Group Senior Manager – R&D Applications

Role Overview

• Act as the primary IT business partner for the R&D organization, aligning IT initiatives with R&D strategy, priorities, and the strategic demand management process.
• Build, lead, and develop a newly established R&D Applications team, including talent selection, coaching, and performance management.
• Define and own the application and digital innovation strategy for R&D, covering laboratory systems, scientific platforms, data solutions, and selective use of advanced analytics and automation where they add clear business value.
• Drive and govern end-to-end IT initiatives in close collaboration with R&D, from ideation and business case to implementation and lifecycle management, with a focus on robust, compliant, and scalable application solutions, cloud platforms, and process automation.
• Enable and support digital and data-driven R&D use cases, such as improved protocol development workflows, scientific knowledge management, document handling, laboratory automation, and decision-support tools, always balancing innovation with compliance.
• Ensure all R&D applications and AI solutions comply with GxP, data integrity, security, privacy, and regulatory requirements, including clear governance for on-premise and cloud-based solutions.
• Partner with R&D, Quality, Security, and Architecture teams to evaluate feasibility, compliance, cost, and vendor offerings for emerging technologies, including Generative AI and ML platforms.
• Establish strong governance, demand intake, prioritization, and KPI frameworks aligned with the Octapharma IT operating model.
• Proactively identify opportunities where digitalization, data, advanced analytics, and automation can accelerate R&D efficiency, productivity, and scientific insight generation.

Requirements

• University degree in Information Technology, Life Sciences, Engineering, or a related field.
• Several years of experience in IT leadership roles, ideally supporting R&D, laboratories, or scientific environments within the pharmaceutical or life sciences industry.
• Proven experience as an IT business partner, with the ability to engage senior R&D stakeholders and translate complex scientific and business requirements into scalable IT and digital solutions.
• Strong understanding of R&D processes and systems and their integration into a regulated environment.
• Experience in introducing digital and automation use cases in regulated environments, balancing innovation with data protection, security, and compliance.
• Structured, pragmatic, and solution-oriented mindset with a high level of ownership and accountability.
• Excellent communication skills in English, spoken and written; German is a plus.

Tech Stack

• Cloud

Benefits

• Be rewarded with market-related salary and benefits package
• Skills development
• We offer various internal and external employee and leadership trainings, trainee programs and digital solutions