Associate Director/Director, Applications

Boston, MA, USA ● Vancouver, BC, Canada Req #96 Xenon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:XENE) – a biopharmaceutical company with operations in Vancouver, BC, Canada and Boston, MA, USA – is committed to delivering innovative medicines to provide a brighter future for patients suffering from neurological disorders. 
At Xenon, we are advancing an exciting pipeline of neurology-focused therapies, with a particular emphasis on novel treatments for both adult and pediatric patients with epilepsy. XEN496 is currently being evaluated in the Phase 3 “EPIK” clinical trial in young patients with KCNQ2-DEE, a rare and severe form of childhood epilepsy. Late-stage development plans are also underway for our XEN1101 program, building upon the compelling data from the Phase 2b “X-TOLE” study in adult patients with focal epilepsy. We are also proud of the leading-edge science coming out of our discovery labs, with many early-stage research programs underway. In addition to Xenon’s proprietary programs, we have ongoing collaborations with our valued pharmaceutical partners. With a healthy balance sheet to support our growth plans, we continue to build a fully-integrated, premier neuroscience company with strong discovery, development, and commercial operations.
Our employees are smart, passionate, dedicated, and driven by their incredibly important work to discover, develop, and deliver new medicines for patients in need. Building and maintaining a respectful, collaborative, inclusive, and productive culture is a priority for us.  We are looking for great people who thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic work environment to join our team during this transformative time for Xenon. We are seeking an Associate Director/Director, Applications to join our team. This role will work with various internal departments within our corporate, R&D, and commercial groups and the IT infrastructure team to identify, evaluate, recommend, implement and support applications for a rapidly growing pharmaceutical company.
This position reports to the Senior Director, Informatics & Operations and will be located in the Vancouver, BC, Canada location or Boston, MA, USA location. 
 
RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Develop, maintain, and ensure consistent application of policies and procedures related to system application selection, implementation and maintenance, ensuring compliance with business standards and project management best practices.  
• Actively learn and understand the Company’s end to end business processes and how data is transferred from one system to another, in order to map out and plan systems and applications integrations  
• Work with internal stakeholders and external vendors to identify, evaluate, and recommend commercially available applications to support business needs, collaborating with department project leads to develop the formal business cases for proposed system implementations, replacements or enhancements.  
• As the IT business partner for system applications evaluations and implementations, ensure key factors such as level of diligence, systems integration, data security, risk, etc. are considered and appropriately documented as part of the evaluation process.Participate on the IT Steering Committee and actively contribute to the Company’s IT strategy for applications. Together with the Committee, review all business system project proposals while considering business needs, timelines, budget, and resource allocation. 
• Actively provide updates to the IT Steering Committee and other relevant stakeholders on project progress, upcoming requests, and other relevant areas to ensure information needs are met to support informed decision making. 
• Provide oversight on all application implementations and system enhancements, providing support to the project teams when complex implementation issues arise or there is risk to timelines or budget. 
• Act as the IT project lead on implementation or enhancement projects, where needed, working collaboratively with other project team members to ensure successful delivery of the project. Coordinate project priorities, timelines, and resource allocation with multiple stakeholders. 
• Manage a portfolio of software applications under FDA 21 CFR Part 11 standards and SOX requirements to support a fully integrated, public, drug discovery and development company from discovery to market. 
• In collaboration with the Legal department, negotiate and maintain service level agreement contracts with external vendors, where applicable. 
• Review, update and document the change management process for all applications across the organization to ensure consistency in approach, approvals, and other considerations. 
• Facilitate and troubleshoot issues related to business applications. 
• Plan and manage budget proposals and approved budgets in accordance with the Company’s strategic and operating plans and Finance policies.  
• Recruit, lead, direct, develop, coach and evaluate direct reports, if any, in accordance with the Company’s Human Resource policies and practices. 
• Act in accordance with Company policies, including, for example, the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and ensure policies are understood and followed by direct reports, if any. 
• Other duties as assigned. 

QUALIFICATIONS: 

• Minimum undergraduate degree in Computer Science or related discipline and at least 8 years progressive information technology experience in a similar role, of which at least 3 years of the experience is in a leadership/people management capacity. 
• Experience in a similar role at a commercial stage company in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industries is required. 
• Excellent project management and organizational skills; PMI, Agile, or ITIL certifications are an asset. 
• Experienced in vendor management in project team settings, actively bridging the gap between the project team’s needs and the vendor’s product. 
• Extensive experience working in and supporting a Microsoft environment with O365.  
• A broad knowledge base of current technology including an understanding of on-premise and cloud architectures, and Azure AD, ideally with experience in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industries. 
• Experience working in an environment under FDA 21 CFR Part 11 standards and SOX requirements is an asset. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain highly technical information in a concise and effective manner to an audience of varying technical aptitude. 
• Strong interpersonal skills that supports quickly building rapport with varying internal projects teams and external vendors; ability to manage competing interests in a professional, collaborative and solution-driven manner. 
• Proven ability to quickly diagnose and respond to emergency failures in a resourceful and calm manner. 
• Ability to work independently, as a team member, and across the organization with varying levels of employees. 
• Ability to work flexibly in a fast-paced environment with a strong work ethic and positive attitude. 
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and negotiation skills. 
• Demonstrated ability to lead continuous improvements in business processes.