Job Description

General Summary:

This role leads a team responsible for the architecture, delivery, security, support, and continuous evolution of enterprise laboratory technology platforms — including laboratory Operational Technology (OT) such as information/cyber security, sensors, and IoT-enabled lab environments — across San Diego. It is also the single accountable Research Site Partner for San Diego: the primary DTE relationship holder for the site's SVP and research leadership, and the front door through which site requirements are captured, shaped, and routed into the correct cross-functional platform backlog (Experiment Capture, Registration, LIMS, and peer DTE platforms in Research & Pre-Clinical, CMC/Manufacturing, and Supply Chain)

This role is accountable for operational excellence, financial stewardship, and risk management across a complex laboratory technology landscape, including ownership of an approximately $3M annual operating budget. In parallel, the role carries accountability for local technology adoption, change management, and cross-site prioritization advocacy — ensuring San Diego's voice shapes the shared platform roadmap without the site building or maintaining local one-off solutions.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Technology & Operations Leadership

• Build and sustain strong, trust-based relationships with senior business, quality, and DTE leaders, acting as a strategic partner with sustained impact on enterprise laboratory goals.
• Lead, develop, and retain a highly effective Lab Engineering Support organization, leveraging internal resources and external partners through a managed service provider model.
• Ensure stable, secure, and compliant laboratory technology operations across both IT and OT environments, aligned to cyber security, ITSM, ITIL, and DTE system lifecycle standards.
• Serve as the primary point of accountability for laboratory technology partnering with DTE Compliance, Cyber Security, Internal Audit, and Quality Assurance.
• Own and manage the site's operating budget, ensuring disciplined financial planning, forecasting, vendor management, and value realization across services and platforms.
• Oversee a portfolio of programs, projects, platform releases, and enhancements delivered at the site, ensuring quality, timeliness, and alignment with business outcomes.
• Lead technology-driven modernization of the laboratory environment — intelligent automation, agentic workflows, passive data capture, IoT-enabled instruments, and connected lab environments — translating innovation into pragmatic, compliant roadmaps.
• Attract, develop, and retain top talent; carry full people-management accountability for assigned staff.
• Research Site Partnership
  
• Serve as the single accountable owner for technology adoption, change, and the DTE relationship at San Diego — the primary partner to the site SVP and research leadership.
• Act as the site's product owner: capture requirements and user stories directly from scientists and shape raw, ambiguous input into clear, prioritized demand.
• Be the single front door for San Diego — route shaped requirements to the correct platform owner (within Laboratory Solutions or peer DTE platform organizations) rather than site stakeholders engaging each platform team directly.
• Drive local adoption and change management for new platform capabilities; carry roadmap and delivery updates back to site scientists and leadership on a regular cadence.
• Represent the site's voice in cross-site, cross-functional prioritization forums, ensuring the shared platform roadmap reflects the site's highest-value needs.
• Maintain a transparent, current view of the site's demand status and backlog position that site stakeholders can see and understand.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Strong senior-level business engagement and stakeholder partnership capabilities.
• Deep understanding of enterprise technology operations, cyber security, ITSM, and system lifecycle practices.
• Proven people leadership experience building and sustaining high-performing teams.
• Program, portfolio, demand, and financial management expertise.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, communication, and executive-level presentation skills.
• Ability to balance operational stability with innovation in regulated environments.
• Comfort operating in a matrixed accountability model — shaping and routing demand where the build/architecture decision rests with a peer platform owner, not this role.

Education and Experience:

• 10+ years of relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated leadership managing enterprise-scale technology platforms and support organizations.
• Proven experience operating within GxP- and SOX-regulated environments.
• Experience leading complex programs, portfolios, and vendor ecosystems with financial accountability.
• Experience operating as a product owner, business relationship manager, or similar demand-shaping role — translating ambiguous stakeholder input into structured, prioritized backlog items.

#LI-HYBRID

Pay Range:

$198,000 - $297,000

Disclosure Statement:

Flex Designation:

Hybrid-Eligible Or On-Site Eligible

Flex Eligibility Status:

In this Hybrid-Eligible role, you can choose to be designated as: 
1.    Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
2.    On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.

Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertex’s Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time. 

#LI-Hybrid