MES Application Engineer

Company Overview:
AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company that provides innovative medicines used by millions of patients worldwide. We are dedicated to advancing science and improving the wellbeing of patients. Join us as we strive to shape the future of healthcare.

Role Overview:
We are seeking a proactive and skilled Application Engineer to join our central IT team. The successful candidate will support AstraZeneca's Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and related applications, ensuring optimum performance and stability for manufacturing operations. This role is critical to maintaining business-critical applications and reports to the Global Factory Operations Team.

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.

• Developing and educating junior MES analysts in their roles.

Essential Experience: (Must have skills)

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

• 3+ years of demonstrated experience managing and supporting a Manufacturing Execution System, Werum 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.

• 1 or 2 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.

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we ignite ambitious thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working give us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That’s why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn’t mean we’re not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our outstanding and bold world.

AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer. AstraZeneca will consider all qualified applicants for employment without discrimination on grounds of disability, sex or sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity leave status, race or national or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, gender identity or re-assignment, marital or civil partnership status, protected veteran status (if applicable) or any other characteristic protected by law.

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.