Associate Director, IT Business Partner

Summary

Join Acadia Pharmaceuticals as an IT Site Leader and Business Partner in Europe! This role requires partnering with commercial operations to provide technology leadership, operational support, and project management. You will lead IT projects, facilitate new technology introductions, and maintain operational processes. Key responsibilities include acting as the primary IT contact for the European headquarters, supporting IT project management, and ensuring compliance with company policies. The ideal candidate possesses a Bachelor's degree in Information Systems or equivalent, 10+ years of experience (ideally in pharmaceuticals/life sciences), and strong leadership and communication skills. This position offers the opportunity to shape technology strategy and work with cross-functional teams within a growing global organization.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems or equivalent technical discipline. An equivalent combination of relevant education and applicable job experience may be considered
• A minimum of 10 years progressively responsible experience ideally in the pharmaceutical and/or life sciences industry
• Proven ability to partner with business management in developing and implementing technology strategy
• Ability to work with all levels of the organization, both technical and non-technical
• Solid domain knowledge of business processes and related data types in applicable business domain area to support technology solutions
• Ability to be highly organized, self-motivated with the capability to prioritize projects and workload
• Skilled at effectively leading IT projects with cross functional team effort and organizing resources to achieve project goals
• Adaptability to quickly and proactively implement change initiatives
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and the corresponding capacity to make decisions or recommendations based on potentially incomplete information
• Excellent attention to detail
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills in both a business context and an IT context, including tact, diplomacy and flexibility
• Experience with operational systems support for key systems providing issue resolution through internal resources and vendor support
• Experience with standard systems development life cycle (SDLC) and SaaS deployment models

Responsibilities

• Act as the primary point of contact and local IT site leader for Acadia’s European headquarters
• Act as a trusted business partner including planning, conducting, coordinating, and communicating IT operational plans and policy
• Support IT project management in the implementation of technology solutions according to Acadia’s IT governance processes, including intake assessment and standard PMO reporting
• Act as operational lead for IT systems including holding recurring operational meetings with business partners and vendors, tracking and evaluating change requests, initiating change controls for implementation of changes, coordinating routine system patches and escalating issues as appropriate
• Work with other business partners to establish and enhance cohesive relationships with business stakeholders and establish Acadia’s overall systems roadmap
• Work with Business to help define and document business processes and requirements including, but not limited to, data flow, data storage, application usability, infrastructure, reporting and analytics
• Facilitate RFP initiatives for evaluating new technology solutions
• Perform vendor management activities such as establishing contracts (e.g., NDA, MSA, SOW) and managing ongoing licensing and renewals
• Oversee maintenance of standard operating procedures and periodic review activities for domain systems and process
• Oversee user acceptance testing activities with business partners
• Oversee computer systems validation activities adhering to 21 CFR Part 11 guidelines (if applicable), and/or other regulatory requirements
• Provide configuration support for key systems, if required

Preferred Qualifications

• PMP certification
• Experience working in a regulated environment following GxP processes (if applicable)