Global Head of Technology & Architecture in Biomedical Research (BR)

Job Description Summary

Location: Basel Switzerland #LI-Hybrid 3 days/week in office
This role is required to be in our Basel office 3 days/week.

Internal job title: Global Head BR Technology Foundations & Architecture

About the Role:

The Global Head of Technology & Architecture in Biomedical Research (BR) will spearhead our Information Technology strategy in drug discovery and early clinical development ensuring our technologies are aligned with our objectives while promoting unity and cooperation with key internal and external partners transforming our global labs into high-throughput AI-orchestrated environments. By integrating dry lab hypothesis generation with wet lab robotic validation you will build the Self-Driving Lab of the future.

The leader will be a member of Biomedical Research Data & Digital Leadership Team and a matrixed member of the Data Digital and IT (DDIT) leadership team representing the needs of Biomedical Research. The role reports into the Chief Data & Digital Officer BR and will work closely with the Data and Digital leadership team.

We are seeking an entrepreneurial and technically strong Global Head of Technology & Architecture to lead the strategy design and evolution of our next-generation Data & AI platforms and lab of the future endeavors supporting our global biomedical research organization.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Deliver top-tier research informatics to expedite the discovery of new treatments using data & digital technology and enhance the user experience of our researchers.

• Ensure the evolution of BRs technology capabilities underlying architecture drive make or buy decisions for software products and architecture in close alignment with DDIT to deliver harmonized scalable end-to-end approaches across projects.

• Lead the strategy design and evolution of our next-generation Data & AI Platforms supporting a global biomedical research organization and define multi-year vision and roadmap for the Research Data & AI Platforms ensuring alignment with scientific priorities and the digital AI strategy.

• Significantly contribute to the creation of a global digital strategy for BRs AI-driven drug discovery using Data Science (Gen) AI and ML on the technology part and take part in key strategic cross-divisional data and digital projects and initiatives to ensure seamless compatibility of data systems and solutions across the Novartis Research- Development and Commercial units.

• Driving the lab of the future initiative from an informatics perspective together with lab equipment and automation experts from other BR functions

• Collaborate closely with Novartis DDIT and the BR Data Science community to devise and execute on the digital and AI strategy for BR to ensure BR is a fully AI enabled Research Organization.

• Evaluate emerging technologies (agentic workflows vector databases GPU infrastructure lab digitalization technologies quantum computing etc.) and translate them into practical capabilities that drive research outcomes; Lead platform architecture reviews and steer technology selection.

• Provide strategic input and vision on Technologies to the President of Research and BRs scientific leadership and act as a recognized advisor to top management.

• Partner closely with DDIT functions to ensure enterprise solutions are preferentially deployed where possible and seek synergies; Serve as a bridge between engineering R&D scientists data science and IT security/compliance and infrastructure groups.

• Grow and lead a diverse inclusive high-performing team and instill a collaborative enterprise mindset and develop and mentor high-performing diverse team of platform engineers software engineers domain specialists and architects lab technologists.

Essential Requirements:

• PhD or masters degree in computer science data science AI computational biology cheminformatics or a related discipline. A background that spans both technology and life sciences is strongly preferred.

• 12 years of experience in platform engineering architecture infrastructure data engineering cloud architecture research lab technologies or ML infrastructure; with 8 years in leadership roles.

• Strong understanding of modern AI/ML workflows including LLMs model training/serving monitoring MLOps and GPU infrastructure.

• Expertise with cloud-native architectures microservices APIs Kubernetes IaC observability tools and high-performance computing.

• Familiarity with scientific research workflows and associated data modalities (omics imaging real-world data lab-generated data)

• Experience translating research and business needs into platform capabilities and translating technical constraints into business language.

• Extensive Leadership of multidisciplinary global team with the ability to successfully operate in a matrixed and fast changing environment.

• Proven ability to influence and collaborate across scientific technical and business stakeholders with ability to influence senior leadership & exceptional stakeholder management skills.

• Excellent interpersonal communication & presentation skills with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to a wide audience

• Strong ability to navigate complexity and drive to deliver collective impact with an enterprise mindset

Skills Desired

Computer Science Computer Vision Cross-Functional Teams Data Science Data Strategy Global Project Management Leadership R&D (Research And Development)