The Site Digital & Automation Lead (Director) is a full member of the Site Leadership Team and a key leader within the PGS Network & Automation organization. This role provides strategic direction and leadership for all digital and automation capabilities at site, serving as the primary advisor and partner to Site Leadership and above-site stakeholders. The role is accountable for shaping, owning, and executing the site’s integrated digital and automation portfolio, ensuring full alignment with site business priorities and network strategies.
This role drives long-term value creation, investment prioritization, and portfolio governance across capital and expense initiatives. The Site Digital & Automation Lead leads and develops the site digital and automation team, ensuring the design, deployment, and lifecycle management of critical digital, automation, and infrastructure systems. This includes driving operational efficiency, ensuring Quality/Safety compliance, cybersecurity, business continuity and reliable system support.
Serve as a full member of the Site Leadership Team.
Collaborate with the Site Leadership Team to ensure alignment of site and network strategies with digital and automation capabilities.
Lead teams of colleagues and contract resources to deliver digital and automation capital projects and manage expense portfolios, ensuring customer needs are met; uphold standardized platforms and oversee strategic outsourcing to key integrators.
Act as the primary contact for all digital and automation colleagues located at the site.
Build and maintain relationships with PGS Enabling Teams and Digital Organizations.
Lead and participate in network-wide digital and automation initiatives.
Lead, mentor, and develop a team of digital & automation professionals
Conduct performance reviews and provide growth opportunities
Build a collaborative, innovative environment
Develop and own the site’s 3–5 year digital and automation strategy
Provide strategic direction and establish business cases for large capital, or product focused programs and technology portfolio plans; continually evaluate and deploy emerging technologies to realize value.
Implement IMEx elements, including Structured Gembas, Visual Management, and the CI Loop, to drive process improvements using digital tools.
Support site continuous improvement initiatives and share best practices and drive business adoption
Provide oversight of the site digital & automation portfolio, championing AI and innovation through integrated planning and reliable project execution.
Maintain a strong awareness of automation and digitization developments in the external environment.
Oversee contract and license management for digital and automation systems, ensuring compliance and effective administration.
Ensure effective implementation and continuous oversight of lifecycle processes for all digital and automated systems and infrastructure.
Deliver dependable digital & automation support services, responding quickly to real-time system issues while maintaining stable, high-performing digital and automation systems.
Ensure Automation Engineering support, including hardware, instrumentation, and control systems ownership.
Take responsibility for change management pertaining to digital and automation infrastructure on site, including managing outages and communicating with end users.
Serve as the primary point of contact for all digital and automation operations at the site, including escalating issues to the wider PGS Network and Automation organization.
Collaborate with the PGS Network and Automation organization to maintain service levels for crisis response, digital incident management, and service request processes.
Oversee the provision of technical support to Engineering and Operations partners for automated systems throughout the lifecycle of the equipment.
Manage and coordinate cybersecurity activities and ensure compliance with digital and automation Infrastructure & Architecture Standards Execution
Own change management for technology infrastructure, including outage management, end-user communications, maintenance and support
Oversee software and hardware lifecycle management and PANS Support
Manage the development of the Automated System Life Cycle documents.
Ensure deployment of end-to-end data strategy for digital and automation systems.
Leverage data standards to ensure consistency and compliance.
Oversee core system integration to support seamless data flow and connectivity.
Manage the development of local applications to meet site and business needs.
Proactively address business continuity risk for digital and automation assets
Maintain Quality and Safety compliance and continuous audit-readiness
Ensure adherence to system validation requirements and change control processes
Maintain up to date GMP documentation for systems and assets within the remit of the team
Strong ability to design and govern reliable OT automation and site digital ecosystems (end-to-end lifecycle ownership).
Comfortable making risk-based decisions balancing production continuity, compliance, and security.
Passionate about leveraging technology to enhance operations.
Portfolio and program leadership; disciplined execution, stakeholder management, and vendor oversight.
Anticipates future digital needs and acts proactively
Strong problem-solving and organizational skills
Leader of technical and organisational change
Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively in a dynamic environment
Understanding of emerging technologies, AI
Foundational digital and automation risk management
Strong grasp of integration patterns between OT systems and data platforms.
Demonstrates strong expertise in digital and automation solutions.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, business, or related technical field (Controls, Electrical, Chemical, IT/CS)
10+ years’ experience in information technology systems/infrastructure or specialist knowledge of process automation/process control systems
3–5 years in a regulated manufacturing environment (pharma or similar preferred)
Experience with Lean/Operational Excellence
Project/program management (PMI, Agile, SDLC) and continuous improvement (e.g., Six Sigma)
IT infrastructure management (e.g., ITIL) and GMP regulatory requirements experience preferred
Work Location Assignment: On Premise
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One bold way we are achieving our purpose is through our company wide digital transformation strategy. We are leading the way in adopting new data, modelling and automated solutions to further digitize and accelerate drug discovery and development with the aim of enhancing health outcomes and the patient experience.
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