Sr. Operations Manager

Job Description Summary

Purpose of this Role:

Novartis’ Biomedical Research Data and Digital Operations group is establishing a strong presence in India, and we are seeking proactive and versatile professional in the role of IT Operations Manager

As an “IT Operations Manager” within the BR Data & Digital Operations team, you will be responsible for leading and managing complex, globally deployed, high-impact software solutions. This role is accountable for end-to-end software operations, including providing an operational perspective, overseeing user support, maintaining stable and secure systems, and driving continuous improvements in product value and operational excellence.

You will ensure alignment with enterprise architecture, security, compliance, and governance standards while collaborating closely with external vendors, internal technology partners, and key business stakeholders. The role requires a strong focus on delivering measurable business value quickly and effectively through reliable, scalable, and well-managed digital solutions.

Location: Hyderabad, India
#LI-Hybrid

 

Job Description

Roles and Responsibilities:  

• Own end-to-end operational responsibility for one or more software applications after deployment to production, including onboarding, upgrades, ongoing support, and decommissioning. 

• Ensure application stability, performance, availability, and reliability across environments while proactively identifying and mitigating operational risks. 

• Oversee incident and problem management, including incident detection, troubleshooting, root cause analysis, resolution tracking, and prevention of recurring issues. 

• Manage releases, patches, upgrades, vendor-driven changes, and rollouts while ensuring minimal business disruption and operational readiness. 

• Lead vulnerability management activities to ensure applications meet security, compliance, usability, performance, and sustainability requirements. 

• Ensure adherence to global information security, quality, compliance, governance, and audit-readiness standards across all products and services. 

• Coordinate with infrastructure, platform, environment, backup, and disaster recovery teams to ensure operational resilience and business continuity. 

• Manage application dependencies across platforms, integrations, vendors, and internal technology teams to maintain seamless service delivery. 

• Provide end-user support, communication, onboarding, training, functional guidance, and support for user acceptance testing activities. 

• Maintain and continuously improve knowledge bases, operational documentation, support materials, and readiness standards. 

• Define, monitor, and report on SLAs, KPIs, system performance metrics, operational health indicators, and service management outcomes. 

• Act as the single point of accountability for business stakeholders, engineering teams, technology partners, vendors, and support teams on application operations. 

 

• Guide and coordinate external application support teams, ensuring effective prioritization, timely execution, and high-quality operational delivery. 

• Ensure license compliance, cost effectiveness, sustainability, and efficient use of external resources through governance and process optimization. 

• Drive operational excellence through automation, trend analysis, feedback loops, recurring issue reduction, and continuous service improvement. 

• Ensure operational insights, risks, dependencies, and improvement opportunities are reflected in product roadmaps and lifecycle planning. 

• Provide consulting and advisory support on application usage, optimization, scalability, maintainability, and future roadmap decisions. 

• Collaborate with other product and platform teams across product lines to leverage operational synergies, shared capabilities, and best practices. 

 

Experience Requirements (Core Skills and Capabilities):  

• Experience in IT operations or software development in complex business environments  

• Highly collaborative, proven experience as a team player  

• Strong communication skills  

• Knowledge of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM)  

• Familiarity with DevOps tools  

• Awareness of authentication protocols  

• Knowledge of cloud environment and services (AWS - Amazon Web Services, Azure)  

• Experience in a drug discovery or scientific research setting preferred  

 

Education and Qualification Requirements:  

• Graduate/ Postgraduate in Technology or Life Sciences with relevant experience in business or  

              operations in a complex environment. 

• Bachelor's degree in technology or scientific domain 

• 7+ years relevant subject matter expertise, obtained through experience or education in  

             software development or operations in a complex environment.  

• Familiarity with drug discovery research or life sciences  

 

Language Requirements:  

• English fluent 

 

Required skills 

• Application Operations Management 

• IT Service Management, Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management 

• Root Cause Analysis 

• Performance Monitoring 

• Security and Compliance, Audit Readiness 

• Release and Change Governance 

• Vendor and Stakeholder Management 

• Infrastructure and Environment Coordination 

• Backup and Disaster Recovery Coordination 

• SLA\KPI Management and Continuous Improvement 

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion / EEO paragraph  

Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams representative of the patients and communities we serve.  

Accessibility and accommodation 

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

 

Skills Desired

Algorithms, Computer Programming, Computer Science, Computer Vision, Data Science, People Management, Waterfall Model