VP, Digital Infrastructure and Operations
Palo Alto, CA - USA
Job Summary
Company Description
Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on guarding wellness and giving every person more time free from cancer. Founded in 2012 Guardant is transforming patient care and accelerating new cancer therapies by providing critical insights into what drives disease through its advanced blood and tissue tests real-world data and AI analytics. Guardant tests help improve outcomes across all stages of care including screening to find cancer early monitoring for recurrence in early-stage cancer and treatment selection for patients with advanced cancer. For more information visitand follow the company onLinkedInX (Twitter)andFacebook.
Were seeking an exceptional Vice President Digital Infrastructure & Operations to lead the next evolution of Guardants enterprise technology foundation.
This executive will shape the infrastructure strategy for a rapidly growing global organization building resilient cloud-first AI-enabled platforms that accelerate scientific discovery enable business growth and deliver exceptional employee experience.
This is not a traditional infrastructure leadership role. We are looking for a visionary executive who sees infrastructure as a strategic business capability AI as a force multiplier and automation as a catalyst for innovation.
The successful leader will help redefine how enterprise technology enables precision medicine and supports Guardants mission to improve outcomes for patients worldwide.
The Opportunity
Reporting to the Chief Information Officer the Vice President Digital Infrastructure & Operations will define and execute Guardant Healths enterprise infrastructure strategy supporting a global organization operating at the intersection of biotechnology diagnostics data science and healthcare.
This executive will lead the transformation of Guardants technology foundation by delivering secure scalable and resilient infrastructure across cloud platforms enterprise networking workplace technologies identity and access management collaboration services endpoint computing platform operations and core infrastructure services.
Success in this role requires balancing innovation with operational excellence. The Vice President will modernize legacy capabilities reduce complexity embed automation throughout the infrastructure landscape and leverage Artificial Intelligence to augment engineering teams improve operational efficiency and enhance the digital experience for employees across the company.
Most importantly this leader will build the technology foundation that enables Guardants scientists laboratory operations clinicians commercial teams and corporate functions to move faster collaborate more effectively and continue advancing precision oncology.
What Youll Lead
As Vice President Digital Infrastructure & Operations you will:
- Define and execute a multi-year enterprise infrastructure strategy aligned with Guardants business objectives technology roadmap and long-term growth.
- Lead global Infrastructure Cloud Engineering Network Engineering Workplace Technology Collaboration Services Identity & Access Management and Infrastructure Architecture.
- Build highly available secure and resilient technology platforms supporting laboratory operations corporate functions commercial teams clinical operations manufacturing and research organizations.
- Advance Guardants cloud-first strategy with AWS and hybrid environments while optimizing reliability scalability security and cost.
- Champion AI-enabled infrastructure operations through intelligent automation AIOps predictive monitoring generative AI and workflow orchestration that increase operational effectiveness and improve service delivery.
- Establish modern engineering practices incorporating Infrastructure as Code CI/CD toolchains self-service capabilities observability automation resilience engineering and operational excellence.
- Partner closely with Information Security Enterprise Applications & Software teams Data & AI Engineering Digital Product Laboratory Operations and executive business leaders from multiple domains to deliver integrated technology solutions.
- Develop technology roadmaps that enhance employee productivity while supporting the quality regulatory privacy and compliance requirements of a global healthcare organization and public company.
- Lead disaster recovery infrastructure resilience and own availability strategies that ensure uninterrupted support for mission-critical business and laboratory operations and partner with cross-functional leadership for enterprise business continuity.
- Build and develop an inclusive high-performing global infrastructure organization through coaching mentorship succession planning and a culture of continuous learning.
- Manage strategic technology investments vendor partnerships and infrastructure budgets with strong operational and financial discipline.
What Success Looks Like
During the first 1224 months this leader will:
- Establish a modern enterprise infrastructure strategy that supports Guardants next phase of growth and innovation with the ability to pivot for changes such as M&A integrations or implementation of emerging technologies.
- Accelerate infrastructure automation to improve operational efficiency reduce manual effort and increase service reliability.
- Embed AI-driven capabilities across infrastructure operations that augment engineering teams and enable smarter faster decision-making.
- Improve infrastructure resilience scalability security and employee experience through measurable operational improvements.
- Simplify technology architecture while reducing technical debt and increasing operational agility.
- Build an engaged diverse and high-performing infrastructure organization recognized as a trusted strategic partner across the business.
- Position the Digital Infrastructure team as an agile enabler of innovation operational excellence and Guardants mission to transform cancer care.
- Lead change management and adoption across the technology org and enterprise as new solutions are deployed.
What Youll Bring
Leadership
- Executive leadership experience leading enterprise infrastructure organizations within high-growth biotechnology life sciences healthcare technology medical diagnostics or technology companies.
- A proven track record of leading enterprise transformation across complex global organizations.
- Demonstrated success building inclusive high-performing teams where diverse perspectives drive innovation collaboration and better business outcomes.
- Exceptional executive presence with the ability to influence senior leaders communicate technical concepts to diverse audiences and build trusted cross-functional partnerships.
- Relationship management skills across key stakeholders including vendors partners auditors and regulators.
- Business ownership of a technology function driving technical excellence while delivering measurable business value.
Technology
Experience across many of the following disciplines:
- Cloud Operations & FinOps (Azure AWS)
- Network engineering
- Infrastructure engineering and operations
- Database engineering and operations
- Modern workplace technologies
- Identity and access management
- Collaboration platforms
- Self-service provisioning
- Infrastructure as Code
- Observability and operational intelligence
- Enterprise resilience and disaster recovery
- Hybrid architecture (cloud & on-prem/OT)
- Website performance and reliability at scale
AI & Automation Mindset
- At Guardant Health we believe AI has the potential to transform how enterprise technology teams operate.
- Were looking for a leader who has successfully leveraged AI to augment engineering teams automate or eliminate repetitive work improve operational intelligence and accelerate technology delivery while maintaining the governance security and compliance expected within a regulated healthcare environment.
- Experience with generative AI AIOps enabling infrastructure for AI solutions (management and provisioning for agents MCPs) predictive analytics intelligent automation workflow orchestration productivity tools is highly desirable.
Education and Experience
- Typically 15 years of progressive experience leading enterprise infrastructure platform engineering cloud operations or enterprise technology organizations including executive leadership experience within complex global environments.
- Bachelors degree in Computer Science Information Systems Engineering or a related discipline (or equivalent practical experience). Advanced degree preferred.
Preferred Experience
Experience supporting the unique demands of High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters including compute storage networking scalability and performance optimization.
While no single background is required successful candidates will likely bring experience from one or more of the following industries:
- Biotechnology
- Precision Medicine
- Medical Diagnostics
- Genomics
- Healthcare Technology
- AI-first technology organizations
- Cloud-native software companies
We also welcome leaders from innovative technology companies who have successfully modernized enterprise infrastructure through cloud transformation platform engineering automation and AI-driven operations.
Candidates should demonstrate operating at scale in a high growth environment successfully transitioning through waves of expansion and infrastructure build-out. Experience of heterogeneous environments with enterprise OT on-prem and cloud under management.
AI & Digital Fluency
- Demonstrate curiosity sound judgment and the ability to critically evaluate and responsibly leverage AI-enabled tools in accordance with company policies ethical standards and regulatory requirements to improve the efficiency effectiveness and quality of work.
Hybrid Work Model: This section is applicable to onsite employees who are eligible for hybrid work location as specified by management and related policies. Guardant has defined days for in-person/onsite collaboration and work-from-home days for individual-focused time. All U.S. employees who live within 50 miles of a Guardant facility will be required to be onsite on Mondays Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have found aligning our scheduled in-office days allows our teams to do the best work and creates the focused thinking time our innovative work requires. At Guardant our work model has created flexibility for better work-life balance while keeping teams connected to advance our science for our patients.
Employee may be required to lift routine office supplies and use office of the work is performed in a desk/office environment; however there may be exposure to high noise levels fumes and biohazard material in the laboratory to sit for extended periods of time.
Guardant Health is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our hiring processes for candidates with disabilities long-term conditions mental health conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs. If you need support please reach out to
A background screening including criminal history is required for this role. GH will consider qualified applicants with criminal arrest or conviction histories in a manner consistent with applicable law including but not limited to the LA County Fair Chance Policies and the Fair Chance Act (Gov. Code Section 12952).
Guardant Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.
All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
To learn more about the information collected when you apply for a position at Guardant Health Inc. and how it is used please review ourPrivacy Notice for Job Applicants.
Please visit our career page at: Experience:
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About Company
Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on helping conquer cancer globally through use of its proprietary tests, vast data sets and advanced analytics. The Guardant Health oncology platform leverages capabilities to drive commercial adoption, improve patient cl ... View more