Job Title:  Senior Consultant
Location: TRIL GTC 
GCL :D1

Job Description

We have exciting opportunities for Python, Unix &SQL technical person to impact Drug Discovery projects, working as part of global Discovery Chemistry and Screening within the Science & Enabling unit’s IT department.

The purpose of the service is to provide a set of well-maintained applications supporting R&D processes at all R&D sites. The applications are anything from local to global and non-regulated, non-critical to critical and regulated.

The effect of the service is to ensure stability and reliability of applications. It delivers ongoing maintenance and changes if required covering both commercial (COTS) and in-house developed (Bespoke) applications.

The purpose of the service team is to provide an agile, responsive and knowledgeable Application Service to AZ Research & Development community globally across all R&D sites.

Each member of the team should be focusing on positive business outcomes and customer satisfaction in each interaction with the user community.

The service is coordinated globally and provides support, maintenance and availability of in scope applications through local support teams at major R&D sites to allow direct interaction with customers. AZ Chennai supports applications used from early Discovery phases to late stage Clinical, safety and regulatory and safety. The applications are running on either cloud or AZ supported platforms and clients e.g. Windows 7, Vista, Lab PC and Linux workstations.
The service manages enhancements, changes and releases into the R&D application estate in a controlled and  coordinated way.

These set of applications provide novel approaches for scientists to generate models of data and to archive such models to communicate these to drug projects.

Accountabilities/Responsibilities:

The scope of the service covers a large set of scientific solutions.  It is essential to have a good understanding of the business context and the R&D Processes where the solutions are being used. Working with a specific application often requires in-depth understanding of the business process and scientific awareness in all R&D Domains.

Analyzing and further developing Algorithms as well as business workflows are a common activity in the team.

The Python, Unix &Oracle Consultant will work closely with the technical team, operational service manager and the E2E capability service manager to ensure sophisticated and on-time delivery and service of the different applications. He/she will also collaborate closely with different application support teams, vendors, scientists driving the delivery of world class IT services. He/she will be responsible for ensuring Application Support teams deliver services according to the defined business requirements, adhere to AstraZeneca global standards, agreed Service Level Agreements and are managed in accordance to the IT Service Delivery Framework (ITIL).

To be successful in delivery, he/she must work very closely with the Application specialists and the Middleware specialist in the infrastructure teams, when resolving incidents and problems as well as when testing and deploying new version of application code or Middleware components.

Another important part of a successful delivery of the service is the close and direct relation with our customers. Each team member will have regular contact with our customers via phone, IM’s or email.

We expect all members of the team to work in an Agile and Lean way, using fit for purpose, low overhead processes to underpin the work.

Main responsibilities

• Ensure optimum performance and stability for multiple systems for Discovery Chemistry and Screening portfolio for AstraZeneca Operations, including providing workarounds and identifying areas for improvement or solutions to permanently address the issue
• Monitor production system to ensure it is operating in a manner consistent with Service Level Agreements (SLA’s)
• Provide 2nd/ 3rd line support (technical queries, bug fixes and small enhancements relating to application and platform), complying with Astra Zeneca standards, change control procedures
• Take ownership of issues through to delivery or issue resolution or escalation, as appropriate
• Support development activities by helping in code build and deployment, tool configuration, management and administration, application environment set up, change and release management
• 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 stake holders including users, infrastructure/middleware teams, 3rd party software vendors for resolving issues and potential process improvements

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Essential Skills:  

• 5 to 8 years of prior experience in application support and maintenance (L2/L3 support) including 4-7 years of experience with python programming and application development.

• Experience in working with Object Oriented Programming in Python
• Strong support skills with Oracle procedures for data transfer
• Exposure to ITIL Framework, understanding of incident, problem, change and release management process
• Troubleshooting and good development experience with Oracle, SQL Server or any other RDBMS
• Working knowledge of PL, SQL
• Experience with building RESTful based apps like Django
• Extensive skill in SQL - preferable database Oracle
• Well versed with Linux commands and scripting
• Experience working on IT Service management tools like Service Now, Remedy or Service Manager
• Demonstrated ability to apply technical knowledge to multiple systems and support multiple business groups and applications

Personal Attributes:

• Keen to acquire new skills and work on new technology products
• Experience working with global teams
• Ability to work independently, as well as in a team environment
• Logical mind with keen analytical skills
• Clear and concise communication, written and verbal
• Ability to respond well to pressure
• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to work effectively across team boundaries

Educational Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science/Electronics or equivalent

Supplementary Experience: (Useful additional skills)

• Familiarity with life sciences (Pharma) domain concepts, workflow and terminology
• Knowledge /education in Science or specifically in Chemistry
• Experience working with ORMs like SQLAlchemy
• Any Experience with package installation in Database
• Experience working with AWS SQS and S3 Buckets
• Shell scripting
• Any experience with Nginx web server
• Experience with writing ETL scripts
• Mindset to support business critical applications
• Experience working with GIT/STASH
• Experience in setting up and managing application environments
• Knowledge on Chemical structure representations (SMILES, MOL FILES etc)

Preferable Industry

Experience from any below pharmaceutical development areas (domains) below would be an added advantage:

• Drug Development: Discovery Chemistry & Screening

Reporting to:

Selected candidate will work directly with Nitya Narasimhan

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. 
 

Date Posted

19-May-2020

Closing Date

17-Jun-2020

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.