Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and strategic direction for IT operations for an evolving microbiology laboratory, including creation of IT roadmaps to build systems to align with corporate vision.
• Provide oversight for maintaining and developing internal and external reporting and data analysis tools using full-stack software developers and where necessary, software developer contractors.
• Oversee management of information assets and supporting infrastructure to ensure effective and efficient IT systems and data processes.
• Guide the full software development lifecycle and continuous enhancement of the custom Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and related software applications, ensuring those systems meet laboratory and regulatory requirements.
• Support IT operations compliance with relevant regulatory and information security standards (e.g., FDA 21 CFR Part 11, GLP, ISO/IEC 27001), including system validation, access controls, audit trails, data retention, and change management.
• Work closely with directors, scientists, and managers to align technology with strategic business objectives.
• Review and approve system documentation and standard operating procedures, including change control and validation documentation.
• Define and manage IT project timelines, scopes, budgets, and deliverables to ensure high-quality execution.
• Balance long-term roadmap execution with short-term internal support and user enhancement requests.
• Hire, manage, and mentor a cross-functional IT team, including developers, data engineers, system administrators, and contractors when required.
• Oversee IT contingency planning, business continuity, and disaster recovery efforts.
• Represent IT in strategic planning sessions, audits, and vendor/client engagements.
• Promote IT awareness, training, and support across departments to foster the adoption of secure and efficient technology solutions.

Skills / Qualifications

• Four-year degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Analytics, or related field.
• 3+ years of experience managing IT operations or delivering full-stack software or bioinformatics solutions in a regulated environment. Internal applicants with 3 or more years of service in a significant IT and or scientific role may have some of these requirements waived.
• Knowledge of the software development life cycle (SDLC), issue tracking, build and deployment pipelines, and software documentation standards preferably in a scientific, medical/clinical, or pharmaceutical organization.
• Understanding of IT infrastructure and operations (servers, networking, virtualization, data storage, and cloud computing).
• Proven project management skills, including planning, prioritization, and execution of concurrent initiatives.
• Hands-on team development, leadership, and management experience.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, strong presentation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Elixir/Phoenix, Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, or similar tech stacks.
• Experience with NGS data pipelines, bioinformatics tools, or molecular data management.
• Experience with Docker, virtualization, CI/CD pipelines, system monitoring tools, or cloud computing.
• Experience managing scientific data at scale and data warehousing.
• Experience with data visualization and analytics tools for laboratory or client reporting.
• Experience with Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS).
• Experience implementing APIs and ETL pipelines to support data workflows across systems.
• Familiarity with 21 CFR Part 11 and FDA guidance documents on principles of software validation (including 21 CFR §820.30).
• Knowledge of information security frameworks (e.g., ISO/IEC 27001, NIST 800-53) and implementation of organizational security controls.

Company Overview

Element is one of the fastest growing testing, inspection and certification businesses in the world. Globally we have more than 9,000 brilliant minds operating from 270 sites across 30 countries. Together we share an ambitious purpose to ‘Make tomorrow safer than today’.

When failure in use is not an option, we help customers make certain that their products, materials, processes and services are safe, compliant and fit for purpose. From early R&D, through complex regulatory approvals and into production, our global laboratory network of scientists, engineers, and technologists support customers to achieve assurance over product quality, sustainable outcomes, and market access.

While we are proud of our global reach, working at Element feels like being part of a smaller company. We empower you to take charge of your career, and reward excellence and integrity with growth and development.

Industries across the world depend on our care, attention to detail and the absolute accuracy of our work. The role we have to play in creating a safer world is much bigger than our organization.