Director, Technology & Engineering for Software and Workflows

Job Description Summary

Job Description

Internal job title:Director Technology & Engineering

Position Location: Basel CH

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

As Director BR Data & Digital Software and Workflows Technology & Engineering you will lead a team of managers of technical leads and AI engineers to elevate the rapid technical delivery of predictable high-impact outcomes across a portfolio of time-bound innovation and operational initiatives through highquality AIenabled commercial enterprise or in-house developed software solutions. This position drives technical excellence fosters a culture of urgency and pragmatism in decision-making and delivery and ensures alignment with strategy enterprise architecture security compliance and AI governance.

Key responsibilities:

• Partner closely with innovation and initiative delivery architecture and operations leaders software vendors and corporate functions to align engineering execution with organizational objectives and initiative timelines.

• Drive standardization and consistency across teams to support predictable delivery within scope budget and timelines operational stability and measurable improvements in delivery performance

• Champion and accelerate adoption of modern scalable AIenabled and agentic engineering practices.

• Establish trusted and effective working relationships with corporate informatics functions to leverage corporate capabilities and platforms and to ensure all engineering work and tooling aligns with enterprise strategy architectural standards security compliance and AI governance requirements.

• Build a highperforming organization that rapidly delivers significant business value.

• Lead mentor and develop a vibrant and energized team.

• Foster a team before self culture rooted in urgency clarity trust and shared ownership.

Essential Requirements:

You are passionate about and experienced in leading and inspiring people and helping them reach their potential. You have an intrinsic drive to improve the quality speed and impact of scientific research by overseeing and elevating technical delivery excellence for a broad portfolio. You thrive on working collaboratively in a complex life science environment. You have:

• Expertise and experience in people and organizational leadership with demonstrated ability to set direction align teams develop talent and continuously improve productivity.

• Proven experience communicating and presenting at senior management levels and building strong relationships across organizational and divisional boundaries.

• Experience in pharma and/or life science research environments

• 10 years experience in leading technical and/or engineering teams and organizations

• Excellent communication and decision-making skills; ability to frame and simplify complex topics and to drive strategy and alignment

• Clear visible personal values; you act with integrity and build trust across diverse teams.

• Deep understanding of AIenabled and agentic software development

• Expertise in delivering largescale SaaS commercial and custom onprem and cloudbased software solutions including integration of AI models or agents into production systems.

• Strong background in modern engineering practices including DevOps CI/CD test automation and Agile/Lean methodologies.

• Demonstrated track record in leading complex timebound engineering initiatives with predictable results.

Desirable Requirements:

In addition you bring many of the following capabilities and the drive to grow into the rest:

• Ability to create cultures of empowerment learning and mutual support.

• Creativity and courage to challenge the status quo encourage innovation and take smart risks.

Accessibility and Accommodation:

Novartis is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to all individuals. If because of a medical condition or disability you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the recruitment process or in order to receive more detailed information about the essential functions of a position please send an e-mail to and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.

Skills Desired