspectives and are made to feel valued, energized and rewarded for their ideas and creativity. 

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That's why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn't mean we're not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

Ready to make an impact? Apply today!

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.