Senior Consultant - Application Engineer

Job Title - Senior Consultant - Application Engineer

Career Level - D1

Working as part of a central team of IT system professionals and analysts within a multi-national organization. This role will report into the Global Factory Operations team and will be fundamental in supporting Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and other applications directly related to the AstraZeneca’s manufacturing operations. The candidate is expected to be a collaborative team member in supporting and maintaining our business-critical applications.

The main responsibilities of the role are to:

• Ensure optimum performance and stability for multiple systems for the Manufacturing capability for AstraZeneca Operations, including providing workarounds and identifying areas for improvement or solutions to permanently address issues.

• Overseeing MES support functions and ensuring smooth interaction with AstraZeneca sites and other central team resources.

• Monitor production system to ensure it is operating in a consistent manner according to Service Level Agreements (SLA’s).

• Provide 2nd/ 3rd line support (technical queries, bug fixes and small enhancements relating to application and platform), complying with AstraZeneca standards and change control procedures.

• Take ownership of issues through to delivery or issue resolution, escalation, root cause investigation as appropriate. Have proven experience in problem solving methodologies as Lean, PPS, Six Sigma.

• Support development activities by helping in code build and deployment, tool configuration management and administration, application environment set up, change and release management following Agile and DevOps methodologies.

• Demonstrated ability to apply technical knowledge to multiple systems and support multiple business groups.

• Develop specialist knowledge in relevant systems, documenting and sharing that knowledge, as required, with global teams.

• Liaise with multiple stakeholders including users, infrastructure/middleware teams, 3rd party software vendors for resolving issues and potential process improvements.

• Development and maintenance of documentation templates and existing SOP's to ensure consistent approaches to support delivery.

• Contributing to design of continuous improvement initiatives to increase/maintain site system performance.

• Will be required to lead PAS-X project delivery when required.

• Developing and educating junior MES analysts in their roles.

Essential Experience: (Must have skills)

• 8+ years of prior experience in application support and maintenance (L2/L3 support).

• 3+ years of demonstrated experience managing and supporting a Manufacturing Execution System, PAS-X would be an advantage.

• Development and troubleshooting experience on applications built on .NET technologies.

• Strong development and troubleshooting experience with Oracle, SQL Server or any other RDBMS.

• Experience in scripting using PowerShell and or other automation tools like MS PowerApps or Power Automate.  

• Expertise on incident, problem, change and release management following ITIL processes.

• Experienced on IT Service Management tools like ServiceNow, Remedy or Service Manager.

• Experience working with third party vendor applications.

• Proven experience working with DevOps and Scrum methodologies.

• 3 years of previous experience supporting and administrating Oracle databases, terminal-served applications (Citrix) and JVM hosted apps (Jboss).

• Demonstrated ability to apply technical knowledge to multiple systems and support multiple business groups.

• Fluent English to constantly communicate with people from different countries across the globe.

Supplementary Experience: (Useful additional skills)

• Familiarity with life sciences (Pharma) domain concepts, workflow and terminology.

• Experience with one or more of the following is an added advantage:

  • Manufacturing Execution Systems

  • Manufacturing process control systems

  • Material handling and movement systems

  • Warehouse Management Systems

• Experience working with Windows Server, Oracle Databases, Microsoft Visual Studio and SQL Developer.

• Understanding of FDA regulations like GxP and 21 CFR Part 11.

• Experience in setting up and managing application environments.

• Mindset to support business critical applications.

Educational Qualifications

UG - B.Tech /B.E. or other equivalent technical qualifications.

MBA or Master Degree is a plus.

MES, Oracle Administration or Windows Server Administrator certificate is a plus.

ITIL V3 Foundation certification is a plus.

Personal Attributes:

• Keen to acquire new skills and work on new technology products.

• Ability to work independently, as well as in a team environment.

• Logical mind with keen analytical skills.

• Clear and concise communicator, in born written and verbal.

• Excellent communication and leadership skills.

• Organizational and time-management skills, including the ability to respond well to pressure.

• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to work effectively across team boundaries.

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.